From Death unto Life

[cavell]

"Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord" -
Romans 6:11.

I find in the New Testament, in relation to the cross, that a very clear principle is stated, and even if I cannot understand it I cannot get away from it or the fact that it is there. Should anyone not understand it, recognise that it is there, and pray that the Holy Spirit may open your eyes to understand.
The principle is this, that while the natural order of life is, through life towards death, the spiritual order is life out of death.
We may well ask, What does it mean life out of death?

Let us try to think it out, simply and humbly together. For this truth is stressed again and again in the New Testament.
Do you recall that wonderful passage in Pauls letter to the Philippians, "That I may know Him , and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings." I have preached on that text, but conveniently when younger, I never expanded the last phrase, "Being made conformable unto His death" - resurrection life, yes; but out of death!
Again in Romans we read, "Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin" - out of death into life! In the Galatian letter we find the same truth: "I have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me" - out of death into life!
In the teaching of Christ this 'death unto life' teaching appears again and again: "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die , it bringeth forth much fruit" - out of death into life! So the principle of Christian experience is therein: that life comes out of death............

 

[Emmy]

Dear cavell. What does it mean " Life out of death?" Jesus tells us in Luke 10: 25-28: Jesus was asked: " Master, what must I do to have eternal life?" Jesus told us: " In Matthew 22: 35-40: we are told: The first and great Commandment is: Love God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. The second is like it: love thy neighbour as thyself." In verse 40 we are told: " on these two Commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."
God is Love, and God wants loving sons and daughters. That is straightforward and easy to understand. Paul told us in 1) Corinthians 13: 13. Now Faith, Hope and Love abide , those three: but the greatest of these is Love.
The Bible tells us: " Repent and be Born Again," give up our selfishness and start loving and caring and be kind and considerate. God will see our loving efforts, and God will bless us. LOVE GOD AND LIVE OUR NEIGHBOUR, love is very catching, and a Christian`s weapon is Love and Joy and caring for all we meet and know. Let us all be sign-posts to God our Heavenly Father.
In Matthew 7: 7-10: we are told: " ask and you shall receive," we ask for Love and Joy, then thank God and share all with our neighbour. God will see our loving efforts, and God will bless us. We died to selfishness and WAS BORN AGAIN, TO lOVE God with all our hearts, souls, and minds, and love our neighbour as we love our selves, we are Reborn again, the sons and daughters which God wants us to be. We might stumble and forget at times, but then we ask God for Forgiveness and carry on being loving and caring, and kind and considerate. We are Reborn Again, as Jesus promised us in Luke 10: 25-28: DO THIS AND YOU SHALL LIVE. I say this with love, cavell. Greetings from Emmy, your sister in Christ.