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Scripture Reading: Gal. 2:20a; Rom. 8:13b; Gal. 5:24-25
The title of this chapter, “Living through Dying,” is a very peculiar expression, and the significance is very profound.
Human philosophy, including the ancient Greek philosophy and the Chinese Confucian philosophy, is confined to teachings concerning the refining or improving of the self. Hence, there have been many instances of asceticism and self-infliction. Similarly, various kinds of religions, such as Buddhism and Catholicism, also stress this kind of practice. This is because from man’s viewpoint, human beings are degraded, having sinful lusts, and the only way of salvation is to live through suffering.
The Word of God shows us that the fall of man began with the transgression of Adam and Eve. They ate the fruit forbidden by God. As a result, sin came in and brought the whole human race into degradation. Through this Satan’s evil nature and corrupted elements entered into man’s constitution. From that time on there has been an evil constituent, or element, within man. Now there are two kinds of elements within the man God created: one is the good element that came from God’s creation and bears God’s image; the other is the evil element that came out of the evil one, Satan, and bears the evil nature of Satan. Within man there is not only the good created by God but also the sin injected by Satan (Rom. 7:17, 20). This sin is also called evil. It is sin itself and is the transfiguration of Satan within man.
There are only two sources in the universe; one is God, and the other is Satan. God is good (Matt. 19:17), and Satan is evil (Rom. 7:21). Due to the fall of man, the evil nature of Satan was injected into the good man created by God. Therefore, there are two kinds of nature within the fallen man: the good nature and the evil nature. This was why within Chinese Confucianism there were those who advocated man’s inherent good nature and those who advocated man’s inherent evil nature. Actually, according to the biblical view, there is a basis for both schools because both good and evil are within man. Many philosophers throughout the ages came up with the thought of asceticism through their observation and realization of fallen mankind. They considered that the evil lusts within man could be eliminated only through the exercise of self-suppression. Hence, in their consideration only suffering could restrain man’s evil and cause him to behave, to do good, and to be delivered from the sorrows of life.
However, the divine thought of the Bible is greatly different from human philosophy. The way of deliverance revealed by the Bible is not suffering but death. It is not suffering that delivers man but death. Romans 6:7 says, “He who has died is justified from sin.” Although suffering can restrain man and keep him from sin, it can deliver him only to a certain extent. Moreover, those who suffer are not necessarily free from sin; sometimes they may sin even more. Therefore, suffering cannot actually deliver man. What saves and delivers man from sin is death. This is God’s way of salvation. This way is not through suffering but through death.
Catholicism has subtly changed the meaning of the cross. There is a book among the Catholics called The Imitation of Christ that teaches people to bear the cross and to apply the suffering of the cross as an element of asceticism. Later, those from the inner-life group had similar thoughts. Madame Guyon once said that the cross is something to be loved and that she desired to embrace and kiss the cross. Even in the early years I had felt that this kind of speaking could lead to improper impressions. Therefore, forty years ago I wrote a hymn especially to clear up the confusion caused by Catholicism. The hymn, Hymns, #622 says,
Christianity has followed Catholicism in this matter. In Christianity, speakings on the cross generally emphasize suffering. To many, bearing the cross means to suffer for the Lord. However, this is not the revelation of the Bible. The cross mentioned in the Bible emphasizes the termination and the putting to death of a person.
Living through dying is the basic thought of the Bible. For one to live, he must die. In John 12:24 the Lord Jesus said, “Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” Also, Brother A. B. Simpson says in one of his hymns, “This the secret nature hideth, / Harvest grows from buried grain” (Hymns, #482). This shows us that the biblical principle is living through dying. God’s way of salvation is to terminate us by the cross of Christ and to resurrect us by His Spirit of life. This appears to be a cruel punishment, but actually it is a glorious deliverance. Based on the revelation of the whole Bible, we see clearly that living through dying is God’s saving way.
