Carl was battling cancer and needed a double lung transplant. He asked God for new lungs but felt odd doing so. He confessed it’s a strange thing to pray, because “someone has to die so I might live.”
Carl’s dilemma highlights a basic truth of Scripture: God uses death to bring life. We see this in the story of the exodus. Born into slavery, the Israelites languished under the oppressive hands of the Egyptians. Pharaoh wouldn’t release his grip until God made it personal. Every eldest son would die unless the family killed a spotless lamb and slathered its blood across their doorposts (Exodus 12:6–7, 12–13).
Today, you and I have been born into the bondage of sin. Satan wouldn’t release his grip on us until God made it personal, sacrificing His perfect Son on the blood-spattered arms of the cross.
Jesus calls us to join Him there. Paul explained, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). When we put our faith in God’s spotless Lamb, we commit to daily dying with Him—dying to our sin so we might rise with Him to new life (Romans 6:4–5). We express this faith every time we say no to the shackles of sin and yes to the freedom of Christ. We’re never more alive than when we die with Jesus.
