"One has to be born into the kingdom of God, and by that birth a man is translated out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God’s beloved Son. But just as one must be born into the kingdom of the Son, one must die to get out of this present evil world! “How shall we that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also (now) live with Him” (Rom. 6:2-8). “Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ, from the rudiments of the world…” (Col. 2:20). “It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with Him, we shall also live with Him” (II Tim. 2:11). My God, what beautiful words! To die this death in the Lord, man must die to himself and to all that he has from Adam, all that is outward, human, and possessing him. Oh, happy death indeed that sweeps away all that is not of the spirit! Oh, blessed death, bringing the soul out of itself, into God, into marriage with the spirit! Blessed death, the beginning of true life, the Christ life! What a wonderful revelation is ours when we discover the great truth that we are dead and our life is hid with Christ in God!"
"There’s not a thing that I like about physical death. I don’t think it’s our friend, and I am certain it is our enemy and has to be overcome. So when the Spirit says, “Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord,” what I see implied here is something more than physical death. It is the dead which die and the place where they die is in the Lord. The Spirit is speaking of the death of the “old man,” death to the self-life. By “the dead” are meant those who have died and are dead in Christ — “in the Lord.” It signifies those who are crucified with Christ, who have afflicted their soul, and crucified their flesh. They have been crucified unto the world, and the world is crucified unto them. “Whosoever taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me” (Mat. 10:38). “If any one will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me” (Mat. 16:24). “And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts” (Gal. 5:24)."
Larger study in the link:
"When we have talked about the ongoing death to the carnal mind and the self-life we have sometimes imagined restricting and restraining ourselves, denying ourselves all kinds of pleasures, desires, emotions, and actions. But that’s not dying to Self! That’s an effort at restraining the outer man which in the final analysis changes nothing! Sixteen hundred years of the law of Moses demonstrated infallibly man’s inability to either restrain or reform the Adamic nature. Death to the self-life comes only by the raising up within ourselves of a new dimension and higher power of Life! It was the apostle Paul who taught us the wonderful truth that it is the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus that makes us free from the law of sin and death (Rom. 8:2). I have some corruptible flesh with corruptible desires and things that would take me captive to the law of sin and death. But I’m looking past it! I’m looking at Him who is invisible, the Christ life, my inner son. I’m looking at Him who is mighty within me, who is able to subdue all things unto Himself, who is able also to keep me from falling and to present me faultless before the throne of His glory! I’m not dwelling upon my flesh, for the outward man is perishing, and there is no covenant with that dying man. But there is a promise to Isaac, there’s a promise to the seed, to the new man who is the nature and image of God in my spirit, and I’m looking unto Him who is my life! These things I write and these blessed hopes I set before you that your spiritual eyes might behold the blessed truth that WE DO NOT DIE IN ORDER TO LIVE — WE LIVE IN ORDER TO DIE!"
"And we conceive that this is what is meant by “dying in the Lord,” we conceive that it means a separation from all that falls short of the glory of God, in order that the nature, character, wisdom, power, and glory of the Lord alone may be manifested in one’s life. A literal rendering of the verse would read, “And I heard a voice out of heaven, saying, Write thou: Blessed ones, the dead ones, those who are dying in the Lord from henceforth…” If we can lay aside the tradition of the theologians we will see by these words that the expression, “the dead ones, those who are dying,” points clearly to those who have died with Christ and now continue to die daily."
"It will be useful to us to notice that there are many deaths referred to in the scriptures, each one being, fundamentally, nothing more than a separation from something. All humans in Adam are born dead, dead in “trespasses and in sins” (Eph. 2:1), that is, in their minds, by wicked works they are dead to God, dead to the spirit, dead to truth, dead to righteousness, thus separated from God, out of fellowship with Him. And then for such as come into the blessings of salvation, this original death is counteracted by another death, which is a separation from the world and sin and self, and leads to union with Christ in the spirit (Rom. 7:9-11; Gal. 2:19-20). Then there is the death we all know so well, physical death, which is the separation of the spirit from the body. After one is regenerated, there are many deaths all along the way, that is, if one is to follow the Lord all the way into perfection and the fullness of God. Paul said, “I die daily” (I Cor. 15:31). By this He meant his ongoing and complete separation from all that adhered to him of his own will, his own way, his own mind, his own desires, his own thoughts, his own ambitions, his own plans, and separation from all that might defile, from every vestige of the world, the flesh, even religion, for he spoke of being dead to the law by the body of Christ. He had given up all, with his nature changed from glory to glory as he was transfigured into the image of Christ."