No one survives the preaching of the Gospel. Either the hearer will die to self and come to rest on the Bedrock of true belief, or they will die alone in their sins. There is no escape.
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.
~ Romans 6:3-6
In Him, everything is backwards from the world.
Last to be first.
Give away to gain.
Seek Him first.
Slave to be free.
Strength in weakness.
Grace to the humble.
Surrender to win.
Die to finally Live.
Oh, beloved, somehow we know this foolishness is true. All of us do. We just have that one last little thing in our lives onto which we hold. One more time, one more thought, one more attempt to try it ourselves. And He hammers it home… Apart from Me, you can do nothing.
We become brutally aware of the cost of the Gospel becoming effective in our lives. The price for this transaction is absolute abandonment of our lives. And the price has to be paid by both parties in the transaction. The Initiator has already anted up. The very G_d of the universe has torn Himself asunder and poured out His own blood.
All He wants from us is our weak souls, minds and bodies…. Naught but dust and wind really. But He wants all of the dust and all of the wind. He wants to take all that little bit of us, and kill it in the death He died and bury it in His burial. For, this death is the only path to new Life in Him. Flesh can have no confidence before the coming judgement that will surely come. Only a human made new and perfect in His Spirit can stand on that day.
But, in Him, stand we will.
Can we see it? This new Life is not a new way of living – it is Life finally Lived. He is the Way, He is the Truth, He is the Life. This new life is not something we live somehow enabled by Him. This Life is His Life lived in us – and through us. And the only path to this Life, is the death of our old life.
There is no other way.
Oh, we can try. He has always left that option open. The first covenant in the Bible is still in effect. We can stand before Him that day on our own merits, and He will judge fairly. We only have to make our wind and dust stand against the perfection of inapproachable Light. Yeah, we can try. And we will fail. We will fail just like every other time we have tried to make ourselves be good enough. And after the final trying, and the final failure will come a death which never ends.
So, when are we going to die friends? Now or later? There are no survivors.
When are you gonna die?
