Salvation takes dying to achieve. Jesus, innocent of all blame, had to die for us on the cross and, in poetic irony, we have to choose to die – to ourselves – to receive that salvation. Dying isn’t something humans naturally choose. Like animals, we have deeply ingrained survival instincts. Unlike other species, our understanding of what survival requires is paradoxically, deadly to ourselves and others. Humans’ instinct is not just to stay alive and reproduce – what we think we need for life includes so much more. Left to our own devices, we gravitate toward fulfilment, built on “the seven deadly sins” – pride, greed, lust, anger, envy, sloth, and gluttony: the ability to blame and feel shame; to imagine, unmoored; to be entitled; to worry; to hoard; and to commit all the sins the Ten Commandments warn us against. We’re drawn like moths to a candle, to sin through its deceptions – so certain we know what’s best for ourselves.
There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death. Proverbs 14:12
For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been set free from sin. Romans 6:6-7
Jesus tells his disciples that they must follow His example and follow the way of the cross each and every day:
Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. Luke 9:23
What does anchoring ourselves to the cross require? While following Christ may require us to lose our physical life, that is not the death Jesus is talking about in Luke. He’s not asking us to abandon our common sense, good decision making, to proceed through life willy-nilly on a path of self destruction. Rather, we need to die to the deep, insidious instincts we have toward rationalization and self deception (away from doubling down on helping ourselves while neglecting our neighbor). We must die to our desires and fears in order to even begin to want to live the life described in the Sermon on the Mount.
[Jesus] called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 18:2-4
To die to self is to walk with the courage of a child, expecting to find God in places and circumstances we did not and could not have anticipated. When we travel without the baggage of entitlement and broken desires, we can be blessed with a promise, fulfilled again and again, God is with us. Life and the troubles that come everyone’s way can leave us bitter and angry. With Jesus, however, we can choose to die to our entitlement, pride, and sin. This feels like death; I know this from experience. In retrospect, however, I can see I was “sacrificing” a sad mess in exchange for life in Christ.
Application: Meditate on the words of the hymn, “The Old Rugged Cross”. Consider how the cross, a symbol of shame, creates a path to a glory greater than any could imagine:
On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross,
The emblem of suff’ring and shame;
And I love that old cross where the Dearest and Best
For a world of lost sinners was slain.
Refrain:
So I’ll cherish the old rugged cross,
Till my trophies at last I lay down;
I will cling to the old rugged cross,
And exchange it someday for a crown.
Oh, that old rugged cross, so despised by the world,
Has a wondrous attraction for me;
For the dear Lamb of God left His glory above
To bear it to dark Calvary.
In that old rugged cross, stained with blood so divine,
A wondrous beauty I see,
For ’twas on that old cross Jesus suffered and died,
To pardon and sanctify me.
To the old rugged cross I will ever be true;
Its shame and reproach gladly bear;
Then He’ll call me someday to my home far away,
Where His glory forever I’ll share.
by Sherry Sommer
