No life apart from Christ

 Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it.

Luke 17:33 (ESV)
 
All life comes from death. The food that sustains us comes from a living animal or plant and has to die to sustain our lives. The plants in the forest are sustained by the death and decay of the foliage that used to be alive. The fish in the sea are sustained by the oxygen that plants put in the water that are sustained by the nutrients given by the decaying bodies in the muck layer.
 
We have been born again, given life, by the death of Christ.
There is no life apart from death, and abundant life is dependent upon abundant death.
Just as the physical is dependent upon death for survival, the purpose of our lives is unlocked by dying to self and living for the will of God and the love of our fellow man.
Death was not a part of this in the beginning. We brought it on ourselves, and one day, it will be a part of our past because of Christ. Amen.