Is this delineation of "self" true or untrue? You have three ways by which you may judge and decide; what God's Word says of him, what you have seen of his manifestation in other lives, and what you know to be true of yourself. In the light of our own experience is there one of us who would not have to confess to every one of these hateful manifestations of "self" at some moment in a greater or less degree? We each of us know what a hydra-headed monster that old "I" is. Luther knew it and said "I am more afraid of my own heart than of the Pope and all his cardinals. I have within me that great Pope "Self".
What, then, shall be done with this most stubborn foe? this most tyrannical sovereign? this bold usurper of God's place? God has declared very plainly in His Word what He has already done with him. He has but one place for "the old man" and that is the Cross, and but one plan for the termination of his despotic rule and that is by his crucifixion with Christ.
Romans 6:6, "Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Christ, that the body of sin might be done away, that so we should no longer be in bondage to sin."
Galatians 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."
2 Corinthians 5:1-15, "For the love of Christ constraineth us: because we thus judge, that one died for all, therefore all died: And he died for all, that they that live should no longer live unto themselves, but unto him who for their sakes died and rose again."
Two things explicitly stated in these verses should be noted; first, that the crucifixion of "the old man" is an already accomplished fact, and second, that it is a co-crucifixion.
Notice the tenses: "was crucified" - past, and "have been crucified" - past perfect. The judicial crucifixion of "the old man" took place centuries ago. Whether or not a single soul ever accepted this glorious fact that the entire old creation in Adam was carried to the Cross and there crucified with Christ, it is as gloriously true as the fact that Christ Himself was crucified.
"One died for all" Substitution - the Saviour on the Cross for the sinner. "Therefore all died". Identification - the sinner on the Cross with the Saviour.
It is part of the flawless provision of God's grace for the believer that everything that pertains to the old nature should terminate its sinful course at the Cross. Whether from "sins" or from "self" the Cross is God's only place of deliverance. But as surely as Christ Jesus "bore my sins in His own body on the tree" just so surely was my "old man crucified with Him" there. If I accept and act upon the one fact by faith, consistently I must accept and act upon the other fact by faith.
Deliverance from the old sphere "in the flesh" and entrance into the new sphere "in the spirit" demands the dethronement of self. It is very evident that house divided against itself cannot stand. No house can entertain two masters without unceasing conflict. If the Lord Jesus is to take the throne and rule over the human personality then "the old man" must abdicate. That he will never do. So God must deal drastically with him. He is a usurper whom God has condemned, and sentenced to death. In His infinite grace God carried out that sentence on Calvary's Cross. And now God declares to every person who cries out for deliverance from the tyranny of self, "the old man was crucified with Christ." Do you believe it and find it increasingly true?
I was once leading a series of meetings in a school in China and was showing the way of deliverance from both the penalty and the power of sin through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. One message was particularly on the theme we were now considering. The most attentive listener in the audience was a man who had been the classical teacher in that school for eleven years. Although he had daily heard the Gospel in chapel and had attended church he had never become a Christian. But during those days the Spirit of God worked mightily in his heart convicting and convincing him and finally leading him to an open confession of Christ. In conversation with a missionary afterward this teacher said that, although he had believed the Gospel truth that Christ died for his sins, he had never accepted Him as Saviour because this did not seem to fully meet his need. He said hat he was under the dominion of sin, and was governed by that old sinful nature and that not until he learned that God in Christ's Cross had dealt with that root, sin, out of which came the fruit, sins, did he believe it was a salvation sufficient to deliver him. But he found in this glorious truth of the crucifixion of "the old man" that God is able to save to the uttermost those that come to Him in Christ and accept the full work of His Cross.
The second fact which these verses make clear is that this is a co-crucifixion. "Our old man" was crucified with Christ. This declares both the method and the time of this crucifixion. There is often confusion at this point.
Paul says, "I have been crucified with Christ." He did not try to crucify himself nor did his crucifixion take place at some special point in his spiritual experience through some act on his part. With that death Paul had no more to do that he had with the death of Christ Himself. The crucifixion of that old "I" was not self-crucifixion neither did it take place in Damascus, Arabia, or when Paul was "caught up to the third heaven." But the death of the "I", which was Saul, took place on the Cross when Christ died there.
The truth becomes easy of apprehension if we but remember that God sees every person either in Adam or in Christ. He deals with the human race through these two representative men. When Adam died the human race died in him. You died in Adam. So did I. Through that spiritual death "the old man" found birth and usurped God's place on the throne of man's life. Christ came as the last Adam to recover for God and for the race all that had been lost to them through the first Adam. God's method of defeating death is through death, so Christ died and the race of sinners died in Him. "One died for all: therefore all died." When the last Adam died "the old man" died with Him. The old "I" in you and in me was judicially crucified with Christ. "Ye died" and your death dates from the death of Christ. "The old man," the old "self" in God's reckoning was taken to the Cross with Christ and crucified and taken into the tomb with Christ and buried.
Romans 6:3-4, "Or are ye ignorant that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life."
The perfection of God's grace is marvelously manifested in this glorious fact of co-crucifixion - the sinner with the Saviour on the Cross. It needs only the perfection of man's faith to make it a glorious reality in his spiritual experience. Assurance of deliverance from the sphere of the "flesh" and of the dethronement of "the old man" rests upon the apprehension and acceptance of this fact of co-crucifixion.
~Ruth Paxson~
(continued with # 4 - "The Creation of the New Man. Co-resurrection with Christ.")
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