World War Two was a crossroad in history. It changed our course and affected the lives of millions. The nuclear bomb made its premiere in World War Two. It proved to be an effective weapon as it brought the war to an end. But there was another weapon that came to our attention during that time with well documented effect. This weapon wasn’t a technological breakthrough like the atomic bomb. It had been used throughout history. The kamikaze wreaked havoc in the Pacific, sinking many of the Allies’ ships and aircraft carriers. The navy had no answer for the kamikaze pilot. They were operating in a level above what the Allies were prepared to go. How do you fight someone who has already died, so to speak, before leaving the runway?
Suicide bombers have power. Look at the effect just a handful of them had on September 11. They killed and injured thousands, took the jobs of just as many (through bankrupt airlines, depressed tourism etc…) wiped over a trillion dollars off Wall Street, caused fear and paranoia the world over… they changed the world.
Why would God allow bad people to have such power? It wasn’t that He gave them the power, they just happened to understand a universal law. The only reason they achieved what they did was because they were prepared to die. They understood the power of death. It will always be an effective weapon, no matter who uses it, good or bad.
We are in a war whether we like it or not. No one is exempt. But the war we wage is not against flesh and blood (Eph. 6:12), but against the spiritual forces of darkness and our own sin nature. Our battle with sin is constant; there is never a day when the fight is not on. Sin is like the terrorism of September 11; it destroys, injures and maims our lives. Sin is a deadly foe. It can affect both the physical and the spiritual. It should be of more concern to us than terrorists. Considering the importance of winning this daily war against sin, how do we gain the upper hand or the power to beat it?
The most powerful weapon God has given us for defeating sin is death! This is what baptism is all about. It is symbolic of dying to ourselves and to sin. God commands us to be baptised because He is desperate for us to understand this principle. The first church preached it strongly, ‘Repent, and each of you be baptised…’(Acts 2:38). The death represented in baptism is powerful and can free us from sin as Romans 6:7 points out, ‘For he who has died has been freed from sin’. We must learn to die daily if we are to have any victory in our Christian walk. The reason so many of us are defeated and maimed by sin is because we refuse to die. Until we die to it we remain its captive.
This weapon of dying to oneself is on a level above where Satan or sin can operate. They can’t compete with the power death brings. It is safe to say we will never be defeated when using it. The reason it is so effective is because death accesses resurrection power. This is the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead. There is no greater force. Satan had no answer to it the first time at the cross, and he certainly has nothing to compete with it now. But we can’t get access to resurrection power until we first die. It needs death in order to operate. Baptism, again, gives us a clear picture of this. We can’t be raised out of the water unless we ‘die’ and go down to start with. Not only does this principle of death apply to conquering sin, it also applies to yielding fruit. Jesus said in John 12:24, ‘Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit’. If we want to keep sin in check, conquer the forces of darkness and yield much fruit, we must learn to die. There is no other way. Dying to ourselves is not something we do once; it’s something we must do daily.
(All Bible quotes from the NAS)