Quote:
Originally Posted by Raptor
1: If we died with Him, we will also live with Him. This refers to having believed in the Lord. It is in past tense; we have died with Christ, not literally, but when we believed, we died in Him. To live with Him refers to the resurrection. All believers will be resurrected, it is part of the gift of eternal salvation.
|
I agree with your interpretation here but likely differ on your definition of believer. I think this promise only applies to "true" believers and not "false" believers.
A true believer will have participated with Christ's death on the cross by dying to their flesh. I am just going to share scripture on this and let it speak for itself:
Galatians 5:24
And those
who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
Romans 6:5-11
For if we have been
united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our
old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that
we would no longer be enslaved to sin.
For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him...
So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Matthew 16:25
For
whoever would save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
Dying to self is not an option because it is part of the process of being born again. As a servant cannot serve two masters so too can a man not live two lives but one must die to the old life to exchange it for a new one. This is what the sacrament of baptism represents.
Galatians 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.
The Old Testament shadow of this is circumcision on the eighth day after birth. There were seven days of the old creation so the eight day represents the first day of the new creation. The real circumcision is of the heart when we die to our flesh to make room for the Holy Spirit to live in us and we become a new creation in Christ. A true Jew is someone who is circumcised inwardly.
Romans 2:28-29
For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.
Someone who is truly born again will not be a slave to sin, including the sin of apostasy which is denying Christ.
1 John 3:9
No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God.
https://www.gotquestions.org/dying-to-self.html