One of the shortest, but most remarkable stories in Scripture is found in Genesis 5:22-24:

 

     Then Enoch walked with God three hundred years

     after he became the father of   Methuselah, and he had other sons and daughters.

     So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years.

     And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.

 

 

Concerning this we read in Hebrews 11:5:

 

     By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death;

     and he was not found because GOD took him up;

     for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God.

 

 

In the last mention of Enoch in Scripture, but not the least important, we are told in Jude 14-16:

 

     And about these also Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam,

     prophesied, saying, "Behold, the Lord came with many thousands

     of His holy ones, to execute judgment upon all,

     and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds

     which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things

     which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him."

     These are grumblers, finding fault, following after their own lusts;

     they speak arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of gaining an advantage.

 

 

Enoch's is one of the most enigmatic and important messages in Scripture. As we read in Jude, it is also one of the most important for the last days. The special fact about Enoch is that he walked with God. Adam was still alive when Enoch lived. It is probable that he talked with Adam about what it was like to walk with God in the Garden, and his heart was so stirred that he began to yearn for such a relationship with his Maker. One of the great, eternal truths is, if we seek God we will find Him. Enoch found Him. He recovered the most basic call of man that had been lost by the fall—the relationship we are called to have with God. Because of this he was delivered from the consequence of the Fall, which is death.

 

Walking with God remains the ultimate and highest quest of man. When this is truly recovered, we too will be delivered from the consequences of the Fall. Enoch walked with God so closely that the Lord took him directly to heaven. This was a foreshadowing of what has been popularly referred to as "the rapture." As Paul wrote in I Corinthians 15:51-52:

 

     Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,

     in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,

     at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound,

     and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.

 

 

Enoch was but the first fruits of the last day church that will also be caught up without tasting death. There have been many books written about how and why this takes place, and many have speculated about the timing of it, but the reason this happens is the same reason it happened to Enoch. The last day church will walk with God so closely that He will be obliged to bring them into the fullness of His presence, transforming them from the mortal to the eternal in the "twinkling of an eye."

 

I have often heard Christians say that they were trying to decrease so the Lord could increase in their life. This seems noble, but it is not biblical, and is actually the opposite of what John the Baptist said, "He must increase, but I must decrease" (John 3:30). If we try to decrease before He increases in our lives, we will just be empty, and the void will usually be filled with an evil, religious spirit. "Enoch walked with God, and he was not...." When we walk with God, we will decrease because He is increasing in our lives.

 

The Lord did not come just to make our lives better and easier. He did not even come simply to change us—He came to kill us! Even though Enoch did not "taste death" in the natural, his old nature was consumed in God. When it says that "he was not," it means much more than him just disappearing. By walking with God His glory changed him, consuming his fallen nature and replacing it with His nature. The same is our goal—to be dead to sin, dead to our former lusts, dead to this world, but alive unto God. 

 

Even so, if we try to crucify ourselves, the result will be self-righteousness. Our old nature was crucified with Christ on the cross. The rendering of our old nature as dead, so we can experience the resurrection life in Christ, is a process that takes place as we walk with God. We identify with His crucifixion, and therefore His righteousness. We will never be so good that we do not need His life and His righteousness. We are only able to enter into the presence of God because of His blood—His atonement. He will forever be our righteousness. Therefore, it is our goal to be found in Him, to abide in Him so that He might dwell in us.

 

The more we walk with Him and see Him, the more we are changed by who He is. When we focus on crucifying ourselves we are still focusing on self. We will never be changed by seeing who we are, but by beholding who He is. As we behold Him, we embrace and identify with His cross and His resurrection.

 

Christ is everything. He is the message and purpose of the whole creation. When we lose ourselves in Him we do not lose, we gain everything to infinity. We are exchanging the worthless and the death for that which is beyond valuation, and a life that cannot be destroyed. We will never make a better transaction.

 

Your ultimate purpose for being on this earth can be summed up in one thing—you are called to walk with God. Your highest purpose for this day is to walk with Him. If you do, you will also make the greatest transaction that can be made on this earth, exchanging some of the death in you for the indestructible life in Him.