Let's Celebrate Resurrection Day . . . Every Day! -- Romans 6:5-11

Romans 6:5-11



"For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord." (NKJV)

Gods cannot die . . . and yet, the Lord Jesus died. He subjected Himself to that which He never had to experience unless He chose to experience it. He subjected Himself to death.

Death is not something that most people willingly embrace. We were created to be body-soul-spirit and the thought of being without our bodies is, in the least, uncomfortable, and in the greatest, frightening. Paul alludes to this in 2 Corinthians:

"For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down—when we die and leave these bodies—we will have a home in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long for the day when we will put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing. For we will not be spirits without bodies, but we will put on new heavenly bodies. Our dying bodies make us groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and have no bodies at all. We want to slip into our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by everlasting life." (2 Corinthians 5:1-4 NLT).

And if death is to be avoided, if death is that which we don’t want to experience, then why would the Lord Jesus willingly embrace it? Why, even though He was God, walk fearlessly through that which He knew was something a human didn’t want to experience?

The Lord Jesus chose death because He knew there was no other way. As a race, we humans were lost in our sin, with no hope of ever meeting God’s requirements for a relationship with Him. And there was no other way. No other way to give us eternal life with Him. No other way to pay for our sins. No other way to redeem us.

Stuart Briscoe, in his book, The Fullness of Christ, explains:

"The perennial question of man is: Why is the death of His Son necessary? Couldn’t God just forgive and forget? Not—it is not so easy. God is a merciful, gracious, loving God as we can see in the gracious and loving gift of His Son to die on the cross, but He is also a righteous, just and holy God. This means that He can always be relied upon to do the right thing. Man expects God to be just, righteous and holy, and therefore logically he must expect God to do that which is just, righteous and holy, and that includes His dealings with sin.

"Because He is holy, He hates sin; because He is righteous, He rejects sin and because He is just, He can be relied upon to judge sin. Therefore we see that before God could forgive sin, He had to judge sin, either individually in the person of the sinner, or collectively in the person of the substitute." (Briscoe, The Fullness of Christ, Zondervan, 1965, p. 13).

It comes down to this: Judgment comes before forgiveness. Holiness comes before love. Why? Because God couldn’t love us with His sacrificial agape love if He wasn’t holy. And He wouldn’t be holy if He didn’t judge sin rightly.

There was only one way. The Lord Jesus had to die. He had to become the sacrifice for our sin. It was the only way to save us. There was no other way.

But the great beauty of God’s plan was so far greater! The Lord Jesus would not only die, but He would be resurrected as the promise of our new eternal life. And, by going through death to life, He showed us the way. He embodied the Promise given to each and every believer . . . that death no longer has power over us, that death itself becomes only a doorway to a life far greater, far more wonderful than we could ever imagine. In a very real sense, the Resurrection became "our ticket outta here!"

As Christians, then, why do we ever run from death? Why are we afraid to die? Why do we not, instead, rejoice gloriously that soon we will be in a life far more amazing than anything we could ever imagine? "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him" (1 Corinthians 2:9 NKJV).

We get excited over a new movie or TV show. We get excited about vacation trips to exotic destinations. We get excited about our favorite sports team winning or going to Disneyland. Instead of that, why don’t we start getting excited about what awaits us just around the bend in that magical, marvelous, amazing place called Heaven? Why don’t we start living like the Lord Jesus really did rise from the dead and promise us eternal life? Why don’t we start making every day Resurrection Day?

© 2015 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. Permission to use in entirety granted to ministry and non-profit groups. Please include this notice with all uses. Permission for excerpts and other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.

Loving as Christ Loves -- Philippians 2:3

Philippians 2:3


"Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself." (NKJV)

A week or so ago, a terrible tragedy happened in Europe; a jet plane full of passengers, including over a dozen high school students, crashed in the Swiss Alps. It seems that there are a lot of problems with planes these days, but this crash, as it turns out, is very different.

In this crash, the co-pilot deliberately crashed the plane.

I don’t know about you, but this accident has weighed heavily on my mind since it happened. Yes, I suppose there is some comfort in knowing that the people on the plane were killed instantly. But it is such a terrible loss; such a senseless act of wickedness. It’s one thing to commit suicide; it’s another to take others with you.

And yet, this kind of thing is happening more and more often. Usually we hear about it in relationship to someone going into a crowded building and shooting people, only to either end up killing themselves or allowing the police to kill them. But the outcome is the same. The killer not only dies, but causes others to die as well.

There is a great deal of speculation about what might cause a young person to do such a terrible thing. Investigators have been reluctant to attached a specific cause. The people in the media have made all sorts of guesses including depression, mental illness, and possible side effects of psycho-tropic drugs. It’s likely we may never know the true reason why this young man did what he did, but one Christian doctor has a speculation that rings very true for me. He believes that this co-pilot was suffering from narcissism, an inflated view of one’s importance and a strong sense of entitlement.

(For the article, please refer to http://www.aleteia.org/en/lifestyle/article/narcissism-kills-a-lesson-from-the-germanwings-plane-crash-tragedy-5817073980669952?)

