Everyone Sacrifices Their Life for Something

Life is written with the indelible ink of time.

As a result, you are giving your life to something. 

What is it that you are living for? The answer is not difficult to find. It is that which you direct your time, energies and strength into.

And the great question remains; are the things you are living for, worth dying for? 

Or rather as the late Leonard Ravenhill said ‘Are the things you are living for worth Christ dying for?’

Seek What is Above

Each of us will have to give an account to Christ on the day of judgment of how we spent our lives. We are stewards of the time and other resources he gives, to be used for his glory. It is not fitting for believers redeemed by the blood of the Son of God to spend their time and resources on things that do not serve God’s kingdom, or even worse, things directly opposed to God’s kingdom. 

We all owe God a death: a death to self, in order that we might live to him. 

Scripture says that ‘we were buried with Him (Jesus) through baptism into death’ (Rom 6:4). The foundation of the Christian life is death. It is through the cross that we come into this life. If we have truly died with Christ, we have risen with him, and if we have risen with him, then we are expected to live from that place of resurrection life. As the Apostle Paul says; ‘If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.’ (Col 3:1).

This requires a daily state of crucifixion to the flesh, a death to sin. This is why scripture says that ‘those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.’ (Gal 5:24). It is the scriptures way of saying we have died to sin and the way of the world. Paul uses the same language in Romans 6:6 saying; ‘We know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be rendered powerless, that we should no longer be slaves to sin.’

What Paul is describing is that through faith in Christ our old way of life which was after Adam has been abolished at the cross. And now the new life, the new Adam; who is Christ, now lives in us, brining us into a new way of life. Therefore, we no longer live according to the flesh (the old way of life, Adam), but according to the Spirit (the new way of life, Christ, the New Adam). The resurrection life is the life that is lived in and from the Spirit of God. To walk in the Spirit takes active and continual decisions in our life to focus and seek the things above, not below.  Christ tells us to pick up the cross daily. We are to live and walk in the Spirit daily, not once or twice a year. It is to be our daily life.

Setting the Mind

Jesus came to show us that to set the mind on things above was God’s will, and to set the mind on things below was not only carnal, but directly opposed to God. We see this demonstrated when he rebukes Peter. 

‘But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” (Matt 16:23). 

Notice that Jesus discerns the work of Satan based on the mindset that Peter was showing. Peter was focused on the sensual and carnal things. Immediately Jesus recognised that not only was this in direct opposition to God’s will, it was a direct attack from Satan. God’s kingdom and man’s kingdom are opposed to one another. At that moment Peter was setting his mind on the things below and not the things above. 

Scripture says that:

‘to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.’ (Rom 8:6-7). 

Peter in this example is showing what it looks like to walk according to the flesh and to set the mind on things of man, rather than the things of God, and it ultimately resulted in his rejection of the cross. 

From Peter’s perspective he was seeking what he assumed to be the good. He was basing it on the standards of the world, not the standards of God. He was in reality in direct opposition to God’s will and was seeking the world below, not the kingdom above, and as a result was trying to turn Jesus from his mission, which meant the good of the world and himself. 

Very few people today would be able to discern the flaw in Peter’s actions, he was trying to ‘protect’ the one he loved, yet ultimately that supposed ‘protection’ was actually the enemy manifesting in order to try and stop Christ from achieving the will of the Father. How subtle the enemy can be! He was able to pervert Peter’s motives into a complete scandal. Therefore, motives can be deceiving. It is only when our motives line up with the word of God that they are truly virtuous. Not only must we look at our motives, we must look to make sure the very thing we are seeking is truly according to God’s will. 

Peter was acting from the flesh. The flesh will always seek to avoid the cross, because the cross represents death to the flesh, but the Spirit will always lead us to the cross, for it is when the flesh is crucified that Christ can most be manifested in our lives and this is what God is seeking. He desires us to worship him through the cross and by the cross. This gives life to us through the Spirit, but it comes only first through the death of the flesh, the crucifixion and denial of self. Self-seeking is certainly not seeking the things that are seated at the right hand of God. 

