The Path To Life.....

To be baptized with His baptism is to be conformed to the purpose of His death and to lay down our lives for the sake of others. Reducing this to a mere ritual robs the Lord of our true consecration and the church of its salvation. The path to life is a path of death first, then life, which to be frank is what most modern salvation experiences are. We try so hard in modern church circles to produce life through our own fleshly efforts. You cannot bring life out of self life. Life comes from death first. That is the principle of identification and substitution. The Cross and crucifixion is the meaning of our baptism in HIM. It is the path to all godliness and victory even in this modern 21rst Century.

By Chris McDonald

TEXT: 2 Cor. 4:8-11
We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; [9] Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; [10] Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. [11] For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.
 

Related Text:

• Romans 8:16-17  - The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: [17] And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

• 2 Tim. 2:11-12
  It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him: [12] If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us:

• Luke 12:49-50
  I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I if it be already kindled? [50] But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!

• Mark 10:38
  But Jesus said unto them, Ye know not what ye ask: can ye drink of the cup that I drink of? and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?

• Philip. 3:10-11
  That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; [11] If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.

        As we stated in our last journal, Israel, the Red Sea, and the Cross, our baptism into Christ is our identification with Him into His death, burial and resurrection. This identification is the only source of true victory in our lives over sin, Satan and the flesh. We are to enter into the fellowship of His sufferings. When the Lord asked His disciples if they would be able to drink the cup He would eventually drink of, He was not talking about immersion in water, but an immersion of fire and judgment He'd experience on the Cross as our Sacrifice.

        To be baptized into His baptism means to be conformed to the purpose of His death and to lay down our lives for the sake of others. Reducing this down to a mere ritual of water immersion has robbed the world the power of the Gospel. It's why our converts come in sick and then proceed to build on a foundation that allows them to keep their old lives, just "refine," them in Christ. The scriptures in our text show us that if we plan to be glorified together with Christ, we must also suffer with Him in death to our old sin nature. Death is never pretty but it is the path to true life.

John 12:24
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit
 

Philip. 1:29
For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake;

2 Thes. 1:3-5
We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith grow exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth; [4] So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure: [5] Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer:

2 Cor. 4:8-11
We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; [9] Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; [10] Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. [11] For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.


        If we are to partake of the Lord's life, we must also partake of His death. Any other teaching is false gospel and is an enemy of the Cross of Christ. Death separates the things that are natural from the things that are spiritual. To have a resurrection there must first be a death. If we want to walk in resurrection life and the power of Jesus, we must be willing to lay our lives down for Him. In the first century there were some who thought if they circumcised their flesh they would be right with God; but Jesus requires a deeper circumcision than that - He requires a circumcision of the heart. There are those today who point to the day of them joining a church, or the day they got baptized as the day their died with Jesus and were resurrected. Many Pentecostals point to the day they first spoke in tongues. Some point to a number of events and rituals in their lives, some being "good" things and events, as to when they died to themselves and allowed Christ to come in and save them.

        Every ritual of our faith is just that - a ritual - something meant to symbolize a commitment to a spiritual reality of which it speaks. In Christ we must die daily in order to live. The ritual was but the commitment to do this.

Matthew 16:24-25
Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. [25] For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
 

        The Israelites did not go to their baptism in the Red Sea easily or willingly and neither do we! The Lord has to apply gentle pressure, and sometimes not so gentle pressure, to get us to do this. He never overrides our will, but He can orchestrate circumstances in our lives that make it impossible to go anywhere else.

Exodus 13:17-18
And it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, Lest peradventure the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt: [18] But God led the people about, through the way of the wilderness of the Red sea: and the children of Israel went up harnessed out of the land of Egypt.

Exodus 14:1-4
And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying, [2] Speak unto the children of Israel, that they turn and encamp before Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, over against Baal-zephon: before it shall ye encamp by the sea. [3] For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, They are entangled in the land, the wilderness hath shut them in. [4] And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, that he shall follow after them; and I will be honored upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host; that the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord. And they did so.

    
        Notice the Lord did this for two reasons: to get Israel out of Egypt, but also to get Egypt out of Israel. He also did it to honor Himself upon the enemies of His people. He hardened Pharaoh's heart so the arch enemy of Israel would pursue them to the Red Sea making it impossible to return back to their old place of residence. Once they got to the Red Sea experience there would be no turning back. If they surrendered here, it would mean certain death at the swords of the Egyptian army. It was either go into the sea or die.

