Dead and buried
John’s gospel comes in to land on Christ’s personal call to Peter, to you and to me: “Do you love me? Follow me.” In this final conversation that we are party to, Jesus revealed to Peter that his life on Earth would not end well; that he would follow Him all the way to the cross. And the same is true for us: we can’t follow Jesus, unless we die with him. Fortunately, for most of us that death has already been accomplished, and we are indeed not only dead, but  dead and buried: “having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.”(Colossians 2:12) In fact Colossians 3: 3  goes on to tell us “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God,” and Paul continues: “when Christ, who is our life appears, you also will appear with him in glory.“

At the same time Jesus declared that he came to give us “life in abundance,” (John 10:10), and Romans 8:11 tells us: “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” So I died when I gave my life to Christ; my life is hidden with Him until He appears, yet this “hidden” life is still available to me in this mortal existence – indeed to “put on the new man” (Eph 4:24) is a fundamental principle of new testament Christianity. How can I “put on” this new life that I have been raise to with Christ, this resurrection life, if it is “hidden with Christ in God” and won’t appear until Jesus returns in glory? It would seem that there is something of a theological circle to square here.

His word carries His life
I think one key is in an earlier statement from Jesus in the gospel of John: “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life “ (John 6:63) Our life is in the words He speaks to us. The very substance of God’s word is spirit and life. Whether it’s the written logos, quickened to us by the Holy Spirit as we read it, a prophetic word spoken over us, a rhema word spoken directly into our hearts, or whatever other medium God chooses to avail Himself of to speak to us, His word carries His life. Jesus circles back to this theme in the great image of the Vine, in John 15, where He makes it clear that one of the conditions of our fruitfulness is that His words abide in us:

“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.” (verses 7-8)

It is the words He speaks to us that are the vehicle of His abundant Life, and from His abundant life flows our fruitfulness, while the branches of the vine that don’t carry His word are “cast out and withered.” But there is another layer to this: talking of us and the Israelites, the writer to the Hebrews says: “For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.” (Heb 4:2)  If we are going to “profit” from the words that we hear so that the Spirit and Life that is their substance becomes part of our lives, they need to be “mixed with faith.” We can believe that all of God’s promises are true; we can believe the entire “logos” word of the Bible; we can receive and agree with a prophetic “rhema” word over our lives; but unless we act on what we believe to be true we are still standing with the Israelites of old on the “start” square of the Kingdom game board. We need to throw the dice and move. If there is no action to take, we prepare ourselves to take action, so when God says “Go now” we aren’t saying “Hang on a minute – I need to pack my bags…”

The word mixed with faith
Scripture is most emphatic about the need to “mix the word with faith.” The writer to the Hebrews actually calls it “an evil heart of unbelief” if we don’t do so:

“Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. “

Believing, in NT usage, is not about intellectual assent; it is about active trust. And to “mix the word with faith” doesn’t just refer to “stepping out in faith” for ministry, or giving, or other faith-filled acts: we also have to trust the word of God if we are going to “put on the new man” and put off the old “members“ of sin that dwell on the Earth. We have to trust the word of the Spirit to bring forth the fruit of the Spirit. This means letting go of our old way doing things, our old mindsets, our old way of reacting to people and situations. They have to be dead and buried, and this takes active faith on a daily basis, because  “the deceitfulness of sin” will always rise up to try and protect the flesh. If we trust Jesus with our lives and remember to call on Him when trouble is on us, His peace will rule in our hearts and He will show us the way forward. If we try to protect ourselves with our emotions, then fear and anxiety will always have the upper hand. The flesh profits nothing.

Chalk on a blackboard
As we know, God speaks with a “still, small voice.” It is like chalk on a blackboard that rubs off easily. Whether He is saying “Be patient,” “Give that person £100,” or “Go and talk to that woman at the bus stop,” we need to act “today,” while the white writing is still there, because if we don’t the words will soon fade and only the black will remain; and instead of following the Living God we will “depart from Him” and our hearts become increasingly desensitised because we are not seeing Him work in our lives. It is sometimes said that faith is like a muscle: if we don’t exercise it, it will waste away; but the more we exercise it, the stronger it gets. Jesus revealed this principle when He said to His disciples:

“It has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.” (Matt 13:12)

Paul writes: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.” (Col 3:16).  Richly is also translated as abundantly. Did you notice the word “abundance” again in the above scripture? If we want to really know abundant life and be fruitful disciples we need to act on what we have been given. It is of course Paul who squares the circle.  “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” (Gal 2:20)  The abundant life that we walk in when we respond in faith to the word of God isn’t actually our life at all, but it is Christ in us.

We have died, and our lives are hidden with Christ in God, but whenever we act in faith on the words that He gives us this life comes back to us from Heaven, we take another step in the supernatural, and Jesus is revealed.  Surely this is to die for?