We each must examine whether we are truly seeking the things of God or the things of the world. If we are not seeking God’s will and kingdom, we have been led astray and been blinded by the enemy. It is a definite proof of deception having occurred within the mind. Repentance is necessary in such a case and a practical endeavor to abide in God’s will more intentionally in the future. 

Serving and Sowing

The Bible makes it clear that you either serve God leading to eternal life, or sin leading to eternal death. 

Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? (Rom 6:16)

Therefore, ‘Do not be deceived for what a man sows that he reaps’, (Gal 6:7) either to the flesh, living in the flesh, the carnal way of life or the Spirit. The flesh seeks the things of this world, the pleasures, the cares, the desires, the lusts. Any object in this world that is not God is of the world. 

All things are temporary, but he who does the will of God abides forever. Because God’s will is eternal, he that abides to God’s will abides in his Word, the eternal word, and just as God is eternal so too is his Word. That Word is Jesus Christ. He is in whom we find the revealed will of God. If we sow to the Spirit of Christ, we prove ourselves to be Sons of God, abiding forever in his image. 

If any continually sow to the flesh, they prove themselves to be a child of the flesh, sensual, carnal, worldly, occupied with the things of the world. The things which pass away and perish. Like sand running through your hands, so too is your grip on the things in this world. But the things of God, they are solid as a rock, they are unchangeable, immutable, without doubt, they are sure and true and abide forever, for the eternal God has spoken his eternal word. 

Are You Building Your Life on Christ or the World?

The children of the world build their lives on the sinking sand of this world, where on the day of death the great wind shall blow and the soul shall be made to account for all that it has done, only to find that the building of life has been laid upon the sand. And what dread will come to that person whose life is built on sand, for death shall knock and God shall seek an account from you for all that you have done, thought and said. And you will be found wanting on that day, having not prepared your soul to meet your maker. 

Those who build on the sand that building shall fall before God. And many on that day will say Lord , Lord did we not do many miracles and wonders, did we go to church, did we not pay our tithes, did not we not do our religious duties? And the Lord will tell them to depart from him. (Matt 7:21). 

Why? Because he never knew them, they were children of the world, not children of God. They loved the world, they preferred the lust of the world, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life to the sayings of Christ. They sowed to the flesh, and they lived in lawlessness. They abode not in the truth of Christ and his commands, but chose to depart and l live in the world eating from the pig pen of life, instead of the bread of life that came down from Heaven. 

But to us who build on the rock of the sayings of Christ, has built on the rock. And when that great day comes and it beats against the rock we shall find that the house stands, for it has been built upon the sure foundation, the foundation that has been laid by God himself, Jesus Christ and his words. Those that profess to believe in Jesus and do not do his words are they who are deceived sowing to the flesh and not the Spirit. For Christ himself says ‘It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.’ (John 6:63). 

At this saying Christ tested the sincerity of the disciples faith asking if they shall receive this hard saying or turn back. The option was to turn back to the world and away from God. Some left, some stayed. It is only those which stayed that were true disciples. A temporary disciple is no disciple at all, just as a temporary christian will not be found a christian on the day of judgment. A Christian is one who abides until the end, for all a person’s faith profits nothing unless it is carried through to death. And they who abide in the words of eternal life, live forever.

No Middle Ground

Do not be deceived. God is not mocked, he who loves this world has not the love of God in them, for all that is of this world is not of God. How can you possibly love the world which crucified your savior? The very world which he testified against, showing himself to be good and just and the world wretched and under the just condemnation of God. 

Choose your side. 

This is a hard saying, but every person's life will be judged on that day. If you are building on the sand of this world, you will perish with Korah who rebelled against Moses and was swallowed whole by the earth. For this world deceives many into being swallowed whole into the eternal darkness and abyss. But we have a light, the light that shines in the darkness and which no man can put out. The light of God that illuminates every person who comes into this world. And the world rejects him because the world dwells in darkness, but we are not children of the night, but children of the day, therefore choose to live in the light of God's Son. 

Each day you must choose, whether you serve the Lord in holiness or to serve sin, the flesh and the world. 

Every person owes God a death, that he may have their life. 

Are you living and dying for God?