R.I.P.

By Rick Mathes

Colossians 3:3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

We didn’t as believers realize we were dead and hell-bound until we died: died to sin that is. Our world turned upside down as we stepped away from the old life and began walking the exciting adventure of the new life that lay ahead of us. I visualize my life as walking down the main street of the Lord’s Disneyland with one place after another of fun evangelism and ministering. Life began and continues to be going from one joyful experience to another in the endless narrow road to heaven and holiness. It was like I stepped out onto a different planet when I turned my back on my old employer, the devil and signed up to be a soldier in the Lord’s army.

Adam was the first-created of the flesh and Jesus was the first-born of the Spirit. The first Adam gave us death and the second Adam gave us life: a resurrected life. I love the metamorphosis of a caterpillar as it turns into a butterfly. It proves that the ugly old self that crawled in the dust could rise to a new level of beauty in the blue skies and beyond.

When you exceed your level of worldly incompetence and rise to His level of excellence, you are elevated to new heights that can make your head spin in His glorious wonders. The protection of being His shatters the bars of the iron cage and breaks the steel cuffs. The captives are set free and protected by the Cross of Christ.

Get off your throne. You are not your own god. Now you are Christ-centered and all within and around you are filtered through Him. You died so that you may finally live in His image and likeness as you were created to be in the first place. It’s this hope that keeps you focused on your life ahead of you and beyond. I love to vacation with my wife and it is especially memorable to me because I have stepped away from alcohol and drugs. My lives now has moved from black and white snapshots of shameful memories to a future in widescreen color and surround sound.

There was a dark side in my life where it seemed death would be my only relief: death to the flesh. I never suspected that the death He had in mind for me was death to the world so that I might rise in the Spirit of His life.