InDeuteronomy 30:19, God said:
I call heaven and earth to witness this day that
Deuteronomy 30:19
I have set before you life and death(blessings and curses);therefore choose lifethat you and your descendants may live.
At the time that God said this👆, (1) we had been given the option of Life and Death and (2) we were already dead because we chose death (RE: the Garden of Eden fiasco … see Genesis 2:15-17, Genesis 3:1-6). With this ‘already dead situation’ in mind, what does death mean? … what is the option of death that God set before us?
While the intent of this blog is to highlight what it means to die to death and why it is important to die to death daily, answering the first two questions provides the needed context for understanding the answers to the latter two.
Heads-up … there are questions for you(SeLaH moments)along the way. Consider taking a pause to honestly answer these zero-judgment questions. I joyfully hope that your answers will point you to God in gratitude and/or by way of asking for Grace and Faith –Hebrews 4:16(TPT, MSG).
THE MEANING OF DEATH
Short Answer:Separation from God
A separation resulting from us being distant from God, not the other way round. God is LIFE and the Knowledge of God is Eternal Life(John 17:3). By extension, death means deprivation of LIFE – to be deprived of the Knowledge of God … to perish.
It is important to note that knowing about God is NOT the same as knowing God.
Paul knew about God until he knew God (Acts 9:1-5). Job knew about God until he knew God(Job 42:5). Isaiah knew about God until he knew God(Isaiah 6:1-5). Samuel knew about God until he knew God (I Samuel 3:1-11,21). Samuel’s story calls out a key distinction between knowing about God and knowing God – we see inverse 7that, even though the temple was practically his home, Samuel did not know God because the Word of The LORD was not yet revealed to him. Then, in subsequent verses, God revealed Himself to Samuel through the Word of The LORD (verse 21). This God-given knowledge of God (FAITH) is KEY.
SeLaH: Do you have Faith (do you have a God-given knowledge of God)?
Knowing God is personal and active … it involves a personal, God-given evidence, testimony, experience, or knowledge of God that we must believe (accept, receive) AND actively apply (live by). The active application (works) of this God-given knowledge of God (Faith) is possible ONLY through God (Grace) and is the essential part of what it means to KNOW God (to live). Faith without works is dead –James 2:17
SeLaH: Are you actively applying your God-given knowledge of God?
In contrast, knowing about God is distant and through the lens of others and/or one’s own human understanding. Even though it is about God, it is distant from God because it is NOT a God-given knowledge of God (Faith) nor is it applied, if at all, through God (Grace). Whatever is not of Faith is sin – it separates us from God(Romans 14:23B Isaiah 59:2). This means then that knowing about God is, in and of itself, separation from God.
SeLaH: Do you know God OR Do you know about God?
I mentioned earlier that we were already dead at the time that God said what He said about setting before us the options of Life and Death … yes, we were already separated from God. Romans 6:23tells us that the wages of sin is death. Effectively, as a result of the sin of disobedience in the Garden of Eden Adam and Eve died. Also, since then, anyone born of human conception starts out dead. David affirms this …
… in sin did my mother conceive me.
Psalm 51:5
2 Corinthians 15:56A tells us that sin is the sting of death that results in death. In other words, David was saying:I was born dead (I was born separated from God and deprived of Life). This is the case with all of mankind.
Considering that we were already dead, what then is the option of death that was set before us and is still being presented to us TODAY (man’s timeline on earth)?
THE OPTION OF DEATH SET BEFORE US
Short Answer:The Knowledge of Good and Evil expressed as The law of Moses
To be explicit, it is the option of attempting to justify one’s self (to right that which is wrong) by attempting to fulfill the requirements of the law of Moses.
UNLIKE the Law of the Spirit of LIFE (God) which came from God through God (Jesus), the law of Moses came from God through Moses. However glorious and God-glorifying it was, the law of Moses is otherwise known as the law of sin and death(Romans 8:2)as well as the ministry of death(2 Corinthians 3:7-18).
