Death. No Christian can experience the joy of Christ apart from it. It is why Christ came to earth and it is why God has put us here too. "For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it" (Mark 8:35). Of course I'm not talking about physical death, but spiritual death-- synonymous with an acceptance of suffering and being abused by people and with the possibility of martyrdom. This death is not negotiable. "When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die," said Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German martyr. We cannot make conditions on our death ('Okay, God, I'll die if... you promise I won't have to suffer too much, you promise that I'll always feel your presence with me, you'll let me always have good food to eat or good health or a spouse who will remain faithful to me.) We. Must. Die. God will not be bargained with and we are not in any position to bargain anyway. We don't suffer joylessly, though. That's what makes us different from the world. When unbelievers suffer they have no consolation, no hope that their suffering amounts to anything or any promises to grasp onto. "We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed" (2 Corinthians 4:8-9). "But in all things we commend ourselves as ministers of God: in much patience, in tribulations, in needs, in distresses, 5 in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in fastings; 6 by purity, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Spirit, by sincere love, 7 by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, 8 by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report; as deceivers, and yet true; 9 as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold we live; as chastened, and yet not killed; 10 as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things" (2 Corinthians 6:4-10). The road to Calvary is a painful one but it is not without joy. And our joy in the cross does not stem from masochism or a delight in pain itself but in the promise of what that pain is producing in us. We delight in the cross because our good, kind Lord and Savior tells us that it is the pathway to deeper joy. There is no deeper joy available to men than the joy of denying ourselves. There may be great pain in love but love does not see the pain as so very important. It is happy to love without concern for being loved in return and death is always the pathway to true love. This is why the Bible says that Jesus was "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." Before the world was created, Jesus Christ knew and accepted that he would have to die for those He redeemed. This was the basis for the love which God showed the world. The death of Christ was the reason God had any genuine compassion to show the world. The entire redemptive history hinged on the fact that Christ would pour out His life to ransom the children of God. Without it, the entire universe would have been obliterated the very second Eve ate that fruit. Apart from the death of Christ God would have not exhibited one ounce of compassion or pity on us. And the death of Christ is the only thing that enables us to die. Through our deaths, we can enter the joy which God prepared for us. So the sooner we embrace death, the sooner we embrace the highest form of joy God has prepared for us. Let us embrace our death today, one moment at a time.