The first ministry in the New Testament is that of John the Baptist. He came out to preach the baptism of repentance and immersed and buried men into the water, which signifies death, in order to terminate the man of the old creation. Following that, there was the ministry of the Lord Jesus. His ministry caused the terminated ones to have a new beginning, to resurrect from the dead, and to obtain the divine life. This adequately proves that in the salvation of God’s New Testament economy, there is a fundamental thought and principle, which is that fallen man can receive life only through death. Death is the initiation into resurrection. We have a hymn, Hymns, #631, which speaks very well concerning this matter:
Now let us examine a few obvious and important verses concerning this profound principle of living through dying.
First, Galatians 2:20a says, “I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” According to God’s economy, when Christ was crucified on the cross, I was also included in Him. Through the death of Christ I am dead in Him, and now through His resurrection He lives within me. This shows us the principle of living through dying.
Second, Romans 8:13b says, “If by the Spirit you put to death the practices of the body, you will live.” What we need to put to death is not the body itself but the practices of the body. These practices do not refer only to the sinful things but also to all the things done by our body outside of the Spirit. When we take the initiative to put to death the practices of the body, the Spirit will apply the effectiveness of the death of Christ to those practices and terminate them so that we may live.
Third, Galatians 5:24-25 says, “They who are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.” Verse 24 speaks about death. Our old man and the “I” were crucified on the cross. This is a fact accomplished by Christ on the cross. The crucifying of the flesh with its passions and its lusts is our practical experience of this fact. The experience of this fact can be fulfilled only by our carrying out through the Spirit the crucifixion accomplished by Christ. Verse 25 speaks of living. In our Christian life God does not want us to keep the law by the flesh but to live Christ by the Spirit. Living by the Spirit implies that our living depends on the Spirit and is regulated by the Spirit. This again shows us that the Christian experience of life is one of living through dying.
Here we see that the way of death revealed by the Bible is not a way of committing suicide. Rather, it is a way of believing and receiving the fact accomplished by Christ at the cross. When Christ was crucified on the cross, we who were in Him were also crucified together with Him. The ark is a type in the Old Testament that illustrates this matter. Noah and his household of eight members were saved in the ark by passing through the flood waters (Gen. 7:1, 7; 1 Pet. 3:20). Similarly, we who are in Christ passed through death with Him. We were buried with Him and were resurrected with Him. We do not experience crucifixion, burial, and resurrection alone, but we experience them with Christ by being in Him. What He passed through was suffering and death; what we pass through is enjoyment and deliverance. This is our living through dying in Christ. The death of Christ is not the goal; rather, it is an initiation into resurrection. In Adam, death is fearsome; in Christ, death is lovable. The death in Adam leads to perdition; the death in Christ leads to resurrection. Let us now consider the outline of this chapter.
The Triune God becoming flesh is an extraordinary thing in the universe. Man’s body was originally created by God. Due to the fall of man, Satan’s elements were added into man’s body, and the body was changed in nature to become the flesh. One day God became a man. The Bible says that He not only took on a body but also became flesh (John 1:14). By this, the fall of man and sin are involved. But this does not mean that the sinful nature, or Satan, was in the body of Christ. Romans 8:3 clearly says, “God, sending His own Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin and concerning sin.” This shows that although Christ became flesh, He had only the likeness of the flesh. He did not have the satanic elements in the flesh, which is sin. Therefore, 2 Corinthians 5:21 says that Christ has no sin and even has no knowledge of sin.
Concerning this matter, not only is there a clear revelation in the New Testament, but there are illustrative types in the Old Testament as well. When the Israelites sinned against God and were bitten by the fiery serpents, God commanded Moses to lift up the bronze serpent to bear the judgment of God for them. Whoever beheld that bronze serpent was made alive (Num. 21:4-9). In John 3:14 the Lord Jesus applied this type to Himself. He said, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” This word indicates that when He became flesh, He was in the likeness of the flesh of sin, that is, in the form of the bronze serpent, with the form of the serpent yet without its poison. This is indeed a marvelous thing. The Triune God, the Lord who created the heavens and the earth, entered into man and joined Himself with the fallen man, the flesh, and even became flesh. The only thing that He did not have in Him was the nature and poison of sin.
