Orig. December 5, 2010
"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Galatians 2:20
It was the sixth day of our backpack into Hells Canyon and after passing on some elk, and being made by others, our moment had finally arrived. We spotted the two bulls at almost two miles away, hiked 1500 vertical feet to get into position, and waited for two hours the bull presented a long broadside shot.
“Elk down! Elk Down!” high school senior, Joe Stearns called out over the radio as we strained to look nearly straight up at the animal more than 400 yards away. As the elk walked up and away from us at a steep uphill angle my third shot (or fourth, I lost count) knocked him down. However, as we began to celebrate he got up and began to walk picking up speed to a full run across the ridgeline. He had an ever so slight limp on his right front shoulder as he leapt over a downfall and over the rim rock- gone forever.
This elk would be the first animal I had ever wounded and not recovered in my 35 years of hunting. I was disheartened, that is, until the 4000 vertical foot climb out of the Canyon, knowing it would have taken the five of us an entire “other” trek back into Hell to bring the elk out.
I learned a lot form that hunt. Failure is a great teacher. Bring more bullets. Have a reliable rangefinder. Travel light. Be fit. Life, especially the life of a 600 pound bull elk, does not end easily. Life wants to hang on as long as possible.
In the same way, for the man saved by Christ a new life begins but our old life hangs on which is why Jesus told us in John 12:24-25, “I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But IF it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”
IF it dies? Did you know that IF is the biggest word in the dictionary with only two letters. In Romans 12:1 Paul reminds believers “to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to the Lord.”
Like the Hell’s Canyon elk, a living sacrifice wants to get off the altar and run! A trophy elk will not willingly give you a second chance but an elk is not what God is after. People are God’s greatest trophy. But that trophy must die. It must run towards death and not life. It must run to its own crucifixion and not its own exaltation. It must run to the surrender of self and not to superficial ambitions.
Man, you are God’s greatest trophy but you must die first. You must as Paul so bluntly stated “be crucified with Christ, therefore, I no longer live but Jesus Christ now lives in me. This life I live in the flesh I live for the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me (NASB).”
The only way Christ who lives in you can live through you is when you willingly run to your own death.
