The concept of “dying to self” is something I bet most of us in evangelical circles are fairly used to hearing. I know I have heard it countless times, which puts in the category of accepted essentials. The story goes that if you really truly are a follower of the Lord Jesus, then you gotta “die to yourself”. And best do it daily. But what does it mean, and how are we supposed to do it?
When you try to look up this term in the Bible, it is nowhere to be found! What you will find, however, are passages such as these:
- “For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with” (Romans 6:6)
- “So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another” (Romans 7:4)
- “For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3)
Did you notice the highlighted past tenses? Anyone who has put their trust in Jesus has ALREADY died! How can we die to ourselves after we have already been declared dead? Doesn’t work. No one can die any harder than they already have. Dead is dead, period.
What does it mean to “die daily” then? Maybe the idea comes from Jesus saying we must take up our crosses daily, which seems to imply we are to go to Golgotha and die every day. But if we are already dead, what does this mean?
Being dead, we are to start living in line with our deadness (are you confused yet?).
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20)
It is impossible to TRY to die to ourselves every day. How would you even know if you’d made it? Can you be half-dead? That’s all based on our hopeless efforts, and we’d surely fail. We don’t die because of something we do, but because of what Jesus did for us. It also makes no sense, because we have ALREADY died.
But what we can do is to allow the truth about our real state to take over in our lives. We can acknowledge king Jesus’ rightful place on the throne, allowing our deadness to mean that Jesus now lives for real in the dead us.
We don’t need to strive to become something we are not, as if trying to do something we can’t will make a difference. Just accept the truth that you are dead already, and that Jesus now is your life 100%. We learn to “put off the old” and “put on the new” not by doing something that hasn’t already happened, but rather by acting in line with the fact.
