Second Death part 3
The second death (the death OF death) led to the new life. The abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of God that is a life of love. We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love each other. Love is the difference between life and death. No love, no life. Know love, know life! Look at 1 Peter 1:3 (NLT), "All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation." Jesus being raised from the dead was our new birth. And Jesus couldn't have been raised from the dead unless He first died. Makes sense, right? In order for death to be defeated, Jesus had to die, be buried, and rise again. That broke death's hold on us. Let me say it another way, "My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who love, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Galatians 2:20 NLT). And, "We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin" (Romans 6:6 NLT). Sin and death (and the law). The things Jesus came to free us from. We were slaves. We were dead in our trespasses and sins. We were the walking dead. Trying to do the best we could with what we had, but convinced that we couldn't do anything because we didn't have anything. That was life before the cross. Before the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. That was the problem. And, of course, Jesus was the solution. On the cross He fought the war to end all wars. Leaving us nothing left to fight but the good fight of faith--knowing and believing that the work is finished. Knowing and believing that we are who God says we are, we have what God says we have, and we can do what God created us to do! Which, the by way, is all love. We are love, we have love, we can love! It took a second death to get us out of death. That's what I'm trying to say today. We were crucified with Christ so that when He rose again, we rose again. So that, by having faith in God--by believing in Him--we can experience His life as He lives it in us, and through us, and as us! Sin and death and the law have lost their power over us. We can walk in newness of life without anything holding us back or tripping us up. We can walk by faith and not by sight, knowing that everything is under our feet. Jesus walked on water because everything was under His feet. He didn't sink because He wasn't a prisoner to His surroundings (or anything else for that matter). When you're free... you're all the way free. Either the cross changed everything or it didn't change anything. That's the mindset we need to have in order to experience life on God's level. When you're dead, you're free from the law. When you're dead, there's nothing anybody can threaten you with. I always tell people that I don't have any plans for my funeral or anything like that... because I won't be there. It won't matter to me. And, when you experience this second death--the death OF death--that makes you as free as you can get. You can have that second birth and that new life, and you can live that life to the fullest. You can be who you were created to be. You can live the life God prepared for you--by letting HIM live HIS life in you, and through you, and as you. So don't be afraid of this second death. We're going to see tomorrow that it didn't even (doesn't even) hurt!