A Conversation About Faith and Life in Christ — Part 1
Question 1:
"Putting your own will to death" — that is a strong expression. What does it mean?
Answer:
Putting your own will to death is a gradual process, and because we are human and sin dwells in our flesh, we must of course pray much and practically cling to the hem of our Lord's garment, like a toddler learning to walk.
When I let God — who is greater than me, who created me — choose on my behalf, He gives me what benefits me the most: our God is an absolutely good God, and when we let go of the desire to know for ourselves, God can give us exactly what we need most in each moment. It is a difficult leap to make, because so often we see only the problems of this moment or the evil of this world and blame God for it: Why does God allow evil? Why am I suffering?
Without recognising the simple fact that it was I who fell away from God, not the other way around: God has not departed from mankind — mankind chose wrongly, and what followed is what we call original sin.
Yet God is ready to help and save immediately, if only we dare to turn to Him completely. Not just a little or partially, but entirely. If we dare to believe — against every barrier that all the lies of this world have erected — that God is Love, we receive the gift of His guidance, His direction, and His help through absolutely any situation.
Even the worst imaginable — even if we were dying or had a weapon pointed at us — God would become present in that moment and carry us through it. God has told the truth about Himself, and this world is not the home of those who walk in faith. We are strangers here, so if we die, we die in Christ, which ultimately leads to everlasting life... We should, in a healthy way, be dead to this world, which is corrupted and lives in sin.
These are, of course, difficult and challenging paradoxes, but this is how I myself have, thanks be to God, been given the grace to live them out as true with Him.
Question 2:
"Dead to this world in a healthy way" — this paradox is fascinating. How does this show up in practice in your everyday life with Heini?
You have children, you work, you live in this world — how do you reconcile that "foreignness" with concrete daily choices?
You mentioned clinging to the Lord's hem like a toddler learning to walk. That is a beautiful image of humility and dependence. Have there been moments when you have tried to take back the reins yourself, and what happened then?
And further: when you say God gives us what we need most in each moment — have there been situations where you received something entirely different from what you thought you needed, but later understood it was exactly the right thing?
Answer:
When a Christian dies to this world, he does not become cold or indifferent — rather, he recognises the state of the world and the state of the people living in it. For the follower of Jesus, spiritual reality is entirely real. In everyday life, this means that we understand the words of Jesus on the cross as absolute truth — when, even in the midst of bodily torture and physical death, He prayed for mercy upon His murderers:
Luke 23:34: "Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots."
Source: Luke 23:34, KJV
Once you understand this as true, you can state — with sorrow — that although we human beings imagine we know, we cannot grasp the true nature of the world until Jesus reveals it to us. He who rose from the dead.
In the Fall, when we fell into sin, we came under the dominion of evil, under a spell — which concretely means that the further we are from Jesus, from God, the more a person is guided by false spiritual powers. I do not mean by this that every non-believing person is somehow demonically possessed. I mean the simple fact that Satan has been given a right over our human flesh, which means he can feed us thoughts, images, experiences, sensations, and all manner of things that lead us profoundly astray. We are, as it were, inside an invisible box, a prison — and Jesus holds the key. He gives that key the moment we turn to Him with a wholly sincere heart.
It is hard and it is challenging to live as a follower of Jesus in a world that concretely hates the believer and imagines that the believer is a complete idiot and mentally deficient. And yet there lies a great paradox, one I was given the grace to live out myself: when I was still on the enemy's side, doing what I did, I thought I was wise. Only when I literally encountered Jesus — when I received His immense love and grace, which He had for me and for EVERY human being — did I understand that everything the world had made me believe was a lie.
Everything I had built my life upon collapsed, but it was the most beautiful collapse in the world, because when you are allowed to encounter the goodness and love of the living God, the lies deserve to collapse. And with that comes the understanding that this world is not the place He has created for us — He wants to save everyone. He wants to show and tell us that what is coming after this brief life is something far, far better.
This is an experience that changes a person completely and utterly. What I am trying to say is that true wisdom and understanding come from our Lord, Jesus Christ — not from man himself. As a human being, I can know nothing, but with God I receive in every moment exactly the knowledge I need.
