What does it mean to die to self?

 The following is a message from my sister, Emanuela Robinson. I know this will encourage someone and that is the reason I have asked her to write it down. God, in His providence found it fitting to bring us to Himself at the same time, we were even baptised together when we both made a public confession of faith. She is the blessing of my life and so, I hope that her words will bless whoever is reading this. 

 

"I have been His and walked with God for 23 years. I am a very practical creature who by the grace of God tend to keep a clear head in crisis and come up with a list of solutions on how a situation can be tackled. Trust me, in a crisis you want me around you😊

That makes me a very good employee and someone people rely on in hard times but has been the bane of my life with God. Because being so “full of solutions” means I have become self-reliant. And therein lies my problem. The Bible says my self has died when I became His. So, the million-dollar question is, what am I relying on then? Is it my flesh? Because, if I rely on my flesh, I might find myself in a situation such as the one described in 1 Corinthians 3:13-15. 

And who wants to put their heart and soul into building a structure only to end up with ashes at the end?

I have justified and explained what I am doing, until I was blue in the face even going as far as listing all the good tools, I have acquired along the way which have made Me grow along My walk with God. Note how many times I refer to myself in the previous phrase. That should give you an idea how far it all got for me. And reading a stack of “self-help” and “personal development” books have not helped either…

So, one like me who ended up reading even the Word of God, which I love, as a self-improvement program, needed someone like my sister who would meet all my explanations and justifications of my “tools” with a calm but clear- “You are dead. Everything that shines in you that you think is you, is Christ who loved you and gave Himself for you.” As one who built a structure that she was proud of, I kept asking, “but Chris, then where am I?” …

Did I like it? No. It felt as if all my hard work was being burned to ashes in front of my eyes at hearing her words. Is she speaking the truth? Yes. Because the Bible agrees with her, not with my tools. And frankly, I much rather have my work burned here, whilst Christ can still build something else, something precious in my life, then at the end when a line will be drawn, and ashes will be all I will be left with.

So, I went to Google and typed “verses on dying to self”, verses that I am sure I read hundreds of times before, and I asked the Father to speak to me and show me “His tools” because mine are useless if they do not build something eternal. The list below is the foundation of my new structure.

 

What does it mean to die to self?

 

1.     Giving up your own way and getting your way (Luke 9:23).

 

2.     Accepting that you on your own cannot do it. You cannot please God on your own. Letting go of your futile efforts to “be good and holy”, so that you might live for God by abiding in Him (living in communion with Him). (Galatians 2:19)

 

3.     Accepting that if you say you are His, you died and it is no longer you who lives, but Christ lives in you. Everything good and holy coming out of you is Him, not you. Yes, even the fact that you love God, is Christ loving His Father through you. The new creature that now lives, lives by trust in the Son of God who loved you and gave Himself for you. (Galatians 2:20)

 

4.     You are ready and willing to give up everything you own. (Luke 14:33)

 

5.     You abhor sin because you died to it as a form of lifestyle. If/when it happens it breaks your heart and in sin you feel like an alien in a foreign land. Because you were baptized in Christ’s death, buried. And something else, a new creature came to life, a creature that is you, but not just you. A creature that is Ema and Jesus in one, but that Ema has not brought to life and being by some human decision one day. This creature is born of God, by God’s will and decree. (John 1:12-13). The fullness of who this creature is will one day be revealed. For now, just know that you are a child of God, through Christ and in Christ, a child of the House of the The Most High (1 John 3:2). You are no longer a slave to sin, because The One who lives in you has freed you. So, since you know this, and you know who you are, you will keep yourself pure, just as He is pure (Romans 1:1-6 and 1 John 3:3)

 

6.     You know that “living your best life now” means Christ lives and you do not fear death, because you see it as gaining what is already yours in Him. (Philippians 1:21)

 

7.    

You could sing a million songs and write thousands more pages, but you know that the true worship of God is presenting yourself daily as a living sacrifice. (Romans 12:1)

 

8.     You sacrifice your will and wants daily as if you would nail them to a cross. If you do not do this, you cannot be His disciple. (Luke 14:27)

 

9.     Because this new creature that you are, lives by trust in Christ alone, she trusts in Christ to bring fruit from her sacrifice. So, like a grain of wheat she lets her self fall into earth and die. Because she knows this is not about living her best life now and getting what she wants, it is not about her comfort here and now. She is an eternal creature, created for eternity, focusing on eternal goals. She knows she is not there yet, but she keeps pressing forward. Because where Christ is, she wants to be also (John 12:24-26 and Philippians 3:13-14)

 

10 You know the price that was paid to birth you. So, you should know that dying to sin to live for righteousness will never be too much to ask of you. (1 Peter 2:24)

 

11   You are dead and your life is hidden with Christ in God. If you have any other questions as to where you are, that’s where you are. (Colossians 3:3)"

    by Emanuela Robinson