Stott: Death a Neglected Issue

As we conclude the month of December, we’re also concluding the Radical Disciple excerpts from John Stott. While most people do not think about death near the holidays, Stott addresses the issue of death as a neglected issue. However, it might not be the type of death you are thinking of.

Stott writes:

The Paradox of Life Through Death

“The eighth and last characteristic of the radical disciple that I have chosen is death. Let me explain. Christianity offers life—eternal life, life to the full. But it makes it plain that the road to life is death. It underlines this in at least six areas, as I will go on to show in this chapter. Life through death is one of the profoundest paradoxes in both the Christian faith and the Christian life.

…My concern in this chapter, however, is not with life and death in nature, but rather with death and life in Christ. The radical biblical perspective is to see death not as the termination of life but as the gateway to life.

Scripture sets before us the desirable glories of life and then insists that the indispensable condition of experiencing them is death. In short, the Bible promises life through death, and it promises life on no other terms. So the apostle Paul describes Christian people as ‘those who have been brought from death to life’ (Romans 6:13). This perspective is so different from the assumptions of the secular mind, so novel, so revolutionary, in its implications that we need to see it illustrated in the six different situations in which, according to the New Testament, it operates.”

While Stott goes on to show six illustrations, for our purposes we will share two.

Salvation

“First of all, we see death and life in relation to our salvation. For salvation is often represented in terms of life. Paul wrote that God’s gift is eternal life (Romans 6:23), and John explained that those who have the Son have life (1 John 5:12). It’s also made clear that the distinctive feature of this life is not its eternity but its quality as the life of the new age. Eternal life is life lived in fellowship with God (John 17:3).

…So God came to us in Jesus Christ. He took our place, bore our sin and died our death. We had sinned. So we deserved to die. But he died instead of us. The simple statement ‘Christ died for sins’ is enough. He had no sins of his own for which he needed to die; he died for ours.

But his death cannot do us any good unless we claim its benefit for ourselves. It is by faith inwardly and by baptism outwardly that we become united to Christ in his death and resurrection. We have died and risen with him. Now therefore we must ‘count’ (or ‘reckon’) ourselves ‘dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus’ (Romans 6:11)—not pretending we are immune to sin when we know we are not, but realizing and remembering the fact that, being one with Christ, the benefits of his death have become ours. We are ‘alive to God,’ alive through his death.”

Discipleship

“The same principle of life though death operates in discipleship as in salvation. Jesus himself used this vivid symbolism:

Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.’ (Mark 8:34-35)

If we had lived under Roman occupation in Palestine, and if we had seen a man carrying a cross, or at least the patibulum or crossbar, we would not have needed to ask him what on earth he was doing. No, we would have recognized him immediately as a condemned criminal on his way to execution, for the Romans compelled those they sentenced to carry their cross to the site of crucifixion.

This then was the dramatic imagery Jesus used for self-denial. For if we are following Jesus, there is only one place to which we can be going, the place of death. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in The Cost of Discipleship: ‘When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.’ What is more, according to Luke we are to take up our cross every day (Luke 9:23), and if we do not do so we cannot be his disciple (Luke 14:27).”

Request your copy of "Radical Disciple" today for a donation of any amount »