When I do not step onto God's path with my own agenda, I get to walk under God's leading. He levels every valley and every hill — not so that I do nothing, but so that I get to be the agent and executor of His will. He works through me in this world, if by grace I am given to live that out. But if I start acting on my own, then it is I who act, not God. Nor can I claim to do things "because God says so" — which I believe is yet another great snare: so much evil has been done in God's name that it is better to proclaim nothing at all, and simply do the good that the Lord gives, good that endangers no one's life (consider the Crusades).
How then could I reject His will, when I have already seen so many times over that when I try to solve something myself, it always leads to a poor outcome — but if I dare to do His will, even without understanding it, the outcome is always the very best, and as a human being, the most deeply satisfying.
How many people have the honour and privilege of lying down to sleep at night and quietly acknowledging in their heart: Thank you, Father. Today I was allowed to do Your will! Just think — some person somewhere gets to fulfil the will of God! No one else needs to know, nor should they, because it is simply between you and Jesus.
Faith is also not something I could have decided upon by my own will (at least in my own experience). The faith I received was a gift of grace from Jesus Himself. I could not decide to come to faith — rather, faith came to me when I prayed. Having received faith and having encountered Jesus, how could I give that up? For the sake of the world? Because someone else has not received the same gift and would think me mad?
Of course not.
With the gift of faith, my task is to testify of Jesus in this evil world, understanding and praying for all those who have not yet received that gift of faith.
It is not about rising above others or lowering yourself beneath them. It is recognising that without Jesus, all people are lost — and the fact that I speak of faith, whatever reactions it may provoke, is understandable, because without Jesus a person is de facto under a spell, and only Jesus can break that spell.
When a believer testifies and speaks of Jesus — and at best, through the life he lives, demonstrates the reality of God's existence, serving and concretely bearing the fruit of repentance — that is the greatest testimony this world can receive of Him in whom we believe. This is why a follower of Jesus can sometimes bear witness even through martyrdom, as we have now seen happening in Syria, for instance — and yet only a follower of Jesus can see the joy even in such horror.
God is above all intellect and wisdom. God is beyond all human reasoning and everything we could ever define as human beings. He is truly almighty, and in the blink of an eye He is able to give every person the gift of faith, which is granted to us by grace. Through no deed of my own can I earn or attain the grace of God. That is true equality — I can do nothing that, in God's eyes, would make me better than any other person.
The human being, before the Fall, was the physical image of the living God — and we still are, only corrupted, because we fell. That does not, however, negate the fact that when we voluntarily give our lives to Jesus, God can help us live as He designed — so that His Spirit may live through us, bringing more good into the world.
With Jesus, I am also not forced to give up anything — rather, God's Holy Spirit within me tells, teaches, and guides me as to whether something is good or harmful for me. And so whatever worldly or human habit I carried before faith simply falls away, because the Holy Spirit makes what is sin felt within me.
So how many would ultimately want to keep hurting themselves when they can live so much better in the Holy Spirit, with God? This is the grace God gives, which little by little transforms us from above. This is what it means to be a new creation in Jesus Christ — more and more in His likeness, yet never fully succeeding, because only He was the sinless and perfect Son of God. We are all without merit.
Yet the pursuit of Christ brings so much good into our lives: it heals relationships, draws families closer to one another — because I no longer live for myself but for Christ, and I want to serve my family as Christ served His church. Knowing that it is God Himself who is my wife's Father, or my children's Father, I understand far better to whom I answer: to God, around the clock. The demand to serve at all times is impossible for a human being — but what is impossible for me is possible for Christ, who truly comes and dwells and works within every believer.
That someone professes faith is a wonderful and beautiful thing, but in the end we see every person's faith by the fruit of the Spirit among those closest to them — their loved ones bear witness to that fruit. That testimony of good may never be visible to the world, because as believers we no longer live for this world but for Jesus Christ. The world is not a place we seek to please.
In the name and love of Jesus.
Thank you for asking. It was a joy to answer.
With blessings,
Sami