It Is a Faithful Saying: For if We Be Dead With Him
In order to live with Christ, we must die to the world and its desires, and trust in his resurrection to make our trials sweet.
John Calvin preaches about the hidden life of the faithful in this world, drawing parallels to trees in winter that appear dry and lifeless but show strength in spring. He emphasizes the need for believers to die daily to worldly desires and decay outwardly, embracing sickness, poverty, and shame as reminders of life's transient nature. Calvin stresses the importance of daily spiritual renewal and looking to the resurrection of Jesus to find hope and sweetness in the face of death.
Text
It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him: --II Timothy 2:11
While we live in this world, our life is hidden, even as the life of trees is hidden in winter. Behold, trees are dry, we see no strength in them, a man would think it were but dead wood; but yet their strength shows itself in the springtime. Even so it is with the faithful. For while they are in this world, their life is shut up in hope. Now that which we hope for is not seen, the eye of man cannot attain unto it.
It follows, then, that in dying we must live; not only with one kind of death, but we must die daily, we must decay, as touching the outward man; as he says, sickness, poverty, shame, and such things, serve us to renounce this world and feel that our life is but a shadow, that it is nothing, yes, and that we receive so many messages of death when things do not go as we would have them.
And therefore let us note well that Paul meant here not simply that we must die once, and then live; but while we live that we are daily buried as it were; that we see death present as it were; that we are like sheep that have the knife at their throats. For it is not enough for us to die so, but we must follow the standard of the Son of God and look to his resurrection, which is sufficient to make the bitterness of death sweet to us. --Sermons
Sermon Outline
- The Nature of Faithful Living
- The Necessity of Daily Death
- The Power of Resurrection
- Following the standard of the Son of God
- Looking to his resurrection for strength
Key Quotes
“For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him” — John Calvin
“It follows, then, that in dying we must live; not only with one kind of death, but we must die daily” — John Calvin
“For it is not enough for us to die so, but we must follow the standard of the Son of God and look to his resurrection” — John Calvin
Application Points
- We must be willing to die to the world and its desires in order to live with Christ.
- We should look to the resurrection of Christ for strength in times of trial.
- We must follow the standard of the Son of God and trust in his power to guide us.