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Overview
In a world that entices people to chase happiness and be self-centered, Hayley and Michael DiMarco take a stand for the truth. Living for yourself, they say, will destroy you. The only path to real life is through death—a death to self that frees people to live with the fearless love and rock-solid hope that Jesus intended.
Based on the premise that the gospel turns life upside down, the DiMarcos explain the paradoxes that result: death is the new life; less is the new more; weak is the new strong; slavery is the new freedom. Their relatable, contemporary style packs a solid biblical punch, as they examine what the life and death of Christ means for those who have given their lives to him. This book will give readers a vision to dig deeper and bury themselves in Christ and to find contentment, safety, freedom, and victory in living for him.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781433530609 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Crossway |
| Publication date: | 01/31/2012 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 192 |
| File size: | 1 MB |
About the Author
Hayley DiMarco is the best-selling author of over 30 books, including God Girl, Mean Girls, and Die Young. She and her husband, Michael, run Hungry Planet, a company focused on producing books that combine hard-hitting biblical truth with cutting-edge design in Nashville, Tennessee.
Michael DiMarco is the author of multiple books including God Guy and All In. He and his wife, Hayley, run Hungry Planet, a company focused on producing books that combine hard-hitting biblical truth with cutting-edge design in Nashville, Tennessee.
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
DEATH IS THE NEW LIFE
Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
MATTHEW 10:39
God's will is sweetest to us, when it triumphs at our cost.
FABER
Life is good. Who doesn't want more life? The end of life is something no one wants to think about and something everyone wants to avoid. The fountain of youth, should it exist, would be the busiest water feature in the world if it could truly make us live forever. Human beings want to live; they don't want to die. Death is a permanent end to life as we know it and often comes after excruciating pain.
Losing your life tears you out of your body and your world, and that idea can scare even the bravest of souls. Death is ugly. It weakens our bodies and sucks out our energy. The deathbed is a sad and tragic place for those who love the dying. And so death is something we all want to avoid as long as possible.
Incredibly, in the beginning when God created the parents, he gave them their own source of youth in the garden. It was the Tree of Life. And they could eat from it anytime they wanted. And the fruit they ate gave them what the name suggests — life without death. Paradise. They had no fear of an end because there was no end in sight. But when Adam and Eve wanted more than just life, through the knowledge of good and evil that the tree by the same name offered, they ate of the forbidden fruit, and their sin led to death for us all. Romans 5:17 confirms that death when it says, "Because of one man's trespass [Adam], death reigned through that one man." And the result has been the decay of humanity ever since. In fact, as soon as humans stop growing, they start dying.
Now because of this series of events seen in the life of man, we now know the result of sin to be death (Rom. 6:23). Death takes over when sin gives it access to the life of the sinner. Sin starts the decaying process. Sin, while it seemingly offers immediate and great reward, ultimately puts the sinner into a bondage that weakens and eventually destroys.
HIS DEATH IS YOUR LIFE
But that's not the end of the story. Just as one man's sin led to death for all mankind, so one man's death led to life for all of mankind (Rom. 5:19). In a weird twist of events, death becomes life in one fell swoop, when by dying on that cross Jesus redeemed us all from the bondage of sin and death. It goes like this: "Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life"(Rom. 6:3–4). And there it is — death is the new life.
See, God offered the death of his Son on the cross in order to remove the power of death from you and to give you a new life, one free from the wages of sin. In this new life you are set free from the bondage of the world that so easily threatens to destroy you. Through death, the death of Jesus, you can say with Paul: "The world has been crucified to me, and I to the world" (Gal. 6:15). When the world no longer holds the power to harm or control you because you have died to it, you are set free and a new life is the result.
HERE LIES
HAYLEY
It's not that I fear death itself but the pain that leads up to it. And I am certain that in the area of natural disaster, pain is going to take over my life, and that's why I'm naturally scared of flying and of tornadoes, hurricanes, and earthquakes. These catastrophic events scare me to death. I love the thought of heaven and I can understand the glory of that life, but the road to death is a scary one. And so my instinct is to obsess over potential disaster, and I naturally panic when that potential looms. So any thought of death isn't something that comes naturally or effortlessly to me, but something that I've had to learn to embrace over time and through faith.
His death, then, allows for your death. As it says in 2 Corinthians 5:14–15, "One has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised."
His death is the one and only thing that allows you to no longer live for yourself. This movement from death to life isn't one of human strength or ingenuity but of cross and blood, of Father and Son, of power and might.
In Galatians 2:19–21 this idea takes form in the words, "For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose." If righteousness, or the death we are talking about, was through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. Those are some powerful words.
