Dead Man Walking part 5
"And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give" (Matthew 10:7-8). That was Jesus's mandate to His disciples. And right there in the middle He talked about death. As if it was no big deal. Raise the dead. Shrug. Which, if you think about it, is exactly how Jesus felt about it. To Life itself (Himself) death ISN'T a big deal. Not only did Jesus raise people from the dead... He literally died and then rose back to life. 1 Corinthians 15:26 says, "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." Jesus did that. He took away the sin of the world. Cast death and hell into the the lake of fire. God is that consuming fire. Love is that consuming fire. Everything is swallowed up in love. And if you look at that verse in 1 Corinthians in Young's Literal Translation of the Bible it reads, "the last enemy is done away--death." That isn't a battle Jesus needs to win. It is a battle He already won. Through the cross. When He rose from death. See, His death was our death, but that was done so that His life could be our life. The abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of God. That is what the gift of God is. So when we talk about being a dead man walking--walking by faith and not by sight--we're really talking about walking in newness of life. Leaving the old behind. Not looking at death as the end of the road. But seeing it as the old passing away and the new coming forth. Seeing it for what it really is. And, remember, when Jesus's friend Lazarus died... Jesus wept. Even though He knew He was going to raise that man back to life. You can still feel and experience things. I always tell people "Feel what you feel, but don't let it control you." See the bigger picture. Understand that God has a plan. Preach the gospel at all times, and if you have to... use words. Heal the sick. Cleanse the leapers. Cast out devils... and raise the dead. So many people zombie their way through life. Just going through the motions. Just taking what life gives them. Not even trying to make lemonade out of the lemons. Just being sour about it. Which is tragic. Because there is so much more available to us. A more excellent way. One more time... the abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of God is available to us! He has give it to us. Because He wants us to have it. Because He wants us to experience and enjoy it as HE lives His own life in us, and through us, and as us! That's what this life is all about. We live in Him because He lives in us. We love because He first loved us. We died because He died. His death was our death. Now His life is our life! That's what so great about this; Jesus did it all so we could get it all. And now we have it all. We can raise the dead because we have been raised from the dead! We can live because death no longer has any hold on us. Sin no longer has any hold on us. Grace is not freedom TO sin, it is freedom FROM sin! Those born of God CANNOT sin because His seed remains in us. So we don't need to worry about things like sin and death. We can instead focus on a life of love. Receiving and releasing what God has given to us. Freely we have received... freely we can give!