        Friend, that is the same for us today. The Lord so aligns our circumstances that there is absolutely no way out but to lay down our lives and conform to the image of His death. Unless we lay down our lives for Him, we will face the enemy's lancers. It may be at our job, our family surroundings, or even in our church. The only way of escape and path to life is to lay down our lives.

        The Israelites panicked when they saw the army of Egypt coming after them. They quickly challenged both Moses' and God's intentions. Many of us are amazed at the unbelief of the Israelites during the time of their deliverance from Egypt and their wilderness journey. But we need to consider this more closely before we judge them. All of their experiences were but prophetic foreshadowings for us in these last days and the experiences we ALL go through in our Christian walks. Looking back, most of us who have walked with the Lord for any length of time must confess to many of the same failures Israel had in the wilderness.

1 Cor. 10:1-5
Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; [2] And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; [3] And did all eat the same spiritual meat; [4] And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ. [5] But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness.
 

        Israel saw some of the greatest miracles in Egypt any other nation could ever witness. Signs were commonly performed by sorcerers in those days in Pharaoh's court as well duplicating some of the Lord's miracles.  The Israelites did not have the Bible, and for 400 years all they knew of the Lord was from legends or stories passed down from their ancestors. Think about it - 400 years without hearing from God - would you not also doubt just a little bit??

        Even when God did reveal Himself, they knew little about His character. All they knew was that He was more powerful than the demons of Egypt. They wanted to believe the best about Him, yet it must have been a fearful experience to have this powerful God come and snatch them out of Egypt. Then imagine standing there defenseless with your wives and children as the most powerful army in the world bears down on you and your back is to the Red Sea. Yes, I can see where they would fear.

        I want to make a little aside here. It makes me angry many times to hear modern preachers make fun of the experiences of those in the word of God who failed. We are so utterly arrogant in the modern church world today acting like we could have done much better had we been in the shoes of people like Paul, Peter, James, Israel, Abraham, etc. I heard one "word of faith" minister not too long ago say that if James, one of the pillars of the church, would have had the right faith, he would not have been killed by Herod. That is a moronic statement at the very least. I hear others proclaim Paul didn't have "faith" because the thorn in his flesh never went away and we as modern Christians don't have to tolerate any "thorns in our flesh" because we have greater faith than Paul. Again, what a moronic statement.

        It has been easy for us in the modern church to scorn Israel's behavior at the Red Sea, but friend we have little if NO ROOM TO TALK! If those at the Red Sea and the wilderness journey could look down through the ages to us today they would see that we have been willing to do almost anything to escape pain or inconvenience in the name of "faith." They would wonder what in the world is our problem that we are such "softies!" It was not easy for them and it is not easy for us. They had to be led to a place where there simply was no alternative but to "be baptized," in the Red Sea.

        The Lord usually has to do the same to us. It was a trying experience for them, and it will usually be one for us too, but it is the path to life and our Promised Land! This is our salvation - baptism into the Lord's death - the gateway to resurrection life! God has set traps for us, but they are all for the purpose that we might know HIM and His salvation! As we experience each parting of the Red Sea in our lives, our faith becomes more anchored in the power of HIS resurrection, not our own strength and abilities. This is a daily experience. We must die then live, not live and then live better as the modern gospel message proclaims. It's a false gospel that is driven by false spirits pointing millions to a false Christ.

2 Cor. 11:1-4
Would to God ye could bear with me a little in my folly: and indeed bear with me. [2] For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. [3] But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. [4] For if he that cometh preaches another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.
       
   

Destruction Over Our Enemy

Exodus 14:26-28
And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the sea, that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen. [27] And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to his strength when the morning appeared; and the Egyptians fled against it; and the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. [28] And the waters returned, and covered the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them; there remained not so much as one of them.

        When the Lord laid down His life at the cross, it was the doom of Satan, who is the anti-type of Pharaoh. When we are baptized into the Lord's death, we enter into the place that Satan and his hosts can NEVER follow! They very cross that results in resurrection life and power for the saints results in the lake of fire for Satan and his co-horts. Hell is real friend. Let me say it again. Hell is a real place. It's not some "state of turmoil," on earth as some flippantly use it in cursing. Hell is real. Jesus spoke more of hell than He did heaven. It's not a place where God ever wanted man to go but if man throws his lot in with Satan, to hell man will go. When you die it's not a matter or issue of where you "hold up" until someone prays you through - you open your eyes either in the presence of the Lord or the pit.

