The Gateway to Life
Not what you'd expect
The other day I was enjoying a cup of coffee in my backyard when I observed the most Florida thing ever. A lizard leaped from a fern to catch and eat some big, flying bug. It’s a lizard-eat-bug world out there!1
But seriously, the microcosm of an ecosystem which is my backyard reveals a truth that is present in all of nature. For something to live, something has to die. Nature testifies to this fact: from death comes life.
Likewise, Jesus teaches us that true life comes from death. If we really want to live… if we really want to have the abundant life Jesus offers, a death will be required. Not only His, but our own.
A death to self, to ego, to pride, a death to an addiction to convenience… a death to the prioritization of comfort… a death to considering myself too highly to stoop down and help that poor soul over there.
In John 12, there’s a moment when Jesus realizes that the hour of His death is quickly approaching. He shares with His disciples this analogy:
Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
John 12:24-25 NKJV
If I really want to “live,” I’ve got to be like that grain of wheat and “die.” If I want to be fruitful for Jesus (“produce much grain”), I’ve got to die to myself first. If I want “eternal life,” I’ve got to reconsider how much I love what we usually call “life.” I need a radical rearranging of my priorities.
The apostle likewise reminds us that “what you sow is not made alive unless it dies… So is also the resurrection of the dead… ” (1 Cor. 15:36b, 42a). Eternal life comes on the other side of death. Because of the power of Jesus, our bodies will be sown (put in the ground) one way, and raised another.
Death is the gateway to life.
Jesus’ death is the only way we can have life. Jesus’ death on the cross is the gateway to spiritual life now, and eternal life in the age to come. Jesus’ death and resurrection guarantees that my death will give way to victory through Him.
Jesus’ death teaches me that, if I want to be fruitful, I need to die. I need to take up my cross, follow Him, and then I can have something actually worth calling “life.”
I’m slowly becoming proficient in dad jokes.
Good thoughts, thank you for sharing! And I love lizards too so that's a bonus!
As you say, it is very true that we need to die to many things, following Jesus as our example!
( the popular theology that Jesus died in our place does not fit in with taking up our cross, following after him and dying to the sin in our own lives). A good reminder for that's all! Have a great day!