The law of Moses was given NOT for any man of human conception to fulfill – none of us could ever meet/satisfy its requirements. ONLY JESUS could and did. Note-worthy point: Jesus was a man but His conception was of GodLuke 1:26-35
The law of Moses was God-glorifying in that it was given to reinforce the truth contained inZechariah 4:6B Romans 9:16 Ephesians 2:8-9and others like it. A truth that we personally acknowledge having exhausted all attempts to meet its requirements only to still fail and fall short always! I remember getting to this point … all kinds of exhausted, I acknowledged/accepted the truth thatI can NOT save myself – this truth, I believe, is the intent and essence of the law of Moses …
… to bring, point, and guide us to the realization that we can NOT fulfill the law of Moses through our own effort or self-attempts … that we can NOT right the wrong that happened in the Garden of Eden through self-help … that self-help or self-righteousness (attempting to right what’s wrong by and for our self) is but a filthy rag at best. Worse still, this attempt at self-justification is the death option.
The law was a trainer, tutor, disciplinarian, custodian, guardian, school master, whose job was to point, bring, and guide us to Christ that we may be justified, made righteous (made right)…
Galatians 3:24
To choose the death option is to choose to stay dead … to remain separated from God, which eventually leads to being utterly cast out IF one does not repent.
While it is a God-given option, the resulting ultimate death of choosing the death option (being utterly cast out and irrecoverably or eternally separate from God) is NOT the Will of God for us. It’s why God encourages us to choose Life (Deuteronomy 30:19B). God does NOT delight in the death of a sinner (Ezekiel 33:11) … He does NOT want us to perish (2 Peter 3:9B). The Will of God is for us to choose Life … everlasting, eternal Life (John 3:16). We choose Life by dying to death … daily.
THE MEANING OF DYING TO DEATH
Short Answer: To Live (by FAITH) …
I die daily … nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ lives in me. The life which I live in the flesh I live by Faith: the Faith of the Son of God Who loved me and gave Himself for me
Galatians 2:20
… to live by every word that comes out of God’s mouth (TRUTH), to live by every God-given Knowledge of God to you – this is FAITH, and God delights in it … Hosea 6:6 Hebrews 11:6 – it is impossible to please God without the active application of your God-given Knowledge of God, it is impossible to please God without knowing God.
While we are on the subject of what God delights in, I’d like to add that God delights in the death of a believer. I know, I know … at first glance, this might seem rather harsh or maybe “off”. I’ll share more on this when I answer the fourth question. In the interim, let’s look into the definitions of a believer and the death of a believer. After which we’ll take a look at our #1 and perfect example – Jesus.
A believer is anyone who accepts God (their God-given witness, evidence, testimony, or knowledge of God) as Truth … Anyone whose active application of their God-given knowledge of God (Faith) inevitably results in actions (Works) that say that GOD CAN NOT LIE. John 3:33
The death of a believer is the action of dying to death, which in turn leads to Life. This Life is Jesus – John 1:4. It involves believing God, repenting (turning to face God to know Him face-to-face), as well as trusting God to do what He has said and done: RIGHT ALL WRONGS.
SeLaH: Do your actions say that God can NOT lie or do they imply otherwise?
Jesus fits the definition of a believer – He believed God (The Father). If He didn’t, He would not have gone along with the plan of being stripped of His divine status, to come endure the filth that is the flesh of man, let alone die the death of a criminal (Philippians 2:5-8). In coming to earth to do the Will of The Father: His God-given Knowledge of God, the very Knowledge of God that Jesus is and that He embodied, Jesus accepted The Father’s Will as Truth (absolute, perfect, right … righteous). He accepted that The Father’s Will will NOT fail, falter, or disappoint, and that He will not come up short or be short-changed. While He was on earth, Jesus trusted (held on to His belief: His acceptance of His God-given knowledge of God – to mean that he continued believing God – and lived by Faith, by His God-given knowledge of God) that God would make everything right for Him – 1 Peter 2:23. This is the Faith of the Son of God mentioned inGalatians 2:20(KJV).
Regarding Jesus’ death and the nature of it (all the bruising and crushing that ultimately led to His death), Isaiah 53:10 records that it pleased God to have it be exactly so. In other words, God delighted in Jesus’ death.
… it pleased The LORD to bruise Him, causing Him to suffer … When You and He make His life an offering for sin and He has risen from the dead … the Eternal’s deepest desire will come to pass and flourish in His hand.
Isaiah 53:10(KJV, AMPC, VOICE)
Jesus’ death fulfilled the requirements of the law of Moses AND was the only acceptable payment of the wages owed: death – this was paid in FULL. Jesus’ resurrection to Life rendered both death and its sting (sin) null, void, powerless, and of no effect to those who will believe God – it gave mankind a shot at Life.
Without Jesus’ death, there will be no resurrection to Life – this resurrection Life is the Life we experience when we die to death.
