Let it die

Romans 6:9-14

We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. No longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.


Watchman Nee, The Normal Christian Life

I remember one morning -- that morning was a real morning and one I can never forget -- I was upstairs sitting at my desk reading the Word and praying, and I said, `Lord, open my eyes!' And then in a flash I saw it. I saw my oneness with Christ. I saw that I was in Him, and that when He died I died. I saw that the question of my death was a matter of the past and not of the future, and that I was just as truly dead as He was because I was in Him when He died. The whole thing had dawned upon me. I was carried away with such joy at this great discovery that I jumped from my chair and cried, `Praise the Lord, I am dead!' I ran downstairs and met one of the brothers helping in the kitchen and I laid hold of him. `Brother', I said, `do you know that I have died?' I must admit he looked puzzled. `What do you mean?' he said, so I went on: `Do you not know that Christ has died? Do you not know that I died with Him? Do you not know that my death is no less truly a fact than His?' Oh it was so real to me! I longed to go through the streets of Shanghai shouting the news of my discovery. From that day to this I have never for one moment doubted the finality of that word: "I have been crucified with Christ".



Most of the difficult problems in my life have been solved almost effortlessly, because the solution was always simple. The difficulty of a problem is not in the complexity, but rather, it is seeing the solution. We learn in school (this is especially true in engineering) that problems can be solved methodically, by applying technique and working hard, by being precise, by being very careful. With enough persistence, any problem can be solved. So why is it that we bang our heads against the same walls each day, expecting the bricks to magically crack. We only get another headache.

I present this excerpt from Watchman Nee's "The Normal Christian Life" to point out the necessity of revelation in our lives. He describes in his book how for seven years he pondered these words in Romans 6, how he could still not understand the meaning of being dead in Christ. The more he struggled, the less he understood. Then one morning, a simple prayer and a miracle from God opened his eyes to the truth that for those who believe, we have already died in Christ, because we are truly born again.

Nicodemus struggled with this, and the more he questioned Jesus, the more cryptic was the response from the only One who truly understands it. How can you be born again? How can you die and yet live? Are these just symbolic words, and if so, then what do they mean? If they are only symbolic, then what's the big deal?

If we say we have no sin, then we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. So what does Paul mean? We cannot be free from sin because Scripture tells us that we are in bondage to sin, we are born into sin, we are hopelessly sinful in our deepest nature. And that is why we must die with Christ in order to live with Him. We cannot keep our old selves. We must be born again so that the power of Christ can free us from sin. We cannot try hard enough to solve this problem. There is no technique which will unravel the string. We must "see" this solution rather than work it.

Perhaps we should all go running in the streets shouting, "I have been crucified with Christ", but no one would understand this apparent nonsense. I am not sure I do, but I do know this much. I cannot change me. I have failed so many times, I have given up. We all want to change each other. We all want to "solve the problems". We all want to fix what is broken. It cannot be repaired. It has to die.

As long as a drug addict loves the drug, he cannot break the habit. No amount of persuasion or coercion, short of total isolation, will cure the addict. The addict self has to die. If a doubter wants desperately to believe in God, then he cannot believe hard enough to be convinced, he must let the doubter die. The desire to doubt, the need to despair, the actual craving to wallow in melancholy has to die.

The first step in escaping from the quicksand is to stop struggling. Nevertheless, even if you stop struggling, you will not escape without help. Look up and find the hand of Christ.

Sometimes we need to stop trying to solve the problem or fix what is broken. In fact, for the things in our lives which are broken, for the things in our church which cannot be repaired, there is and has always been only one answer. Pray for revelation. Pray for God's divine intervention. Pray and trust that God will not only answer our prayer, but will do far greater things than we could ever accomplish on our own.