Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Exuberance and joy are the way we live when we understand what the Son of God has accomplished for us; in other words, when we grasp the "truth of the gospel" (Gal. 2:5): "The death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, ... but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead" (Rom. 6:10-13; "dead" equals the second death).
How joyous we are when we realize that we've been delivered from some disaster. The more clearly you realize how you've escaped disaster through the merciful intervention of the Lord, the more ready you are to consecrate your all to Him. Now, "our beloved brother Paul" (cf. 2 Peter 3:15) is reminding us here that we have escaped hell, the second death. The fact that you live proves that. In such joy, "present yourselves to God." You will hold nothing back.
I read somewhere in an old, old book that every newborn baby is in fact "resurrected" as from eternal death--by virtue of Christ's giving of Himself. That's what He means when He says, "The bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. ... The bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world" (John 6:33, 51). That's gospel truth. The newborn baby doesn't realize it; many go all the way through life into old age and never realize it. Sometimes it may be because no one told them "the truth of the gospel."
Where is all this supposed pain, sorrow, and sacrifice in giving ourselves to the Lord Jesus instead of to the world?
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: August 21, 2006.
Copyright © 2015 by "Dial Daily Bread."