No one who believes in the saving work of the cross would dare say that Christ's death was pointless. But that is what we do when we work toward salvation or death in our own power, when we respond to the pangs of guilt that tell us we are too bad to be good, too selfish to die young. Those are the lies of the Devil and need to be treated as such. In your own strength you can do none of this. Dying to self is too powerful, too supernatural for a person to do without the power of someone who is greater. But through the power of the Holy Spirit in you, this death is attainable. Up to this point, if you haven't walked away from yourself, if you are feeling overwhelmed with the whole idea, then take heart. That is as it should be; you cannot do this on your own — and thank God, because if you could, then he wouldn't be God at all, but a mere accessory to your spiritual life. God is essential to all your life, especially your death life.
YOUR SELF DEATH
So death becomes, for the believer, a valuable concept, both in the Savior's death and our own. The Savior's death is crucial in the life of faith. Without the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ there isn't a Christian. His death is your life. But what about your own death? How does dying young affect the lives of believers, and why is this concept the focus of a book? While it sounds counterintuitive to many, let's see how biblically intuitive it is, "For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live" (Rom. 8:13).
See the correlation? Those who live according to the flesh — self — will die. But, those who live by the Spirit of God put self to death and thus live. Death becomes life for the believer who makes life a living sacrifice by refusing to serve, or live for, the flesh with all its "needs," complaints, wants, and desires.
Jesus explains it to us this way: "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?" (Luke 9:23–25).
Talk about backward. Lose your life by denying yourself daily, and then and only then can you find it? Fight to save your self-life and you end up miserable and losing it? Huh? But this is the paradox of faith. Death is the new life.
Death is painful. It's invasive and ultimately dangerous. Death threatens a part of you, if not all of you. And it brings suffering and struggle along with it. But when you can see that the death of self in you results in life, you can be set free to suffer and to suffer well. In fact, all the suffering that you face at the hands of your self-death is the suffering of progress (some might say sanctification). It's like the weight lifter, whose muscles pull and tear, whose body aches and throbs at the end of the day, who doesn't suffer from the resentment of pain but the welcome of it, knowing that pain is doing its work. The weightlifter looks beyond the painful muscles to the goal of the pain — growth — and because of that the suffering is welcomed. Welcomed suffering, with a clear goal of growth, is somehow less difficult to endure than unwelcome or purposeless suffering.
In this world you will face suffering, there is no question, but it's what you do with your suffering and pain that matters. To suffer and to refuse to let the suffering destroy in you that which separates you from God is to waste your suffering and even prolong it. Suffering has a very important role in the life of man. In matters of the spirit suffering teaches us more than happiness ever could. And nowhere is the value of suffering and trials given more explanation than in James 1:2–4 where we are told to "count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."
The trials and suffering of your life offer you the opportunity to die, and sometimes they make you want to die. But suffering is senseless, and so is the pain that goes along with it, if it serves no other purpose than to destroy you. Here's the rub: it must destroy something, and it's your choice what that will be. Will suffering destroy your hope and your faith, leaving you with nothing solid to stand on, alone and empty, or will your suffering destroy the parts of you that tie you to the things of this earth and keep your focus off the God of heaven?
If you believe that death is the new life, then you have to know that you will face trials, you will suffer; but those trials and suffering, now mean something, having a value placed on them, and so will become significantly easier to handle. In fact, when death is your new life, death loses its sting. And this is important because death will come, but how much suffering it will bring depends on your ideas about death. The apostle Paul thought about this death like this, "I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us" (Rom. 8:18).
So suffering, though it is unpleasant and exhausting, is really nothing compared with what is coming. That's the state of mind you have to have when you consider dying young — when you consider putting aside your own wants, likes, preferences, passions, dreams, and desires — all for the will of God. When you say no to the things you used to say yes to, when you accept trials as an important part of the life of faith, and when you know the life that comes from the death they bring to you, then it all becomes easier to bear. If you fear death, then death has a grip on you. Just as fearing another human being tightens his or her grip on you, so death does the same. That's why we look to find perspective about death and life, dying to self and living for self, so that we can be free from the bondage of fear. That bondage is a false one for those who have accepted the death and resurrection of Christ as their salvation, because through his death he would destroy "the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery" (Heb. 2:14–15).
The fear of death is a lifelong and unnecessary slavery. What a tragedy, when that slavery has already been broken by the gift of Jesus's death — a death that we are to model when we bury our "selves" in him and experience freedom from fear.
So for the believer your welcomed death becomes your new life of freedom. Now let's consider the life that comes when you die young and embrace the life of Christ in you.
