Death = Life

Matthew Henry, who is known as one of the most insightful commentators [of the Bible] , began his commentary on the fifty-fourth chapter of the book of Isaiah with these words,

                                     'The death of Christ is the Life of the Church.'

In addition to our Lord Jesus Himself, the apostle Paul along with several others who either wrote, while under the inspiration of God, or were quoted in regards to the Bible have all made reference to the fact that it's only by the death of Christ that man can live. What I'm getting at here is that while most of us know this already, is it only an intellectual knowledge or is this a very relevant part of our Christian walk?  This happens far more than most of us realize or want to admit too, that the knowledge of certain things about God and His Will for us never gets beyond the intellect. The end result of this is that while we know these things we never live them.

In this particular instance, knowing but possibly not living the reality that without the death of our Savior we would have no eternal life, what would the alternative be?  I think that oftentimes there's some confusion or misunderstanding when we start talking about things that come after our trip to the altar. Well, here's a hint: It's not an option to live as if you're a new man or woman before the Lord.  There's not a list somewhere that we can pick and choose from, to decide what we're going to do as a part of our new life with Christ.  This mindset has gone a long way in getting the Church in the sad state it's in right now.

Okay, right about now is anyone shaking there head and wondering, maybe aloud, "How can the truth that 'the death of Christ is the life of the Church'  be seen in my life?  That is a really good question, and I would love it if it was asked more often. This is one of those times where I like to reverse engineer things, so lets don't try to identify what should be going on in your life as you grow before the Lord and isn't, let's list some things that are in your life that shouldn't be in any New Testament Believers life.

"I desire therefore that the men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting;"         (1 Timothy  2:8    NKJV)

"But reject profane and old wives fables,  and exercise yourself toward godliness."    (1 Timothy4:7.   NKJV)

" But shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more  ungodliness."  (2 Timothy  2:16    NKJV)

"...men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud blasphemers,  disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather  than lovers of God,"  (2 Timothy 3:2-4.   NKJV)

Now I don't want anyone thinking that this is a complete list  of what shouldn't be a part of any Christians life, but it is a really good start.  Like I said earlier, we don't have the option of whether or not to have any of these things in our lives, when each of us accepted the shed blood of Christ for the remittance of sins, we also accepted the responsibility to to not have any of this type of mess in our lives.  Here's the thing, the way we live our life reflects who and what we are and seeking after.  Jesus set examples for us to follow, and when we each follow His examples with our lives, then we're setting examples for those  we testify to about Christ to follow.

So, do you just know that the death of Christ is the Life of the Church, or do you live it?