Death Precedes Life

The Apostle Paul wrote that when we come together in communion to eat the bread and drink the cup we proclaim the Lord’s death until He returns. (1 Corinthians 11:26) It is interesting that Paul says that we are proclaiming the Lord’s death, but he does not mention His resurrection. It is almost as if Paul is inferring that, at the Lord’s Supper, the focus should be on Christ’s death, not necessarily on His resurrection.

Why is that? In part, I believe it is because in salvation, death precedes life. Spiritually speaking, every one of us is stillborn when we came into this world. We are not simply sick and in need of medication. We are dead in our transgressions and sins . Without Christ, our lives are under bondage to live in our lusts and selfish indulgences. (Ephesians 2:1-3)

One of the great deceptions of our generation is that we believe we are basically good. We hear it every day from Oprah and Osteen to the Dalai Lama: in order for us to achieve our potential, we must find the good within us and push out the negativity surrounding us. There is a glaring problem with this line of thinking: Jesus did not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. (Luke 5:32). He did not come to call those who just need a little nudge in the right direction. He did not come to call those who are looking for a fix to their morality. He did not come to call those who needed a little help. Because at the heart of the belief in the inherent goodness of man is pride. But God is opposed to the proud in heart. (Psalms 138:6; Proverbs 3:34; Matthew 23:12; James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5) “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:8)

You see, we are like Simon the Sorcerer in Acts 8:9-24 who receives the gospel and is even baptized because he was intrigued and got caught up in the excitement. Yet Simon missed one crucial step in the process. He missed that death must proceed life. He wanted the benefits of life that comes from Christ, but he had not yet died. The Apostle Peter rebuked the man and said that he had no part or portion in the gospel (lit. “word”) because he was still in the bondage of sin.

This account serves as a stark reminder that in order for us reap the benefits of the gospel, we must first die. We believe that we are seeking after God and receiving words and finding His will for our lives because that is en vogue in our little Christian circles, but we still refuse to die to our sin. We are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

That is why Jesus said, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it.” (Luke 9:23-24)

Without a death, there cannot be a resurrection. That was true for Jesus, and it is true for us, as well.

Jesus taught that, “unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” (John 12:24)

Paul echoed this in 1 Corinthians 15:36 “That which you sow does not come to life unless it dies.”

As we take communion together, we are corporately proclaiming Christ’s death until He returns. And by taking the elements personally, each one of us is proclaiming our death to sin through Him. “knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.” (Romans 6:6-7)