As a result of Jesus’ dying to death, as a result of His resurrection to Life, His resurrection Life, we no longer only have the one option of death, we now have the option of Life – we now have the option of dying to death.
As the phrase implies, dying to death is NOT a one-time choice. It is an active, ongoing, daily, moment-to-moment choice made possible ONLY by the Spirit of God (GRACE), Who lives in every believer (Romans 8:11), AND through each person’s God-given Knowledge of God (FAITH).
It is byGracethat you have been saved throughFaith…this salvation (righteousness) is not of yourselves or of your doing, it came not through your own striving, but by and is the free love gift of God.
Ephesians 2:8
In other words, dying to death is the grace-enabled righteousness (righting of wrongs) that stems from Faith (our God-given knowledge of God) and leads to Faith (Knowing God) – Romans 1:17. This is how the saved are being saved from sin and death. This is how we are translated from death to Life and transformed … This is how we live … how we know God … how we choose the option of Life.
With this option, the former do-it-my-self and have-it-my-way self-orientation is replaced with a ‘daily’ (moment-by-moment), God-do-it-for-me and Your-Will-be-done-Your-Way Spirit-led orientation. With this option, each moment and every detail of our lives is governed by the leading and working of the Spirit of Life.
… instead of redoubling our own efforts, simply embrace what the Spirit is doing in us (walk according to the movement of the Spirit in our lives) … those who trust God’s action in them find that God’s Spirit is in them – living and breathing God! … When God lives and breathes in you, you are delivered from that dead “life” … we do NOT owethe old do-it-yourself“life” one red cent.There’s nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burialand get on with your new Life.
Romans 8:4B-14(MSG, VOICE)
Oh, that we will choose Life.
SeLaH: Are you choosing Life? In other words, Are you dying to death?
THE IMPORTANCE OF DYING TO DEATH… DAILY
Short Answer: JOY … also known as the joy of harvest!
Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, dead to the world, it remains but one – it can only be a seed – BUT if it dies, it produces a rich harvest!
John 12:24
This rich harvest is a representation of Our glorious inheritance. By ‘Our’ I mean both God’s inheritance as well as ours.
Psalm 135:4andPsalm 16:5tell us that God’s people are His inheritance and that He is ours. We see the same truth inEphesians 1:11,18 …
In Christ,we were made God’s heritage(portion) and we obtained an inheritance;for we had been predestined (chosen beforehand)according to the counsel and design of God’s Will…how rich is the wealth of God’s glorious inheritance in us the saints (believers)
Ephesians 1:11(AMPC)Ephesians 1:18
Where there’s a will, there’s a way there’s an inheritance. Typically, in a non-prodigal-son situation, death precedes the inheritance of a will or the inheritance of a person’s portion of a will.
Each time we die to death, God inherits His Will in us and through us … God enjoys the richness of His glorious inheritance in us. In other words, God literally receives glory and takes pleasure in us – it is for this very purpose that we were created (Revelation 4:11 KJV)… it is the reason God delights in the death of a believer.
By dying to death, we also inherit God’s Will for us: fruitfulness and multiplicity (Genesis 1:28); the Kingdom of God: Righteousness, Peace, Joy … things never before heard or seen … above all else, eternal (abundant) Life. Proverbs 22:4 echoes this by saying that: laying your life down in tender surrender before the LORD brings a satisfying life, prosperity (wealth, riches), and honor as your reward (inheritance) – TPT, MSG.
… my Beloved is mine and I am His, for We delight ourselves in each other.
SOS 2:16(AMP, TPT)
In dying to death, we inevitably give God His glory in us, we give God to God.
SeLaH: Are you giving God to God?
To give God to God is to be faithful (FULL of God, FULL of your God-given Knowledge of God) to God – He delights in faithfulness and the knowledge of God (Hosea 6:6)… To give God to God is to love God (to have the Fear of God), therein lies our inheritance …
what eye has not seen (things never discovered), what ear has not heard (things never before heard), and that which has not entered the heart of man – these are the many things that God has prepared (made and keeps ready) for those who love Him.
1 Corinthians 2:9
… an inheritance of abundant Life that we have access to as we die to death ‘daily’.
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Abba, help us make a fresh start – a resurrection Life, so that we (Your people) will find joy and pleasure in You as You do in us. Enable us to die to death until death is no more. Daily renew us with and in Your love – The Fear of God.
Rivers in the Desert 
Beautiful post . I pray for strength to die daily to self in Jesus Powerful Name Amen
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