We continue our series on the New Covenant using the songs from the New Covenant musical as a track to run on. And there will be a link to a YouTube version of the song to listen to at the end of each Catch. Enjoy and learn.

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We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. (2 Corinthians 4:10-11)

We Have Died
Words and Music by John Fischer

We have died; we have died
We have died; we have died

If you think its sounds strange that we’re singin’ a song
About dyin’ with a happy tune
It’s because what dies is our selfish lives
So the Lord can come shinin’ through

If you find yourself startin’ to get hot under the collar
And you’re gettin’ in an awful fight
Just remember the solution is your execution
‘Cause dead men have no rights

If you give it some thought I think you’ll soon discover
That there’s just no other way
You can’t dress up your life; you can’t make it shine
You just got to get it out of the way

If you think it’s a breeze you better reconsider
‘Cause dying’s not a easy road
But the life He gives in return is worth it
‘Cause your own is such a heavy load

We have died; we have died
We have died; we have died
We have died; we have died (We have come alive)
We have died; (I’ve come alive.)
We have died (We have come alive!)  

Well as far as I can tell, I’m the only songwriter with a song titled “We Have Died.” How could you die and still sing about it on a recording? And a kind of happy, upbeat song, at that. What gives? It’s appropriate that the last song in the New Covenant musical would be about death, but who’s singing it? A bunch of ghosts?

Actually, if you read the verses above from 2 Corinthians (if you’re confused, you should read them again) you see that what’s being talked about here is a kind of death that happens while we are still alive. We “carry around in our body the death of Jesus.” What could that mean?

What could it be, but the sentence of death on all that we rely on in our natural flesh. Our talents, our intellect, our human strength … where are all those things headed? To the grave.

Christ’s death was the last nail on the coffin of the human race. Jesus died in our place, thus showing the ultimate end of our best efforts. And we carry that sentence of death around wherever we go reminding us that only what is done in faith will last. So you see, we (our flesh) died when Jesus died and yet we still carry it around in our bodies. And those who don’t know Christ carry it too.

Ozymandias
by Percy Bysshe Shelley 1792 – 1822

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

And as if that wasn’t enough, Paul says that we are constantly “being delivered over to death.” I believe these are experiences that make us face our mortality and our depravity. We come to the end of ourselves, only to find we have come to the place where we meet the beginning of the Lord in our life. Yes, we have died, but we have come alive.

And the final thing is probably the most important because it involves our boots-on-the-ground ministry wherever we go. It involves the affect we have on people around us often without even knowing it. You may not have realized that, but you have it. And that effectiveness comes from the fact that people follow the dying experiences we go though — they are going through many of the same things too — but at the same time, they see the life of Christ being manifested in our lives as well. It’s most important that others see our mortality and depravity and our struggles and our suffering because in the middle of all that, the life of Christ is revealed at the same time. It’s all about contrast. The eternal life of Christ in us is riding right through and out of our mortal lives like a dark horse breaking out of our pain into an open field.

And that reveal is the new covenant working in our lives. Yes, we have died; but we have come alive.