The Head Joins Us Together

The Head Joins Us Together

“This is a faithful saying: For if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him.” 2 Tim. 2:11; Rom. 6:8.

Living with Jesus means having fellowship with Him, but you cannot have fellowship with Him without dying with Him. Dying means forsaking all your demands. When Jesus came, He did not come to be served but to serve and to lay down His life.

We see in the natural realm that when a person dies, all his demands cease. Jesus’ life was a life of service. If we have died with Him—have ceased making demands—we will also live with Him. Then we have fellowship with Him.

“Ahithophel was the king’s counselor, and Hushai the Archite was the king’s friend.” 1 Chron. 27:33. There was a tremendous difference between these two. Ahithophel gave such wise counsel when they inquired of him that it was as if they had inquired of the Lord. However, he did not eat at David’s table. Even though he served David, he did not have intimate fellowship with him, and in spite of all his wisdom, he committed suicide. Hushai, on the other hand, was the king’s friend. Their relationship was on a totally different level.

This is how many people can serve God. They can be very talented, and God can also use them, but in the midst of sacrificing themselves in serving God, they seek their own. Excepting Timothy, Paul says about those who were with him, that they all sought their own, and not the things that are of Christ Jesus. Phil. 2:19-21.

You must have died with Christ to be able to live with Him. Here we see why so many who serve God organize Christian groups instead of building the church, which is the body. Many people sacrifice their means, strength, and talents as they serve God, but they are not dead with Jesus, and therefore they do not become members of His body.

We read about such people in Colossians 2:18-23: “Let no one defraud you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase which is from God.”

Such people invent many things that are considered wise, but it is all self-imposed religion. They can even abuse their own body. They become puffed up. This proves that they seek their own in the midst of all their self-sacrifice. They do not hold fast to the Head. It is all the work of man, resulting in denominations and strife.

Only the person who has died with Jesus has Him as his Head, and only those who have died with Him can be joined to the body. Only through them can Jesus work so they are knit together in the ministry and grow together as a body. Eph. 4:15-16. This means that we live together with Him on earth, and then in all eternity. The condition for living with Him is to die with Him, and all of them have fellowship with each other just as the Father and the Son have fellowship. Everything else is the work of man and a deception.