Death Died; Life Lived
By John Gavazzoni

I maintain that as life is lived, so conversely, death is died. Death, most surely, is not lived; it's life that is lived. Conventionally, though it is considered grammatically acceptable to speak of living life, it is not so to speak of dying death. This is a case where conventional rules of grammar fail us in expressing a truth. Scripture clearly teaches that, experientially, both life and death are at work in a believer in this world; e.g., from the ISV New Testament: "We are always carrying around the death of Jesus in our bodies, so that the life of Jesus may be clearly shown in our bodies." In Christ, summarily as God gathered together all the death of all humanity, past, present, and future into the death of Jesus, there He died death finally and forever. In Him, death's continuation has been utterly shut down, so that as that death unfolds existentially in us all by His indwelling, "the last enemy which shall be defeated is death."

From the NAS New Testament we have in support of my thesis, "For the death that he died, he died unto sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives unto God." Note: "For the death he died...." He died death with absolute finality, to go on to live for God without end. By death's death, in and by Him, life is released with a quality of radiance that comes only from life going through death to glory. God planned it that way from the beginning. Sin is not our essential problem, dear fellow saints. The problem is death. Sin entered the world through the disobedience of one man, BUT it was death that was passed on to all men, UPON WHICH all have sinned. It's not "because all have sinned," the verse is better rendered, "upon which all have sinned."

We carry in our flesh the soil within which sin takes root, the soil of death. At the heart of death is separation/disconnectedness. Suffering separation/disconnectedness/estrangement from God spiritually; from others, and our own selves soulically; and from earth's sustenance biologically, we die death in spirit, soul, and body, and would continue to do so were it not that Jesus "swallowed up death in victory." Death has been died by our Lord's death, brethren, and only life in its full radiance of glorification lies before us.

In Him, inclusive of us all, what's been done in Him is now ongoingly being worked out in us, for it is impossible that that Seed of God, implanted in us, should not blossom to full fruitage, the full fruitage of communion in the life of Deity. What is unique about apostleship is that it is not unique as exclusive to the apostle in that it typifies what is spiritually normative of the whole believing community. Assailed by the enemy, death, as highlighted in the apostolic experience, we all carry around in our bodies the death of Jesus that the life of Jesus may be clearly shown in those same bodies. As we are daily dying death in our bodies, resultantly we are living His life clearly shown in our bodies, but only His faith working in you can make that believable.

In order for His life to be clearly shown in our bodies, that life must first be concealed within the dying of His death in us. I could wish to explain that dynamic with greater clarity, but I am compelled to declare it to you, nevertheless, that it is out from within life's concealment within the dying of death, that His life shines forth....maybe often the least apparent to the one in whom this dynamic is at work. It may be that, more often than not, you only know the dying of death in your experience, while the living of His life lies under the radar of your consciousness. What is true, genuine, and real, is not always what is apparent, in fact, it seems just the opposite. "Your life is concealed with Christ in God," concealed within His dying of death in you." He is dying that death in you, out from within the death He (already/fully) died. The death he died" is the death He is dying in you presently.