The issues of life and death, like all Scriptures and truths of the Lord, are hidden from those not yet given the gift of faith and the accompanying eyes to see and ears to hear. Becoming grounded on some basic principles, such as the topic of death, is essential to growing in understanding. May these words help those few the Lord may lead to read them.
Pete & Ronel
Dying to Death
All men are PURPOSEFULLY born in marred vessels of clay so the Lord can remake us into a new mold in His image on His timeline. Nothing we experience is wasted, it is all the work of the potter.
Jer 18:3 Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels.
Jer 18:4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.
Jer 18:5 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
Jer 18:6 O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.
We are born into sin and thus begin the lives of every man. As clay in the potter’s hand, the false doctrine of free will is readily destroyed by the truth.
Psa 51:5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Rom 3:12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
We will naturally remain this way until our time of reformation comes and we begin our transformation into the image of God. This is the process of salvation and the same said as being “our journey from death unto life”. Paul’s words of the helplessness of Romans 7, expressing every man’s journey to be righteous under their own strength (i.e the law) segues into the freedom and new life described in Romans 8. Abiding in death, stuck in a prison, and bound to the law we first await Christ.
Rom 7:5 For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.
When Christ comes He delivers us and sets us free from the law and the death that the law of sin and death (carnal mindedness) brings.
Rom 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
The law of sin and death is the same as the law of Moses and also the same as the law of the Gentiles. Simply put, this law is what all carnally minded people are under. Yet do not despair because all mankind is ignorant and oblivious to their plight until the Lord comes and sets them free from the resulting bondage that is also spiritual death.
Heb 2:14 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;
Heb 2:15 And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
We begin to be transformed from death and having the mind of our father the devil, unto newness of life, having the mind of Christ. This is our salvation and takes a three-day spiritual journey to complete. The last enemy to be destroyed to complete the transformation is death. This is the death of our carnal mind that has kept us in bondage all our lives.
Rom 8:6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
1Co 15:25-26 For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
The Lord who holds the keys to life and death, considers physical death to be the same as sleeping [Joh 11:11, Dan 12:2, etc]. The Lord’s words are Spirit and life and speak to great mysteries that only few are given to understand.
1Co 2:10 But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
Joh 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
Our dying to the Lord is our dying to death. This is subjecting our carnal mind to the will of God and following the Spirit by the law of faith. That is how newness of life is found and how we are being raised with Christ in the resurrection. Christ speaks and acts in parables but most like Martha are only able to see the physical or outward application.
Joh 11:25 Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:
Joh 11:26 And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?
Dying to death is also known as the “second death” which every man will fulfill in their appointed time. We experience and fulfill all the Scriptures, living by every word. All those experiences are indeed ours [1Cor 3:21] to fulfill and many err by taking things out of the book as not applicable to them. Dying to death comes to a head in our day of the Lord, when the Lord comes a second time for judgment and salvation.
Heb 9:27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:
Heb 9:28 So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.
The consummation of salvation is our being given our crowns which is the mind of Christ that is peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. When the Lord first comes to us, we will be found dead in our sins and trespasses. This is the fate of all men naturally born in marred bodies of flesh that cannot help but sin. The Lord has His ways to correct us and remake us through the fiery experience of His judgments.
Exo 32:33 And the LORD said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book.
In our day of the Lord, the new man is brought forth as the old man and our carnal way of thinking dies under the fire of God’s jealousies. All men have sinned without exceptions and thus are blotted out from spiritual life until their appointed time comes. The time comes for our day of the Lord when we find ourselves in the lake of fire, experience the second death, and thus are being saved!
Rev 20:14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
Rev 20:15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life[i.e. all who sin who have been blotted out at first] was cast into the lake of fire.
The second death and our resurrection are one in the same event we experience. Think of a two-sided coin and know that the Scriptures are speaking about His two witnesses which are the old man and the new man. Both the carnal old man and the spiritual new man are clay in the potter’s hands. He is molding and shaping us on His schedule and by this process, we die to death at the same time newness of life is brought forth.
Rom 6:4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Rom 6:5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:
In this consuming fire [Heb 12:29] that is the Lord, we are being quickened and in due time are overcoming our flesh. As we progress, we are able to look behind ourselves and see our deliverance from the ways of the world which is ruled by the spirit of Satan or said another way carnal mindedness.
Eph 2:1 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
Eph 2:2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
Our flesh does not go willingly to its death. It resists the ways of the Spirit until it is brought into subjection. The Lord prevails when our time has come and we are freed from the law of sin and death and separated from the carnally minded by our faith.
Gal 5:17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
Gal 5:18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
We should earnestly pray that we grow in the faith. The challenges of living in this carnal world but not being of it, get bigger the further we walk, yet the Lord will equip us with the faith and temperament to bear it.
