I am an expert at doing what I want to do. My mind is trained at choosing a path that will step around discomfort and instead, take me from one little comfort to another. But that’s what I want. It’s normal, because we all would choose the easy path over the hard one if we knew nothing else. And yet if I only get what I want, I will be forever dissatisfied with it. I will also hurt those around me because of being stuck in my own selfishness. I need to want something greater; I need to want what God wants.
Paul says there is a way we can actually experience both the death and life of Jesus in our bodies. In fact he recommends it as an excellent way of living. “We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body” (2 Corinthians 4:10).
What does it mean to carry around the death of Jesus in order to show the life of Jesus? It means that we see ahead through any adversity the Lord puts in our way, that to go through it is to put us in a place to experience His life in it. It means to get up and go when you want to lie down and stay. It means to drink the cup of death to that comfort you cradle because you see the resurrection on the other side. You know Christ is waiting for you in the hard thing, and you want to get yourself there to experience Him.
“Nevertheless, I will not do what I want to do, but what you want me to do,” Jesus prayed, and I believe that this needs to be a daily prayer of ours. It’s what it means to carry around the death of Jesus that the life of Jesus may be seen.
Jesus agonized over the cup of death. He struggled with it, but thank God, he drank it, because He knew what it would gain for Himself and for all of us. In like manner, we carry around a certain wrestling with ourselves (part of Jesus’ agony over facing his death was a shock at discovering his own selfishness in not wanting to go forward to the cross) that something far greater might be born in us and seen by all who know us.
Don’t you want to manifest the life of Christ in your life? Well then, the way to that is to carry His death to self.
This is not self-pity. This is not “Oh pain! Oh drudgery! Look what I have to go through!” This is “Lord, I am delighted to pick up this cross because I can’t wait to meet you on the other side of this pain.” Or in the words of Oswald Chambers on this subject, “The only thing that will enable me to enjoy adversity is the acute sense of eagerness of allowing the life of the Son of God to evidence itself in me.”
To carrying around His death always results in His love. It is not whimsy but mighty, strong, confident and bold. May we choose it and find it today.
John Fischer The Catch 
John, You wrote – part of Jesus’ agony over facing his death was a shock at discovering his own selfishness in not wanting to go forward to the cross. Is not selfishness sin, and was not Jesus sinless?
Jesus was tempted in every way that we are. In the garden he was tempted to choose his own way instead of God’s. There is a lot to say about the fact that this was perhaps the first time He struggled to do God’s will (it had always been His joy up until then).
Great words, John, but I have to agree with John Fittz. Perhaps a better way to put it would be “the realization of his own humanity…”
Just this morning, I read these words by George Mueller, which he wrote concerning the death of his wife, Mary:
The last portion of scripture which I read to my precious wife was this: “The Lord God is a sun and shield, the Lord will give grace and glory, no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.” Now, if we have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, we have received grace, we are partakers of grace, and to all such he will give glory also. I said to myself, with regard to the latter part, “no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly”—I am in myself a poor worthless sinner, but I have been saved by the blood of Christ; and I do not live in sin, I walk uprightly before God. Therefore, if it is really good for me, my darling wife will be raised up again; sick as she is. God will restore her again. But if she is not restored again, then it would not be a good thing for me. And so my heart was at rest. I was satisfied with God. And all this springs, as I have often said before, from taking God at his word, believing what he says. – George Mueller, Desiring God
Walking through adversity and pain requires that we take God at His Word and believe what he says, regardless of how it feels going through it AND regardless of the outcome. God is faithful. He always gives us the thing that is needed for our ultimate good.
Great words, John, but I have to agree with John Fittz. Perhaps a better way to put it would be “the realization of his own humanity…”
That runs along the lines of what I was thinking.
“I am an expert at doing what I want to do. ” So am I, John.
Interestingly, I just finished reading a Christian novella in which the main character realized that she–and others–always did or asked for what THEY wanted, rather than what GOD wanted. I’m beginning to think that God is trying to tell me something, and I don’t think I’ll have to look very far to find out what it is!
“Stop being so self-centered” is the first thing that comes to mind. We’ll see what else He has to say!
Thanks for hitting the nail on the head–again!
P. S. Will be interested to see what you have to say to Brother John Fittz.
in response to JF – my thought is that selfishness becomes sin when self wins… would one say that a soldier facing battle who considers running the other way, but doesn’t ,to have sinned?
Hey John! I am still on a high from last night’s Bible Study!
Thinking about carrying the death of Jesus to show the life of Jesus – we also carry the death of Christ to HAVE His life. Everyone carries death – we drag it around from the moment we’re born and call it living (aka self). We don’t notice death so much then because it’s all we know. Then Christ comes along and we have a choice: Keep on carrying our death until we’re dead (and find out who really ran the show), or carry His death into His Life. So it seems we were never really our own, anyway – we either serve death (self ) or serve Life (Christ) Bob Dylan said it best, I think: “You’re gonna serve somebody…” Now, if I could JUST remember to SEE things that way, maybe self won’t win out so often.
Very nice, Carole. I love this!
Carole makes a good point, and I think the answer is that it is no sin to doubt. Doubt can lead to one of two things: fear or faith. If it leads to fear, then it becomes sin; if it leads to faith, then it becomes righteousness. I think Christ very much doubted in the garden; but His doubt led to faith, so He did not sin. Selfishness is sin because it has left the place of doubt and entered the place of fear. Selfishness is a fear that you are not going to get what you want. It has gone beyond a thought to an entire philosophy, an entire way of living. Sinful people are naturally selfish; righteous people are not. Christ was a righteous person.