For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. – Romans 6:5

Today's Scripture Reading (April 21, 2024):  Romans 6

In Galatians, Paul writes these words; ^"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Galatians 2:20). Okay, obviously I have not been literally crucified with Christ. But that is not the point. If I am genuinely going to be a Christian, that means that something inside of me has to die. And it is something vital.

It is a concept that brings me to a question: Have I died? It is not an easy question to answer, but I guess it is not supposed to be. Maybe that is the problem. We are looking hard for the easy way. The promise is this: if you have been crucified with Christ, if you no longer live, but Christ lives in you, then sin no longer has its claws in you. Yet, every fiber within me stretches out for life. Every fiber within me wants to live and struggles for it.

But, to be successful, at least on some level, I must be partially dead. Consider this: dying to self is characteristic of a successful politician, especially a President or Prime Minister. One of the most fundamental promises of a politician is that I will put down my dreams to embrace yours. I will die so you can live. The problem is that that seems to be an impossible thing to do. But Paul says the same thing is also required in our spiritual lives.

Consider this: I have seen the examples of several Presidents during my lifetime. The first President that I am politically aware of during my life was Richard Nixon. I was a big Nixon fan, which tells you a lot about how I got to where I am today. I remember Nixon's assertion, "I am not a crook … The people need to know that their President is not crooked." Nixon was very concerned with how people saw him. And his concern told us just how alive he really was.

Gerald Ford became President upon President Nixon's retirement from office, and after Ford was a peanut farmer named Jimmy Carter. At the time of his re-election campaign, Jimmy Carter is in a challenging political race with Ronald Reagan while, at the same time, working hard to get hostages out of Iran. I clearly remember turning on the television and seeing the number of days that the hostages had been in Iranian captivity getting higher and higher. It occupied the mind and heart of all of the American voters. It doesn't matter how we view the presidency of Jimmy Carter because the truth is that the number that came at the end of his first term in office was the summation of Carter's presidency. Why doesn't the United States do something? They have this military might; maybe it is time to put it to use.

Meanwhile, of course, what we didn't know was that some of the hostages were safe in the Canadian Embassy, and Carter and Prime Minister Joe Clarke were working hard to get them out before any further action could be taken. I am convinced that Carter could have won the 1980 election if the people had known what was happening in the Canadian Embassy and the details of the behind-the-scenes race to free some of the hostages. But it wasn't about him. In some way, Carter had died, and what he needed to do was what was right. Of all the Presidents, I think Jimmy Carter was the complete opposite of Richard Nixon.

Ronald Reagan restored Pomp and Circumstance to the White House, something the peanut farmer didn't care about. George H. W. Bush continued the reign of Reagan. Bill (I did not have sex with that woman) Clinton suffered through some moral issues. Barak Obama held the office with a measure of grace that had been missing from the office for many years. Donald Trump, rather than dying to self, seemed to elevate self, and his followers loved it. Trump was cut from the same cloth as Richard Nixon (whom I admit to being a huge fan).

And, of course, Joe Biden, well, maybe I need a little more distance to evaluate his time at the helm of the nation. My point, though, is that a politician that dies to self is actually a rare thing. It is also rare in Christianity, but that shouldn't be true. We need to be united with him in death to be united with him in the resurrection. But dying to self, as Paul tells us, is necessary, and it isn't easy. Therefore, it is something that we need to pay attention to every day.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Romans 7