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Dying to Live

by Jerry Ousley  
1/24/2014 / Christian Living

We all have to have food to live. I talk a lot about food and maybe I shouldn't. I don't really fit in with the latest movements and fads and I'll probably pay for it someday but I do so enjoy eating. There are times when I know I'm over-doing it and I'll refrain from consuming another piece of pie or another handful of candy. I may pass on seconds at times but mostly I just try to not think about it and enjoy it. We had a large family dinner a few weeks ago. In the past I always ate a second helping at a feast like that and then there would be no room for desert. This time I purposely passed on a second helping (although my plate was fairly full the first time around) so I could enjoy desert. There was so much to choose from! I wound up with two pieces of pie, a couple of cookies and a generous helping of banana pudding. My wife took one look at that desert plate and said, "Jerry, if you eat all of that you'll die!" To which I responded, "Maybe, but I'll die happy!" Of course we were both kidding; I don't really relish the idea of dying from eating a plate of food!

I also thoroughly enjoy meat. Thinking about that, at times I feel ashamed because I'm not a hunter. I don't like hunting and basically I'm an animal lover. The beauty of a wild deer walking through the woods is a sight to behold! I couldn't aim a gun and shoot one of those magnificent creatures, at least not for the fun of it. I don't really understand the sport in shooting an innocent rabbit or squirrel. It's just not me. But I have reasoned that if my family was going hungry I'd make myself hunt out of necessity if need be.

Getting back to my original thought, even though I don't like hunting, I do love good meat. Those precious animals have given their lives (albeit reluctantly) so we can live. Many are like me; eating because we like it. But there are those who eat to live. In cases like this, the animal being consumed has died so we can live.

Of course, Christ gave His life so that we might live spiritually. He died on the cross of Calvary, shedding His blood so that we might come to Him, accept His sacrifice and live.

But there's another form of dying to live. Colossians 3:3 says, "For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God." Did you realize that when we come to Christ we die? It is the classic illustration of the old man/new man. Our acceptance of Jesus Christ is spiritually as if we have been nailed to the cross along with Jesus. We don't suffer the pain and agony He went through, but our souls have been nailed up on that old rough wooden beam along with Jesus.

When He was resurrected our souls were resurrected with Him. We have put off the old man. He is dead. We have been resurrected a new man a new life and we are made alive in Jesus. We have died so that we might live. That's another one of those positive/negatives I often talk about. It doesn't make sense to the world that we die to live. The world says that in order to live we must fight tooth and nail, with everything in us. But the Gospel tells us that if we want to live forever, spiritually, with Christ, we must die to the flesh.

Now, just because the old man is dead doesn't mean that he don't return to haunt us ever so often. He does. We all know it. We are going merrily along our way when suddenly a temptation is flaunted in our faces. We are new creations in Christ Jesus and we should be able to just say, "Nope! My old self died and that no longer stimulates desire in me." Instead, often that old man, even though dead, will rise up to haunt us. He'll stick up his ugly head and say, "Man, I miss that!" If we aren't careful we'll find ourselves listening to that old ghost instead of the new man inside of us.

We have the ability to hammer him back down and resist the temptation and many times we do. But sometimes we listen to the old geezer and we find ourselves indulging in what we thought we had the victory over. Thanks be to God that we have forgiveness in Christ Jesus. When we listen to that old fogy, and yield to the temptations of the devil, we can go to our Lord and tell Him we're sorry, and if we really mean it He'll forgive us just as if we'd never done it. It's not a license to sin and we shouldn't do it, but it is a way out because after all, we have died to live!

Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.? Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.

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