The Trial of Losing

Peace of mind is jeopardized anytime something of value is lost. Take, for example, what the loss of a purse or a wallet does to the owner. After the initial shock, hours are spent retracing steps, looking everywhere and through everything in hopes to avoid the painstaking efforts that inevitably lie ahead. The credit cards will need to be canceled, a new licence will need to be obtained, the difficult task of trying to remember what other important information has been lost will need to be accomplished. The entire ordeal makes for many hours of unpleasant existence. So, most people take necessary measures in order to avert such a disappointment. Efforts should be made to keep from losing items like those mentioned above, but there are "things," if lost, that would benefit, even bless us. In the loss (death is actually the best word) of these things, a Christian's life would begin to emerge and take on the fragrance of her Savior. Ironically, though, most Christians are engaged in sophisticated efforts to protect these self-acclaimed important things. By things, of course, I refer to those elements that are necessary to the existence of the alienated self, or the self determined to exists independent of God.

Romans chapter six illuminates the point. "3...all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death...5...if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7 for he who has died is freed from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him." (NASB)

The battle that every sincere disciple of Christ is charged to engage in is the battle against our "self." It is by faith, through trusting that our sinful self was crucified with Christ, that Christians are expected to live. The death of self does not automatically happen with the saying of a few words; Death to self is not accomplished following an intense, perhaps even lengthy, prayer of repentance of faith. Death to self has already happened in the death of Christ.What remains for the Christian is in recognizing or remembering, when he is tempted to behave according to his old sinful pattern, that he (the one contemplating sinning) has died with Christ and he now has a new life through faith in Christ. The crucified self will only "remain dead" when faith is exercised. Likewise, new life in Christ will arise only as faith in the risen Savior is employed.

This, of course recalls the original point: are we willing to lose our self. What is tough for the Christian is not parting with sin's consequences, what is tough is parting with sin. Christ is calling us to a new identity in Himself, an identity that is characterized by righteousness rather than rebellion, by holiness rather than sinfulness. Everyone must decide if losing self is worth gaining Christ. The immediate benefits to gaining Christ will not appeal to the flesh, but the spiritual and eternal benefits for choosing Christ will far outweigh our initial loss.

"For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain" ~Apostle Paul (Philippians 2:21 NASB)