722 The Spiritual Man
To be sure, there is no basis for our victory apart from that of
Calvary; yet to not claim what Calvary has accomplished for us is
certainly not the way to victory. We do not conquer sin by being
passive, neither can we conquer death by disregarding it. God desires
us to be serious about overcoming death; that is, through the death of
Christ we actually must overcome the power of death in our body.
We heretofore have subdued many temptations and also the flesh, the
world, and Satan; now we must rise up to defeat the power of the last
enemy.
If we determine to resist death in the same way we have resisted
sin, our attitude towards the former will be changed completely.
Mankind is marching towards the tomb, and because death is the
common lot of the entire fallen race, we naturally tend to adopt a
submissive attitude. We have not learned to rise against it. Despite
our knowledge of the soon return of our Lord and the hope of not
passing through the grave but being raptured to heaven, most of us
still prepare to wait out death. When the righteousness of God works
in us we abhor sin; but we have not allowed God’s life to so work in
us that we equally begin to hate death.
To overcome death believers must alter their attitude from one of
submission to one of resistance towards it. Unless we cast off our
passive approach we will not be able to overthrow death but will be
mocked by it instead and finally come to an untimely end. Numerous
saints today misapprehend passivity for faith. They reason that they
have committed everything to God. If they ought not to die, He
verily shall save them from it: if they ought to die, then He doubtless
shall allow them to die: let the will of God be done. Such a saying
sounds right, but is this faith? Not at all. It is simply a lazy passivity.
When we do not know God’s will, it is fitting for us to pray: “not my
will, but thine, be done” (Luke 22.42). This does not mean we need
not pray specifically, letting our requests be made known to God. We
should not submit passively to death, for God instructs us to work
together actively with His will. Except we definitely know God wants