I believe that he died that I might be like him — die to any ruling power in me but the will of God — live ready to be nailed to the cross as he was, if God wills it.

Now, I don’t expect that anyone in my lifetime is going to want to nail me literally to a cross. I know the disciples, and many of Jesus’s early followers, faced that threat, and some were indeed tortured and killed for the cause of Christ.  And I am thankful that I have never been put in a position of possibly having to recant my faith in weakness in order to avoid physical pain and/or death.  So can we still learn something from the death of Jesus that would be applicable to our daily walk with him?  Yes.

Jesus didn’t die because he couldn’t stop his attackers.  And he didn’t die because God was making him go through it.  He died because he wanted to go through it.  He wanted us to see him go through it. While his death was real and brought the same agony and emotions that we would encounter, the meaning of his death teaches us a greater lesson.

He died because it was God’s will.  He knew that God could remove him at any time.  But he also knew that God had a plan and a purpose.  Jesus’s role on this earth was to follow that plan and fulfill God’s purpose.  All of it was put into place for our benefit.

Each day we go through many life-and-death decisions.  I don’t mean “should I step in front of that speeding truck or not?”  I mean “Is this next thing before me what God wants me to do?”  What is he telling me?  My self may be leaning in another direction due to SELFishness. When Self persuades me to do something that will harm me or others, then Self must die.

Don’t worry.  It’s not a permanent death, because Self always comes back to life for the next challenge. This decision-making goes on for a long time until Self is gradually transformed into Will — God’s will.

I live in a free country where my belief in God and Christ does not come into conflict with a ruling power who can end my life or ruin my way of life.  But I realize that there are many Christians in other parts of the world where fighting daily temptations is the least of their worries.

What we may not realize, however, is that, by living daily to please God and saying “no” to the taunts of disobedience, we are supporting their cause.  We have joined with them in the body of Christ.  We also may not realize that, while they are facing physical threats for their belief, they are actually praying for our struggles daily.  This is because they belong to the same body of Christ.

The Apostle Paul wrote, “To me, the only important thing about living is Christ.  And even death would be for my benefit.”  Philippians 1:21 (ERV)

This hope and life/death dynamic is what binds Christian believers together the world over.

Or so it should be.