"You're dead to me."

So my son and I have this thing we do: if I need him to do something for me, and he can’t or won’t, I say to him, “Fine. You are dead to me.” Now anyone who knows me, even a little, knows that this a lie. It’s just a little poking of the fun at him and he says the same thing back to me. The truth is, that statement could not be farther from the truth – I would never feel that way towards him, or speak those words to him in anything but jest. He’s too important to me, I love him way too much to not want him in my life, every minute of my life. I mean, c’mon: I made him. I love him more than I love my own life and that will never change.

You may have heard these words, you are dead to me before; maybe in a movie, like The Godfather or some other tribal-situation movie or TV show, in a book, or unfortunately, you may have heard these words spoken to someone – or maybe you’ve had them spoken to you.

The truth is, the meaning behind this phrase is very serious. It indicates that someone is being ostracized – rejected from a group due to some offense or transgression. Often, the group doing the ostracizing is to treat this person as if they were dead – never born, doesn’t exist. Um, wow, that’s pretty harsh, right?

And yet, as I begin reading Romans Ch. 6, this is the phrase that keeps coming to my mind. Paul reminds the Romans that, though they were once slaves to sin, they have now died to sin and the power it held over them. In Romans 6:4-6, Paul reminds the Romans,

For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives. Since we have been united with Him in His death, we will also be raised to life as He was. We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin.

Our old selves.

So if our old selves died with Christ, why do they still hang around? Why am I still tempted to sin – monthly, weekly, daily, even hourly some days? What is the deal?

I’ve read lots of really great commentary on this idea of the old man and how we are to deal with him. Here are two take-aways that really spoke to me about my old man:

1. While we are not slaves to our old man nor slaves to sin once we are in Christ, as humans we are still vulnerable to our old man. We live in a fallen and very sinful world. The truth is, we will never be completely rid of sin in our lives until we leave this broken world for the next, glorious one. We will be tempted to sin – even Jesus was tempted to sin while He was on earth!

But, Friends, there is a big difference between being tempted to sin, committing a sin, falling short of the glory of God vs continuing in a lifestyle of sin. A lifestyle of sin indicates our old man is still alive and well! When we died and were raised to life with Christ, we became new. We aren’t refurbished or regenerated, we are brand, spanking new!

2 Corinthians 5:17 reminds us of this very thing:

This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!

New life in Christ means different decisions, righteous living, paying attention to our new life and remembering that our old man has passed away. Will we be tempted to sin, even in this new life? Well, unfortunately, yes; but our lifestyle should be one where Christ is the center and we are constantly being refined and set apart to be like Him and to bring others to Him.

2. A mistake many of us make is forgetting that our old man is dead. No longer do we battle with him, trying to push him down, trying to stop his voices in our heads, etc. Nope! Not necessary! Why? Because he is DEAD TO US!! When Jesus Christ took His last breath, so did our old man! We don’t battle him because we’ve already experienced victory in Christ over him and sin’s hold on us! Hallelujah! We, as new creatures in Christ, only make the decision, daily, to remember that our old man is dead and we are alive in Jesus!

So the next time your old man decides to speak up in your life and mine, hold out your hand and say,

Dude, shut it – you’re dead to me! You no longer exist, I don’t even remember who you are! I have no relationship with or responsibility to you!

Wow! I could shout! Friends, there is such freedom in that!

I want to leave you today with a beautiful passage in Romans 6 that is very near and dear to me right now. It begins with Paul continuing his theme of remembering we are no longer under the power of sin and ends with a call to go all in for Jesus. Check Romans 6:12-14 out:

Do not let sin control the way you live, do not give in to sinful desires. Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you live a new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God. Sin is no longer your master, for you are no longer under the requirements of the Law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace.

Wow. This verse stirs up so many images in my mind. What if we each began each day, saying,

“God, today, take my body and use it as an instrument to bring you glory.”

What if each one of us was willing to go all in – to offer ourselves as living sacrifices to the glory of God? What if we cared less about our trials and troubles, but saw them as an opportunity to bring glory to the Father?

What if, instead of allowing feelings of worry and dread to overtake our minds and hearts when trouble comes, we allowed ourselves to be opened and poured out for the kingdom? What if we cared more about ministering to others and sharing Jesus than our own personal comfort?

It's a high calling for sure, and one that I don’t take lightly. But here’s the thing: at the end of the day, I want to be that open vessel. I want to be the one that’s willing to even sacrifice my very body so that maybe someone else can meet Jesus.

And it’s scary and nerve-wracking and all the things, but I’m convinced that it’s the way we get to the secret place with Jesus. Philippians 3:10 says, "I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised Him from the dead. I want to suffer with Him, sharing in His death."

I’m not exactly sure how this works and if I’m really up for it, but the truth is, I want all of Jesus. I so badly want to know Him. And if suffering helps me discover more of Him, then, with trembling hands and lips, I say so be it. I will offer all of me – even my body, if necessary – to God and watch a fire ignite in the kingdom like we’ve never seen before.

These are the days of the higher calling, Friends; these are the days where the cost of truly following Christ may seem high by the world’s standards, but where the more we lay down, the more glory God gets. And, y’all He deserves all the glory I can bring Him and there’s a world of hurting, dying people out there that need a chance to know Him.