Death is essential for every vision.

Recently I have been seriously looking at how old I am. There’s just nothing I can do to stop these years from being added on. How did I get to this age?

Inevitably one day I will be entering into the day of my death. It is there for us all. Death is part of life. We cannot avoid it though we try through all kinds of ways to give ourselves just a bit longer.

It should not be feared but it should lead us to appreciate the time we have.

In many areas of life death is necessary and that is certainly what our author is saying to us in the next 2 verses about Jesus.

^“In the case of a will,it is necessary to prove the death of the one who made it, ¹⁷ because a will is in force only when somebody has died; it never takes effect while the one who made it is living.” (Hebrews 9 v 16-17)

How is an inheritance/ a will gained? A death.

What brings about the end of what was old? A death.

What brings us into the new? A death.

What takes us from the old ideas into the new ideas? A death.

What moves us into a new season? A death.

The Christian gospel is that of the power of the death of Christ on the cross. We must never forget that this is the model for our life here and especially if we are in a leadership capacity. The New Testament is full of this message. Death to self. Dying to our sinful nature. Laying our life down for others.

It seems to me we do a lot of proclaiming about how alive we are when God is desiring we die first! We are so good at promoting where we are going that we take our eyes off the cost, the price that will need to be paid, who is going to die to self? Within the church it is always the shepherd that needs to lay their life down for the sheep. But let’s not just leave it to the shepherds, we are all shepherds in some way. Vision is never realised without a death.