        This modern society today has become so desensitized to the preaching of hell that a message on hell today no longer brings any fear but yawns. I hear this catch phrase all the time "we need to move on beyond the preaching of the cross into the deeper things of God." We certainly need to go deeper in God in Christ - that is not my beef with that statement. My beef is that without the preaching of the cross and the death to our own lives we will NEVER go deeper in the true revelation of God. Oh, we'll go deep all right. Right into a pit of heresy and false doctrine that will damn our souls to hell forever! Friend it's that serious.  The very CROSS that results in resurrection life and power for the saints results in death to our enemies. Cain and Abel were both sinners. The issue was the sacrifice. Abel willingly gave up his life without resisting Cain's murderous rampage against him. Paul said millennium later that Abel being dead has blood in the earth that  "still speaks." It says to a modern, compromising, backslidden, lukewarm, self-righteous body of people in these modern times that God's path to life is not through refinement of the old nature -it's DEATH to the old nature! It's DEATH to ourselves and alive to God. It requires suffering at times. It requires sacrifice at times. It requires OBEDIENCE ALL THE TIME. IT requires an attitude that "Lord if you slay me, I'm going to trust ya." "Lord if I lose everything I own and everyone walks away from me, at the end of the day if I can say 'I know my Redeemer lives,' then I know I've won and not lost!"

        When the Body of Christ enters into its baptism on the scale the Lord has prepared for us at the end of this age, there is going to be manifestation of the power of the cross that will utterly consume Satan's hosts. What appeared to be Israel's doom became the catalyst for their salvation.

2 Cor. 2:14
Now thanks be unto God, which always causes us to triumph in Christ, and makes manifest the saviour of his knowledge by us in every place.

        We must learn to rejoice when we are closed in and there seems no escape. At the proper time the door of escape will open that leads to life and victory.

The Three Greatest Enemies And Our Greatest Weapon

        The three greatest enemies of the church today are self-will, self-seeking and self-promotion. Self-will is when we seek to preserve our own lives instead of giving our lives up for others. The ultimate message of the cross is LOVE. It's a cry that we are to love God FIRST beyond everything and anything else in this world with ALL our hearts, souls and minds. That is the FIRST and the GREATEST commandment. The second is tied into the anti-thesis of the church's second greatest enemy - self-seeking, or selfishness. Love does not "seek her own," says the Holy Spirit through Paul in 1 Corinthians 13.  How much damage has been done, even in the "name" of religion and Christ in the modern church world today that is nothing but glossed over selfishness? How many people have we lost in this spiritual battle between the forces of God and the forces of darkness because of the church's "self-seeking?" I don't have to answer that question, we already know the answer and it's not pretty. Because when there is self-will and self-seeking, there is always self-promotion. I don't have the space even on the internet to talk about that issue in today's modern church world. There is so much boasting and arrogance it is not funny. I heard one preacher say the other day responding to criticism he was arrogant, "I'm not arrogant, I'm just confident." A friend of mine who heard that statement and didn't even know the man looked at me and said, "that's rank arrogance in itself."

        We're so worried about who will get credit for that word of prophecy given to someone else. We're so concerned it will be "our" prayer that heals someone of cancer. We're so caught up in it being "our singing," that makes the crowd go wild and sells the most records in Nashville. Religion in America has become big business friend and New York's Fifth Avenue has become our standard for ministry instead of the message of the cross which puts an end to all self.

        The greatest freedom and release of spirit we will ever know is when we die to these things. If we are dead to this world, what can the world do to us? If we are dead, it will be impossible for us to feel rejection, insecurity, insult, fear or doubt. DEAD MEN DON'T FEEL ANYTHING! When we have entered into the true baptism, we are freed from the bondage of anything the world can inflict upon us. Satan can no longer have dominion over us.

Romans 6:11-12
Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto <the> sin i.e. <sin nature>, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. [12] Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.

        Paul said RECKON yourselves DEAD to the sin nature. We cannot live to ourselves and expect sin not to have rule in our members. It will. We cannot live to ourselves and live in self-will and expect Satan not to have a hay day in our lives - he will. We cannot expect to be self-seeking and then not have strife, envy, and every evil attack us - it will.

