This website is the continuation of a message I was asked to present in 2009. At that time, I was interested in making a website I could use for practice so I could learn some of the skills I would need to help out on our church’s new website. It seemed right to stay with what I was already concentrating on, so this site is about putting into practice some of the Biblical concepts discussed that evening.
The meaning of the website’s name, ‘deadright’ is not obvious. The common use of that phrase is to praise someone for being precisely correct. Its like an archer or a marksman hitting the center of a target, or the ‘bullseye’. In this case, it is not about the website, its content or its author being ‘deadright’ about anything. It is about those who put into daily practice the Bible’s teaching about dying to sin and letting Christ live through them.
Here’s how it applies. The Greek word most often translated “sin” in the New Testament is usually understood to mean ‘missing the mark, target or goal’. Since everyone naturally tends to sin, no one can be ‘dead right’ except perhaps briefly by rare accident. But the teaching of the New Testament is that a person who has taken up their cross, thus dying to sin, can experience the life of Jesus living through them by His Spirit. So, to the degree that we are ‘dead to sin’, we can be ‘right with God’. So, only the ‘dead’ can be ‘right’. This website is for those whose love for Jesus has created the desire to be ‘dead right’!
Obviously, the relevant Biblical language is metaphorical, or spiritual, and is not talking about literal physical death. The phrase ‘dead to self’ may be described as someone who has attained a very high degree of self-control, especially concerning all things ‘carnal’. I do not claim to be a particularly good example of this, but I believe it, have seen it, and aspire to do better. This is not about religious works or anything to be proud of or any state of ‘grace’ to be achieved. It is just a review of what the Bible says about what the daily life of Christian should be like.
(2024-06-28)