No Fruit Without Death
By Marcel Rebiai
“For whoever desires to save His life will lose it, but whoever loses His life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.” Mark 8:35
Death is not something spiritual or philosophical that we can somehow interpret from a distance. Death costs me the wellbeing of my soul, all my ideas, my rights; simply everything my life consists of. Giving up our lives is tough. When Mary said yes to God’s request, this probably put an end to all her plans and changed her life forever, a situation that a girl from a far-flung corner of Galilee could never have imagined.
Jesus uses the image of a dying grain of wheat in John 12 to describe this principle in God’s kingdom: whoever gives will receive; whoever lets go will find; whoever sacrifices his rights will be sanctified; whoever dies will find life.
“No one would willingly give up their life; that would be stupid!” From the perspective of someone who trusts nobody and whose life is determined by the fear of falling short, dying to self is illogical, even dangerous and disturbing. However, without death it is not possible for us to live with God in fellowship, or to grow, and the grain of wheat remains alone and without fruit. Jesus gave the best example of this secret: He died for the sins of humanity and bore the fruit of salvation for millions who became children of God.
This devotional is taken from the book To See God by Marcel Rebiai. If you would like to order your own copy, please email us here, [email protected].
Marcel Rebiai is a board member of Revive Israel, and is inspiration for our community. Marcel was born in Algiers in 1953. He came to Switzerland as a war orphan and received faith in Jesus in his youth, which changed his life and made him a messenger of God’s love in Jesus. Since then, he has been faithfully working for the building of the community of Messiah. Marcel is the founder of the “Community of Reconciliation”, an organization that works for reconciliation between Jews and Arabs based on God’s forgiveness and love in Christ. Marcel teaches in various settings around the world about the love that God revealed to us in Jesus, a love that enables reconciliation. Marcel has been living in Jerusalem for the last 30 years, is married to Regula, and has four children and eleven grandchildren.
