Death Before Assumption
“get thee out of thy”
The book of Mathew 16:24-26 Jesus introduces his disciples to new teachings of how to be a follower, a good disciple and prosper in him.
Vs 24: “Then Jesus said to his disciples, “if anyone wishes to follow me,(as my disciple) he must deny himself (set aside selfish interest) and take up his cross (express willingness to endure whatever he may encounter) and follow me (believe and trust him).
To understand the whole doctrine of “Death Before Assumption“ we must first define some words commonly used by the believers in Christ. These words are; (i)Witness (ii) Martyr (iii) Faith
1. Witness
Oxford dictionary defines a witness as “a person who provides essential evidence regarding what they know or claim to know about an event or a situation.”
There are many types of witnesses but here I’m going to discuss about ‘Material witness’. Again the oxford dictionary defines a Material witness as ‘An individual whose testimony is deemed crucial to the case and who may be detained if s/he refuses testify or in the process of testifying gives misleading information.
2. Martyr
A person who suffers voluntary death or significant consequences for adhering to a belief or faith or principle.
the Greek word for martyr is witness. so all these words are revolving to back to the thing, “being a witness”. In voluntary suffering, a person does not seek death but willingly accepts it as a consequence of their belief. the death in martyrdom may include:
(i )Execution (ii)Torture (iii) Despised (iv)Imprisonment (v)Exclusion
So, as a martyr you must be willing to endure suffering for the sake of your faith, belief and or your principles.
3. Faith
Faith may be defined as a belief in God, doctrine and teachings associated with that religion. It’s a strong trust in something. So, when you trust someone or something, it means you have a very strong faith in him/her/it. This makes you have assurance that whether you are around or not it going to be the same or act as you wanted.
Having understood the meaning of martyr, faith, witness…. lets now discus death before assumption
So, when Jesus talks of denying yourself, he really means a lot of things. To deny is to sacrifice yourself and everything that you love, including your own free time. Death, as an irrevocable action should happen to you before you start following him. You must be willing to die. W hen he, Jesus, was crucified on the cross, he died; he took all our past to the cross so that we may not live in the past itself but have a new life, now that our past was made to die, the responsibility of that ‘death’ remains in the hands of the Christian who’s willing to be a follower. If in ones heart there is a desire to go back to the cross and make the past live again, it’s very possible. Everyone has a responsibility not to live in the past. When you go back to the past while claiming to be following Christ, then everything that was made to die comes to life again.
Even though our past was put to death, a follower must be willing to die before assuming the “followership responsibility”, this is what we call “Death before Assumption”.
A follower (disciple), is a material witness. Then it applies that death, as an irreversible action, must be undertaken by all believers who wish to follow Christ. God told Abraham;
“Gen 12:1 Now the Lord had said unto Abram, get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that i will show you”.
Abraham became a martyr by having faith which made him be a witness. For one to be a witness, he must have seen or heard. During Baptism, it’s taught that “we are dying and resurrecting with Christ”. so if we died with Christ during our baptism, then whatever we had in the past was first crucified on the cross. The past is now crucified and we can now take the gospel of Christ to the whole nation knowing that everything in our past will not hunt us. but its only possible if we persistently pray that the gives us strength to endure to the end, because the past, though its dead, it still lives around and wants to enter into anyone who hasn’t obeyed the law of Christ. I encourage everyone to die prior to assuming the office of the high calling; the office of serving God without being attached to the old version of yourself.