Every winter without fail, farmers burn their fields. I’m sure you’ve driven along the highway and noticed burning patches in the distance, some as close as the barrier. Ever wonder why? Well, for new, fresh grass to grow in the summer, the old needs to die. Some species of trees drop seeds while burning, producing more fruit. This concept seems redundant, right? Why grow new grass when the old is perfectly fine? Although the old grass works well in summer when the sun is shining, as soon as winter hits, it dies. If the farmers didn’t burn it, next summer you’d have a bunch of dead grass lying around with no room for the new ones to grow.
Deny ourselves
This reminds me of the Biblical paradox: dying to live. We read in Romans 6:11 that to be alive in Christ we need to die to ourselves. Just as the old grass needs to be burnt for fresh grass to grow, we as people need to die from the old and be made new in Christ.
This brings us to another question, “How do I die to myself?” No one says it better than Christ Himself when in Matthew 16:24 He said, “Deny yourself and take up your cross”. The biggest step in dying to self is to deny your flesh. We have to leave behind every single worldly thing that we hold tightly to and take up our cross (dying to self). This is contradictory to everything the world stands for: you need to love yourself, you matter, you’re the main character, you do you, it’s your world and everyone is living in it. Do these sound familiar? Sadly, these ideas are being bought by professing Christians, who don’t have a clear understanding of what the Bible says. Some might even take Bible verses out of context to justify this thought. 1 John 4:8, Song of Solomon 4:7, Mark 12:31, and Psalm 139:14 are just a few examples of this. It feels good to love ourselves and that’s why we all do, but God clearly says we need to die to ourselves. God’s not saying, “It’s up to you,” or, “If you want to.” No, He says, “Deny yourself.”
New in Christ
But here’s the good news: we are made new in Christ. The old is gone and the new has come. Remember that old grass that needed to die? Well, we are officially the fresh, green, crisp grass growing in the soil. It is now when God becomes the focus. John the Baptist said, “He must increase, but I must decrease” in John 3:30. We are now new creations and therefore we have new desires, new thoughts, and new ideas. How exciting!
So, in conclusion, what is dying to live? It’s when we deny ourselves and take up our cross (dying to self) and are made new in Christ (alive in Him). So, in denying yourself you have everything to gain. We see this modeled so beautifully in the life of Christ. He denied Himself to the point of death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:8.) Because He denied Himself first, we now have eternal life. Would you rather lose Christ and gain the world, or lose the world and gain everything Christ so freely offers?