THE LIFE OF THE DEAD
We've established up to this point that life comes out of death. So now let's talk about what kind of life comes out of death. To die young is to be free — free from the bondage to sin, to pain, and even at times, to suffering. But to die young with the goal of attaining anything other than complete abandonment to the Father is not death at all but a return to the self-life. There are changes that come to the soul that abandons itself to the control of the Holy Spirit, and these changes are worth considering; but we list these not so that you will have them in mind when you die young or as your reason to die, but so that you can grab hold of the importance of the death that no longer responds to self but solely to the promptings of the Holy Spirit.
THE LIFE OF CONTENTMENT
Contentment is something everyone craves and we remain discontent until we get it. This is insanity, especially since discontentment is so selfish and depressing. When we are discontent, we look at what we have around us and decide that it isn't what we expected or deserved. It's subpar, and with that assessment we have two unholy responses to choose from: we can either choose to give up or to get going.
To give up is to settle in to the boredom and meaninglessness of life and to accept the fact that we will never get what we want or be who we want to be. In this state, discontentment is the status quo, and as such, it peppers every aspect of our lives. It ultimately leads to feelings of regret, resentment, bitterness, depression, anger, and even fear — all not only uncomfortable feelings but also sinful ones. They are sinful because of what they say about God. If anything you think carries with it the accusation that God messed up, neglected you, is a bad gifter, or is in some way unfaithful to his Word that promises he will never leave you or forsake you, will provide for you, will comfort you, will be everything you need and more, then you are calling him a liar and an unholy God. This carries with it the sting and stench of sin that threatens to destroy not only your faith but also your hope and your peace.
Let's take a look at the other way many respond to their discontentment and that is to choose to get going. In this response, the discontented get to work to change their environments, to change their lives in order to get to that which they dreamed, hoped, or imagined would be their lives. Their passion, their directive, their drive is set on achievement, on making something happen. This is the stuff of late-night infomercials. Their focus shifts from the God who makes things happen to themselves who make things happen. And in this subtle shift, self becomes the god who is followed, obeyed, and worshiped.
When you die young, discontentment loses its punch because discontentment requires the elevation of self to a place where more than is given is required, where good enough isn't good enough, and where imperfection is bothersome, if not depressing. But the death of self removes self from the picture and replaces it with the Father. With him on the throne, contentment is the only response, because the life you live isn't bent on pleasing self but on pleasing him. Pleasing him is easy when it comes to what you have been given, because all it requires is thankfulness and trust that what he has given is the best thing for you. You can know this because of who he is. His attributes confirm that he is not only perfect in all his ways, but kind, faithful, all-powerful, all-knowing, and love itself. When life doesn't turn out the way you thought, when what you have isn't what you wanted, you can remind yourself that both good and bad come from God (Lam. 3:38). If he has given it to you, then you can be certain that it is for your benefit, if only you will accept it as such and allow it to do the work of removing you from the throne of your life.
The secret is that dying young leads to contentment because it sees life as designed and orchestrated by God himself, meant to perfect those he loves and to draw them away from sin and toward holiness and his perfection. When you die young, circumstances and stuff matter less because self no longer demands to be pleased but to serve the one who pleases (Eccles. 2:26).
THE LIFE OF SANCTIFICATION
Now, let's look at the sanctification that comes with death. The life of faith requires death in order for it to come into existence and then grow. Your salvation required the death of Christ, and your sanctification means the death of the part of you that clings to things that God rejects. Sanctification is the process that begins on the day of conversion through the power of the Holy Spirit (2 Thess. 2:13) and continues for the rest of your life. You were made as an image bearer of God. But sin distorts that image, like a twisted funhouse mirror. Sanctification is the process that removes that distortion so that you better reflect the image of Christ, and it requires little of you really — little more than the death of self we are talking about — because as you quit relying on yourself for life, you quit relying on yourself to take part in your own salvation. Your demise frees you from the job of savior in your own life and puts it squarely on Christ's shoulders on the cross. All human efforts to self-soothe, to comfort, to provide, to rescue ourselves from the effects of sin and misery is wasted effort that results in the sin of pride. This thought that through your own strength you can change your life, change your surroundings, change your circumstances, for a time may lead to change, but it ultimately leaves you in the same self-obsessed state you were born in.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Die Young"
by .
Copyright © 2012 Hungry Planet, LLC, Published in association with Yates & Yates.
Excerpted by permission of Good News Publishers.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Prologue 12
Introduction: To Die Young Is to Live 16
1 Death Is the New Life 20
2 Down Is the New Up 42
3 Less Is the New More 74
4 Weak Is the New Strong 98
5 Slavery Is the New Freedom 118
6 Confession Is the New Innocence 138
7 Red Is the New White 158
About the Authors 175
Sources 177