The Invitation/ Perfected/ Made Rapture-Ready

The Philadelphian Will Be Willing to Pick Up Their Cross

2 Cor 1:9-10 July 1, 1992

Of the seven letters which Jesus dictated to the apostle John in Revelation 2 & 3 the letter to those who fellowshipped together in the Asia Minor city of Philadelphia shines above all the rest. For those early Christians Christ has nothing but love, admiration and approval because among other things they “loved the truth and did not deny his name.”

Because of Jesus’ unqualified love for the Philadelphians and the brand of faith they held, it is good and reasonable for today’s believer to use their faith, just as Paul urged believers to follow his example, as a mirror of their own hopes and faith. To be invited to this great kind of faith is the greatest calling and a wonderful privilege, but it costs everything, including trust and hope in our own “life”. Those who seek the same approval given by the Lord and Savior to the Philadelphians will surely have “the sentence of death working in them”, the same sentence Paul declared to the Galatians which was at work constantly in him.

“But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead:
who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he yet will deliver us.” 2 Cor.1:9-10 KJV

At first we are confused by Paul’s claim – what sentence of death? But if we consider the full gospel as spoken by Jesus and recorded by the Epistles we can begin to understand about this “sentence of death” through the eyes of faith. Jesus said, “And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.” Matt. 10:38-39. Anyone who gives another interpretation to Jesus’ words, other than dying to self and the fleshly concerns that are held in common by all people, need look no further than the dozens of proclamations in the Epistles to understand that Jesus was talking about dying to “self’. Perhaps the clearest wording about the reality of believers dying to self comes from Paul again when he said, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” Gal. 2:20.

If the born-again Christian is to be free, that is, really free, in this life, then he must be delivered from sins, from worldly concerns, from fears, and from false hopes; he must be dead to lust, selfishness, and pride. It cannot be done through our own determination or by following a system of rules or laws, the only way to be free is to give up, to “die” to self. We must give up our ambitions and carnal aspirations, and anything else one can think of that is associated with selfishness, so we can walk in the Spirit, a realm, the only realm, in which a person can live a truly pleasing life to God. What greater example can there be than the Lord himself who literally gave up his life for us. His call to the Philadelphia Faith asks that the prospective Philadelphian “spiritually” give up his “will”, and by this sentence of death, give over his life to him completely.

Death and Resurrection symbolic of Water Baptism
Is this not the real purpose and meaning of the ceremony of water baptism? Jesus himself had it done to him to show he was willing to die to his own will and we now show our obedience to this call by sinking in the watery grave with Jesus so that we can be raised up in his faith and life. This is an action, no – better called a declaration of faith, whereby we wish to die to self. Colossians 2:12&13 says we are, “Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead. And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses.” Water baptism is a statement of an obvious fact. Death must precede a resurrection. If we are to live in the resurrected life of Christ we must first die. If we wish to do someone else’s will other than our own, we must die to our will? This cannot be a mere theoretical or theological consent; it must be done in all reality, in all actuality. Jesus said time and time again that he did not come to do his own will but his Father’s which is in heaven. Dying to self is about that simple. One particular time Jesus was told that his kin were outside and wanted to see him. His direct reply to the request was, “My mother and my brethren are these which hear the word of God and do it.” Luke 8:21 This is a pronouncement of absolute obedience. This is doing, not merely pronouncing some decree of untested faith.

Dying to self should be simple to understand. But we try to sidestep it by the rationale of fine religious distinction. But it cannot be done within the confines of the Full and True Gospel of Jesus Christ as revealed in the infallible pages of the Bible. By faith we hear the Good Shepherd, and in obedience we do his will and not our own, simple as that. And that, Philadelphians and prospective Philadelphians, is the reason and way to dying-to-self.

It is simple to understand. The incredibly hard part is having a sentence of death worked in us. But the Holy Ghost is faithful to do this “operation of God” for us, if, and only if, we will allow Him to perform it. If we have faith that God’s power of love is great enough to perform a death in us, as the sign of water baptism shows, then we can be free. Not until this happens, however, can we be free to move on in our journey to perfection, for spiritual perfection requires we be ‘dead’. The Bible tells us in Romans that only the dead are free from sin. Without faith it is impossible to please God; because anything that is not of faith is sin and faith is demanded if spiritual perfection in Christ is to be achieved. Therefore if we want to go on unto perfection (as Hebrews six suggests) in our journey to bride-ship of Christ we must die in order to be free from sin, free to live in the Spirit, free to live by faith. Then we can be raised up in the likeness of Christ, to the resurrected life, having our worldly and carnal desires and aspirations converted into His spiritual will by believing and trusting in the Spirit of Christ to manufacture this in us. We can be perfect in that we are freed up to “hear the word of God and do it”.