Do You Know You’re Dead?

By Tammy Lacock

“That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.” (Philippians 3:10)

This week, Warren Litzman’s goal is to help us know and understand the Apostle Paul, before and after his conversion, as a means of understanding our own death and new life in Christ. Warren explains, through Paul’s revelation knowledge given by the Holy Spirit, that this understanding comes only by first realizing that our old lives, including our old mindsets, have died with Christ on the cross. Our old lives are dead and buried. This becomes the baseline of our new life in Christ.

In Philippians 3:5-6, Paul talks about how he could boast of his fleshly life before his conversion. He was circumcised on the eighth day, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee, and being blameless in righteousness by the law. Yet he makes a very important point to tell us that his old life, before coming to Christ, is nothing, by likening it to mere dung (Philippians 3:8). In fact, he tells us in Philippians 3 that he wants nothing more than to know Christ. Paul contrasts our previous focus of who we thought we were all of our lives before coming to Christ, in our flesh, and our new focus on our brand-new life in Christ. As believers, we died with Christ on the cross, our old lives buried, and we arose to a new life in Him, making us one in Spirit in Him (1 Corinthians 6:17).

Knowing his old self and old life are dead and buried, Paul can now know exactly what it means to rest in Christ.

Paul’s gospel reveals to us an inner Christ. No longer do we look for Christ outside of us, as did His disciples and those before His death. For the first time, Christ is manifested through a human being, through Paul. And it’s only through revelation knowledge does he learns to let go of his old self, his old mindset, and he begins to truly rest in Christ, his new life. We see Paul becoming a deeply hungry man for Christ, seeking only to know Him and to fall in love with Him more and more every day.

This is the gospel for us today! By God’s amazing grace, we are no longer bound by sin, death, and law. As believers in Christ, our old lives are dead now, along with our old identity, everything that made us who we were. By His death, burial, and resurrection, we died and were buried, too. Yet when Christ arose, we arose with Him, making us brand-new creations in Him. By His very life within us now, we can truly rest in Him, knowing our old lives are dead and buried and Christ is all we need.