What Needs To Die So You Can Actually Live?

I have four children. Four boys, to be exact. At times when they were very young, they would have something in their hand. Perhaps it's a toy, or one of my tools, or a kitchen utensil. Whatever the object is doesn’t really matter; what matters is that its function is beyond their comprehension. They just want to hold it in their hand because it strikes them in some way.

 I would ask them for the object. I would ask them to release it to me so that I can give it back to them while demonstrating its use, such as a wind-up car. They would fight me. They would holler and remonstrate, furious that I would dare take their special “thing.”  They didn’t realize the freedom, the joy that comes with using the thing for what it was designed to do.

And So Were Some of You…

We don’t fall for that sort of close-minded, closed-fisted approach in our lives…or do we?  Paul said:

"And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God." 

Before we came to Christ, we were like one of my small sons. So sure that we know what’s best. So sure, the squalor and filth we were living in were better than whatever God was trying to give us. I was that “some of you.” I was keeping a closed fist and trying to hang onto something that wasn’t serving its God-given purpose, until I was washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of Jesus.

But, even when I had accepted Christ, I found myself at times still hanging onto some piece of selfish autonomy. Not because I wanted to, but because in some areas of my life, I was retaining the illusion of control. I had wounds, psychological and emotional wounds that dictated areas of my life. I was trying to live for Christ, but I had areas that needed to die so that I could truly live.

Paul also said in Colossians 3:5-11:

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

So…What Needs To Die?

Do you see anything in Paul’s list? Like so much of the Bible, it’s a broad sweep of the brush and simultaneously precise and to the point.  There is something in that list that any sinful human being can claim as some form of their rebellion against God’s sovereignty in their life.

The really shameful ones are easy for us to focus on, like sexual immorality and idolatry. But what about anger? What about slander? You are just sharing a concern for someone with an unrelated friend who has nothing to do with the situation. Surely that can’t be a problem? God’s Word says it is. 

Whatever it is, if there is something that is keeping you from growth in Christ, you will not actually live until it dies.  If there is something, confess and repent of it. Transformation is possible through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. He wants to have you open your hand and let him use your life as God intended.