I grew up in the 60's, in the era that birthed the whole idea of self-esteem, self-worth, and self-importance. If you are younger than me, you might be surprised to learn that the Christian Church hasn’t always taught "me first, then everybody else" like it does now.

In fact, most of the Christian "self-esteem" doctrine is taken from one concept in the Bible:

"Jesus said to him, ‘"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind." This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.’" (Matthew 22:37-40 NKJV).

I can remember sitting in church and hearing preachers say, "You cannot love anyone else until you love yourself. You must learn to love yourself." The fact is, we all love ourselves if we understand how "love" is truly defined. What the Bible is talking about isn’t self-acceptance or self-approval. What the Bible is actually talking about is egocentricity, putting ourselves and our interests ahead of others. And that we all do with great alacrity and ability. We are born egocentric!

"Ego" is a psychological term that basically means our sense of self. It is the essence of who we are as a person. Centric: located at the center of. Egocentric basically means that we see ourselves as the center of the universe with everything and everyone revolving around us.

We are born this way.

Have you ever known a baby to be willing to put aside what she feels are her needs in order to allow someone else to have what they need? When a baby is hunger, he cries. If he is ignored, he will only scream louder and more insistently until the adults around him respond to him. Babies are created with this ability because they are unable to meet their own needs . . . for a time. But as children mature, it is expected that they will begin, at some point, to meet their own needs or (even more importantly) learn how to wait to have their needs met. Children need to learn that their needs are not the only needs that are important.

As Christians, we are commanded to "esteem others as better than ourselves." In essence, what Paul is saying is that we are to put our own needs aside and to use our efforts, our resources, and our priorities to look out for the needs of others. In fact, we are to do so in a very self-sacrificing way. The Lord Jesus Himself taught:

"You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also. And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away" (Matthew 5:38-42 NKJV).

This commandment is about how to treat those around us. I’m convinced that the Lord used the example of how we are to treat evil persons so that we will know this is how we are to treat everyone. I mean, think about it. Don’t we think even the nicest person is at least a little bit evil when they make demands on us that interfere with our plans to take care of ourselves? And the Lord tells us, in every one of those situations, we are to give more than is asked of us.

This is how we love as Christ loved.


Let nothing be done through self ambition or conceit . . .
There is within all of us a real sense of wanting to convince others that our needs are more important than theirs. Have you ever found yourself, in a conversation, only waiting to find a point where you could jump in and give your opinion or talk about your experience? How about trying to convince your boss that you deserve the raise or the promotion over someone else? The fact is, we have been raised to think of ourselves first. We were born loving ourselves. It doesn’t matter whether or not we like ourselves; we think of ourselves first. Even for those of us who naturally gravitate toward "doing" for others, our motivation is selfish. We do it because either it makes us feel good, it is how we define ourselves, or we are hoping to get something out of it.

And yet Paul tells us to let nothing be done for these reasons. Rather, we are to learn how to look out after others, taking care of their needs, meeting their desires, making sure they have everything they want or need without regard for what we need.

Why would God ask that of us?

Because He has promised to take care of us Himself. When we focus our hearts, minds, and efforts upon the needs and desires of others, we are also learning how to fully trust God to take care of us. Reaching out and ministering to others, without regard for our own needs or desires, is a way to mature spiritually, a way to grow closer to the Lord, a way to learn how to trust Him more fully each day.

If it is true that putting the needs of others first (and probably only) is the way to emulate Christ, then I am fully convinced that it is possible for the young co-pilot on the Germanwings plane to have consciously decided to end his own life as well as the lives of the other 149 people on that plane. Why? Because doing "whatever" he needed to do to fulfill his own needs became more important than the needs of the other passengers and crew. He was doing what was natural to him; he was doing the exact opposite of what God would do.

It is also fully possible, as much as we could like to not admit it, for any of us to sacrifice any number of people around us in order to get what we need out of life. That is the reality of egocentrism. That is why the Holy Spirit is commanding us to choose to meet the needs of those around us. We need to learn how to be others-centric through the power of the Holy Spirit so that we can become more and more like the Lord Jesus. The opposite of that is to act egocentrically which opens us up to all kinds of horrific decisions.

It is possible for us to be as vile as that young co-pilot. That evil exists within each and every one of us. Whether or not we find ourselves in a situation where we end the lives of people around us, we are fully capable of psychologically and/or spiritually damaging others to the point where they "die" emotionally.

As Christians, we need to begin to show the world the true definition of agape love, of that self-sacrificing love that is willing to give up all that I am in meeting the needs of others in order to become all that the Lord Jesus wants me to be to meet the needs of others. The purpose of our lives in Christ is always other-driven. Why? Because when we become focused on those around us, when we pour our lives out in order to love as Christ loved, only then do we begin to understand what it truly means to be a follower of Christ.

© 2015 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. Permission to use in entirety granted to ministry and non-profit groups. Please include this notice with all uses. Permission for excerpts and other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.