What God wants, and the world needs, is dead people. Being willing to die for Christ is the necessary point of surrender for all who profess Jesus as Lord, but it’s only theory until you take the next step. Plenty of people say they would die for their faith, but very few ever do. I’m not talking about physical death, I’m talking about dying to everything in this world.
God doesn’t need another person who claims Him as Lord but can’t let go of the entanglements of this life (2 Timothy 2:4). Christians who are already dead desire nothing and nothing sways them. This world no longer holds a single claim on their lives.
So long as anything in this world means anything to us, we are still alive in the flesh (Romans 8:5-8). People who are already dead have no encumbrances (Hebrews 12:1-2; Colossians 3:5). Spending every ounce of our lives pursuing and glorifying God should be the goal of everyone who comes to Jesus (1 Corinthians 10:31). He gave His life so you might live, so we must live this life knowing it does not belong to us (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). Followers of Jesus are living ransomed lives on borrowed time (1 Peter 1:18-19). We don’t fear physical death because we know it results in eternal life (John 11:25-26; Philippians 1:21).
If you are already dead, you understand that nothing you accumulate in this life will last. Your money, possessions, status, and accomplishments are all worthless and meaningless (Ecclesiastes 2:11). Every single one is garbage. It’s not just the tangible things that don’t matter, it’s the emotional attachments as well. Jesus said if we love anyone more than we love Him, we are not worthy of Him (Matthew 10:37). Our love for Jesus must be so great that our love for anyone else looks like hate in comparison (Luke 14:26).
I hear so many people say we need a revival in our churches and cities. Revival doesn’t happen when people wake up and come alive. It happens when God-fearing people die to all the garbage swirling around us. Claiming Jesus is Lord is easy, but abandoning every sinful activity in our lives is painful and difficult. Most of us will give up before finishing the job. We’re content with being mostly dead, but Jesus demands us to be completely dead. Our old life is over, and we must never desire it again (Romans 6:11).
Those who are already dead live for the resurrection. They know their time on earth is only for the purpose of taking the light of Jesus into the darkest places on the planet. We are dead, but Christ lives through us (Galatians 2:19-20). We only do what He would do. There is no more “us”; there is only Him.
In what ways is your old man still alive and kicking? What needs to be removed from your life? The ones most useful to God are those who have put aside their love for this world and seek only Him (Colossians 3:1-2). They want nothing of this world because they see it for what it is (James 4:4; 1 John 2:15-17). You will never know life as it is meant to be until you die to yourself, pick up your cross, and follow Christ (Matthew 16:24-25). God needs dead people, people who wrap their entire lives up in Him. When we lose our life for Jesus’s sake, then we will find true and eternal life (Mark 8:35). Let’s live the rest of our lives as those who are already dead to this world.