Worth Dying For

On this Memorial Day we remember with thanksgiving all the heroes that have given their life in current and past wars to protect and preserve our freedom, but why were they willing to die for this freedom? The reason they were willing to die for this freedom – is because they had experienced this freedom for their selves and knew that it was worth giving their life to preserve it, so all their loved ones and their children and their children’s children could keep on enjoying this freedom we all hold so dear. So a big thank you to all that have given so greatly to the cause of freedom.

When it comes to spiritual freedom, God says His truth will set you free. So just like all that have been willing to die because they had experienced and enjoyed our physical freedom in this country – God has made a way for us to experience some of His spiritual freedom, which is through a relationship with Him by the blood of Christ. The big question is – after you have experienced a sample of God’s freedom, are you willing to die for this spiritual freedom or have you already died for it?

God has opened up His Spirit to everyone to have a relationship with Him so that they can see that His Word is truth and that His love and freedom are a reality for believers. After we have experienced a sampling of God’s love we then can grow in our faith so that we can know that all of His Word is true.


Eph 3:17-19 - And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge

If anyone grasps the scripture above, he/she will be willing to die to themselves to have the full measure of God which is the rest of these verses.

— that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.


God calls us to die, die to our sinful nature, so that He might live in us and fellowship with us forever, but God also knows that before we can treasure something we must experience it first and after we treasure it, then we will be willing die for it. God builds His treasure up in our hearts. Again the big question is – are we going to treasure Him? Are we going to be willing to die to selfishness and all our sins so we can have His treasure and His freedom for eternity?

The great commission is to “Go and make disciples” – not go and make believers. We can be believers in a proportional amount to our faith, but a disciple is a believer that has died to them selves to follow Christ whole heartedly.

Matt 28:19 - Therefore go and make disciples of all nations

John 8:31-32 - "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

Luke 14:26-27 - "If anyone comes to me and does not hate (in comparison to God) his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters — yes, even his own life — he cannot be my disciple . And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

What happens when a person experiences God’s love through a relationship with Him and then refuses to fully die to his own sinful nature and become a true disciple of Christ?

Matt 10:37-38 – “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

So if we are unwilling to forsake ourselves and love God more than anybody or anything (this includes our sins), we are then not worthy of Jesus Christ and will not receive Him and when we physically die He in turn will not receive us.

But what does “not worthy of Christ” or “not receive Him” mean? It means we will not receive His Holy Spirit – which is Jesus' Spirit that comes to live with us. It is when we receive Jesus' Spirit (His Holy Spirit) that we are born again. Unless a person is born again (received His Holy Spirit) – they will not see God.

John 14:15-17 - "If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— the Spirit of truth.

John 3:3 - In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."

John 3:5 - Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.”

In the above verse (John 3:5), notice that a person must be born of water and of Spirit to enter into the kingdom of God. When we first come to God to start a relationship with God, we are then covered by Christ’s righteousness which represents an outer washing of our soul and we put a robe of righteousness on – which was provided by Christ’s blood on the cross – this is being born of water and is called imputed righteousness. This imputed righteousness allows Christ to be our high priest while we are still living in the flesh. It is through this imputed righteousness of Christ that we can have a relationship with God. It is then through this relationship with God that we can grow in faith and come to treasure God’s love and eventually be willing to die to all of our sinful nature to preserve this treasure for ourselves for eternity. When we actually do come to the point of dying to our sinful nature by putting to death all our sinful acts – we then and only then are worthy to receive Christ’s Holy Spirit to live with us forever and ever. This is what is meant by being born of the Spirit. It is only when we receive Christ’s Holy Spirit that we are imparted with Christ’s righteousness and are entirely washed and cleansed of all unrighteousness - on the inside as well. It is only after this total cleansing (inside and outside) that we are made ready to enter an eternal heaven with God.

Is God’s love and freedom worth dying for? Have you asked yourself – have I put to death all my sinful ways? Most of the professing Christians today can say they have some sort of relationship with God, but most professing Christians haven’t yet been born of Christ’s Spirit. If you have been covered by His water (born of water) but not yet born of the Spirit, I urge you very strongly to put to death any sinful way in you before He comes like a thief in the night for your soul. God is a treasure and worth dying for!

Your servant in Christ,
Michael Reid