Hebrews 9:26 shows us that through the offering up of Christ as a sacrifice, He dealt with the sinful nature, that is, the singular “sin” within man. Verse 28 follows by saying that by His offering up of Himself once, He took care of the consequence of “sin,” which is the outward sinful acts, that is, the plural “sins,” of man. Romans 6:6 says that the death of Christ on the cross took care of our old man. Hebrews 2:14 says that through death Christ destroyed him who has the might of death, that is, the devil. John 12:31 says that when Christ was lifted up on the cross, Satan was judged, and the world, which hangs upon Satan, was also judged. Furthermore, Ephesians 2:15 says that when Christ was crucified, He abolished in His flesh the law of the commandments in ordinances. John 12:24 shows us even further that Christ was the grain of wheat that fell into the earth and died to release the divine life. All of these were accomplished by the all-inclusive death of Christ.
Another great act of Christ was His resurrection. The death of Christ terminates, and the resurrection of Christ germinates. First, through the resurrection of Christ, Jesus the Nazarene was born the firstborn Son of God (Acts 13:33). Second, His resurrection regenerated the ones chosen by the Father to become God’s many sons (1 Pet. 1:3; Rom. 8:29). Eventually, the firstborn Son and the many sons are constituted the church (Heb. 2:12). Hence, the church is produced through the resurrection of Christ.
Christ accomplished ascension, and in His ascension He was inaugurated as the Christ, the Lord of heaven and earth, the Leader of the kings of the earth, and the Savior of all mankind (Acts 2:36; 5:31). In this way He is able to inherit all and to fulfill God’s commission, which is to rule and to exercise sovereignty over the whole earth by His authority. By this, God’s chosen ones are enabled to receive God’s salvation in a proper way. All of these were accomplished by Christ in His ascension.
Christ has also accomplished the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the producing of the church. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit was based upon Christ’s accomplished process of becoming flesh, dying an all-inclusive death, resurrecting, and ascending. After Christ passed through these processes, He was ready to pour Himself out upon all His believers and to baptize them into the Body, which is the church (2:33; 1 Cor. 12:13). By this, He accomplishes His heavenly ministry on earth and fulfills God’s New Testament economy.
The important items of God’s New Testament economy, from the Triune God becoming flesh to the producing of the church, are fully accomplished facts. Now all that we have to do is to acknowledge, receive, enjoy, and experience by faith these accomplished divine facts.
Among the divine facts we receive by faith, one primary item is our dying and living together with Christ (Gal. 2:20). In Christ we are already dead. But now in Christ we are made alive. Through the death of Christ, we are dead in Him. And now through His resurrection, He is living within us. In this way we can live Christ and have Him as our center and everything in our daily life. Christ and we, we and Christ, both have one life and one living.
Through our dying and living with Christ, we can experientially know His resurrection (Phil. 3:10a). John 11:25 shows us that Christ Himself is the resurrection. Therefore, as long as we are in Him, receiving and enjoying the fact of dying and living with Him, we can experience and know the resurrection of Christ.
When we know the resurrection of Christ, we will live a crucified life in the power of His resurrection. Our knowledge of the resurrection of Christ becomes a kind of power that enables us to be conformed to the death of Christ, that is, to have the death of Christ as our mold of living (Phil. 3:10b). Therefore, our daily life ought to be a life under the cross, in which our soul-life is continually put to death, so that we may live by the life of God.
When we acknowledge the fact of our dying with Christ and live under the cross, we can practically and experientially crucify the flesh and the lusts of the flesh (Gal. 5:24).
The facts accomplished by Christ on the cross can become our practical experience through the Spirit (Rom. 8:13b). The Spirit executes in us the accomplished crucifixion of Christ. In other words, it is by the Spirit that we put to death the lusts of the body, including the practices of the evil members of this lustful body. As a result, we will live.
As a conclusion, the New Testament consistently reveals to us that our Christian life is a life of living through dying. It is a life that expresses the resurrection of Christ through being crucified. This was what Christ experienced in His human living; this is also a principle and a fundamental fact in the Bible. Such a living through dying surpasses any philosophy in the world and any concept of asceticism taught by religion. We Christians already have the accomplished facts in God’s New Testament economy. All we have to do is receive by faith. These facts will become our enjoyment and experience, and we will live out Christ through dying with Him.
