Must You Be Willing to Die for Christ?

I know a young, married mother of two who one day found out that cancer had metastasized throughout her body. She right away started emailing out her status to those she knew (which—thanks to her—I also did when years ago I had bone cancer). In one email she wrote about going in for radiation treatment on her brain. She said the doctor came into the room with a Craftsman drill and then in all caps she wrote C-R-A-F-T-S-M-A-N. The doctor drilled holes so that they could attach a halo to keep her head still while the radiation was administered. As the radiation continued she said the pain increased and her crying turned to sobbing and that her pillow was soon covered with mascara.

And I thought—this girl just went through torture so that she might extend her life here for a few more months. And I thought that surely most other women or men would make a similar choice so that they might go on living longer here.

And it dawned on me that the early martyrs, who were often tortured, endured that because they believed that if they remained faithful unto death, they would actually live forever and ever!

I’ve learned over the years, however, that many Christians think differently. Some have told me that if their life was on the line that they were not willing to die for Christ. They told me they could deny knowing Christ and still be saved. Some Christians believe that actually being willing to die for Christ would be the pinnacle of discipleship, that perhaps after years of being a Christian they might be able to work up to that level of faith.

They have it backward.

Being willing to die for Christ isn’t the pinnacle of discipleship—being willing to die for Christ is the beginning of discipleship.

Consider Jesus’ words in Luke 9:23-26:

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? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

Now the Romans were famous for crucifying people and there wouldn’t be any adults in first century Palestine (and few children!) who wouldn’t know what crucifixion was. So when Jesus said that His disciples must be willing to take up their cross, He wasn’t talking about something hanging from a silver or gold chain. He meant that to be His disciple we must be willing to die for Him.

In Mat 10:32-33 we read the same truth, “Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.” That’s pretty clear, right? If we disown Him, He will say “I never knew you” to us in front of the Father.

Again, let me emphasize that being willing to die for Jesus is simply the result of really believing the Gospel in the first place. Isn’t it? What I mean is that if you really believe that by being in Christ that you are going to live forever and ever and ever and ever and ever… and ever… and ever… ad infinitum—I mean really believe that—then dying here for His sake is great gain forever, right?

It is in this context the words of Jesus in Luke 12:4-5 make sense: “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!” And so the words of the martyred Jim Elliot: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”

So, my brothers and sisters in Christ, let us remember that none of us is getting out of this life alive (after all, most of us will suffer and die from heart disease or cancer) and steel ourselves regarding the possibility that we might actually, in this sinful world, be called to confess Jesus even if it means we die for that confession.

By the way, that young mother continued to honor God through the horrors she endured and she’s now in heaven along with young mothers like Vibia Perpetua (see http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/perpetua.html) who gave her life in the arena for her confession of Christ.

Revelation 12:11: “They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.”

Amen.