I remember hearing this quote many years ago. As time passed, I completely forgot about it. Recently I saw it again in an email from my dad. The "in-your-face" truth of this quote quite simply overwhelmed me.
I really doubt whether Bonhoeffer ever thought about the impact what he said would have on people. In his book The Cost of Discipleship he says "The first call which every Christian experiences is the call to abandon the attachments of this world." I think these two quotes fit together very well and are completely back by scripture. II Corinthians 5:21 says "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." This is a perfect example of Jesus following the call of his father, and indeed dying. The bible also speaks liberally about forsaking sin and the world for Christ.
In studying and thinking about all this, it made me question what exactly we are giving up for Christ. Obviously we are supposed to give up sin. But what else? Are we willing to have God use us wherever and whenever? Or just when it is convenient for us? Are we willing to do whatever it takes to reach a lost soul for Christ, or only when it is comfortable for us. Are we willing to give up everything we have for the cause of Christ? Are we actually willing to DIE for Christ?
Quite honestly, I don't see this in Christians today. I don't even see it in myself. Today, we are worried about how the world accepts us. The same world we were called to witness to. We are worried about the amount of money we make. When we are called to follow a God who didn't even own a place to lie down. We are worried about offending a person by trying to witness to them. When the Christ we follow was more worried about souls than his own popularity. We are worried about our friends, when we were commanded to forsake all and follow Christ.
There is a wonderful verse in John 3:30 that covers all of this. "He must increase, I must decrease." Decrease, who would have ever thought that we were supposed to be less than Christ? We certainly don't act like it.
This is the conclusion I came to while pondering all of this. Yes, Christ may ask us to physically give up our lives for His cause. But isn't it also possible that all he wants from us is our "life"? I'm talking about our literal day to day life. Can we each find it in ourselves to daily die to ourselves? I say ourselves, because we are usually what gets in the way of us following Him.
Dying to self is not something that happens overnight, or even after a few months. Although we are made in the image of Christ, there is still a human and selfish side of us. Dying to self is a daily, hourly, minute-by-minute process. It takes commitment. I don't know if it gets easier the longer you do it, I'm not there yet. But I do know that is what is required of us.
So ask yourself, as I ask myself; are we willing to come and die? Are we willing to give up our identity, wants, and everything else just to serve Christ? No one said being a Christian is easy. But it is satisfying and most of all, redemptive.
Philippians 1:21 says, "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." If I could only reach that place in my spiritual life, where I count it as a joy and a gain to actually die for Christ.
So join me. Let's die for Christ. He did for us.