James 3:13-17
Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. [14] But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. [15] This wisdom descends not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. [16] For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. [17] But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.
 

        The Holy Spirit through Paul says that we who no longer live for ourselves but for Him are those who have entered into the baptism of Christ and have found the path to life.

2 Cor. 5:15
And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.

        As the proverb goes, "a coward dies a thousand deaths but a man of courage dies only once." We die to the self-will in our lives we will die only once. You say "we die daily." Yes we do. But when we have died and entered into the baptism of Christ, there is no more pain in it in the sense we dread it - we embrace it with love and utter intimate passion for our Lord who intimately embraced His cross for us that we may have eternal life. We are already dead and as stated, when we are dead, nothing affects us anymore. All hell may be falling around us, but we stay hid with God in Christ and as a result are pure, peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, merciful, producing fruit, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.

        We are given a courage and a peace that go beyond human comprehension. Our fears, which are always rooted in self-preservation, are removed.

2 Cor. 4:10
Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.


        It is this point that we can, as the Holy Spirit through James encourages us to do - "count it all joy" when the trials of life hit and friend they will always hit. No one is immune from those. The only people that are immune to it are people who deny it and try to make this walk of faith something that it really is not. Faith is not a walk in the park, it's a walk to death to our own lives so that Jesus can walk beside us in the power of His resurrection and Spirit.

James 1:2-4
My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; [3] Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. [4] But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

        Every time we lay down our lives for the sake of the Gospel and the cross, we enter a little more into the power of resurrection life. Death cannot touch resurrection life; it is the life that utterly destroys the enemy's power over us. We must embrace the cross! We must embrace the cross!; the cross!: the cross!; the cross!: the cross!: I will GLORY in nothing else, the Holy Spirit said through Paul, except Christ and Him Crucified by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.

Galatians 6:14
But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.
 

        Baptism is the laying down of our own lives to die to our own wills and self-interests. We die in Christ in order to live. If this death is actually the end of us, we are the greatest of fools- all our preaching is in vain. (1 Cor. 15:14). This death is not the end - it is beginning. We have eternal life! Life is our ministry and gospel. The Lord overcame death by dying and we do the same. Though baptism is a death, we enter it so we can overcome the power death has over us. It is the path to life. Accompanying our death to self will be an awesome release of resurrection life.

1 Cor. 15:14
And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.

        True faith is not intellectual agreement with certain biblical doctrines and historical facts. This has caused many to feel safe in a spiritual condition in which their eternal lives may still be in jeopardy. The Holy Spirit said through Paul in Romans 10:9-10:

Romans 10:9-10
That if thou shall confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shall be saved. [10] For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
 

        Faith is defined as a UNION of belief and trust. In other words when we have true biblical faith we become united with Christ and He becomes part of our nature. It impacts our lives and directs our path to eternal life. Neighbor, it's getting late. I pray everyone who comes to Spirit Journals and the websites our family is in charge of is saved. I pray so. I pray that your names are written down in the Lamb's book of Life. And if it's not you'd better make your calling and election SURE.

2  Peter 1:10-11- Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

        In my devotional time yesterday prior to writing this journal I read in Revelation where John saw the Lamb around the throne "as if He had been slain," typifying the fact that when we get to heaven, the revelation of Christ will still the same there as it is today - the LAMB OF GOD who came to take away the sin of the world.

        If you're not sure today of your salvation, you better make your calling and election SURE. It's getting that late friend. We are about 30 days away from the elections of 2004 here in America. These upcoming elections hold America's future in the balance in many respects. I really believe that. I can't say what will happen to this nation totally in the future. I have my opinions but they are just that - opinions. I know the Lord wants to move again in this nation unlike any time in history and I believe that He will. But there is a price that has to paid for this move and it's what this journal has been about today - DEATH. We must die to ourselves so the resurrection power of the risen CHRIST through the ministry of the HOLY SPIRIT can move once again through this land.

        Make your calling and election SURE. Make your calling and election sure. Anchor your faith today in what our Lord has done and take up the cross and follow Him! It's not our living for God that matters, it's our dying for Him for does! The church's greatest enemy has never been Hollywood or the drug industry or the porn industry. The church's greatest enemy has been self-preservation and an unwillingness to admit our total absolute state of poverty outside of CHRIST. The attacks have never come from without, but always from within. Be blessed. Praise God.