“I am crucified with Christ” (Gal. 2:20). “They that are
Christ's have crucified the flesh” (Gal. 5:24). “Our old man is
crucified with Him” (Rom. 6:6). “Likewise recon ye also yourselves to
be dead indeed unto sin” (Rom. 6:11).
Enough has been said thus far to convey to the sanctified, thinking mind that
attainment to the knowledge of God's perfect will demands self-crucifixion. The
natural man, the old self nature, is utterly depraved and beyond hope of any
true spiritual capability or attainment,
permanently
so. It cannot be improved or cultivated into any spiritual capacity or
ability, God cannot fellowship with depravity or communicate with it, or to it;
He requires death for the carnal nature of the natural man. When a soul accepts
Christ as his Saviour and Lord the old self-life is placed upon the cross, and
is never to reign in that soul again.
“Self-ism” is, in the last analysis, the very essence of sin. Dr. A.
H. Strong defines sin as (1) A state; (2) A state of the
will
; (3) A
selfish
state of the will. If you will study and ponder this definition you will see
how truthful it is, and how full of meaning. The Bible views sin as the supreme
choice of self, supreme love of self, supreme service to self. It is the
putting of one's own selfish will, the
self-will
, in opposition to the holy will of God and the doing of what self desires
instead of what God wills. To make our own happiness the ultimate aim of life
in itself sin, in its primary form.
“Sin is essentially egoism, or selfism, putting self in God's place,”
(Samuel Harris). It has four principle characteristics or manifestations; (1)
Self-sufficiency, instead of faith in God; (2) Self-will, instead of submission
to God; (3) Self-seeking, instead of honoring God; (4) Self-righteousness
instead of contrition and humility before God. All the different forms of sin
can be seen to have their roots in selfishness. Sensuality is selfishness in
the form of inordinate appetites. Avarice, ambition, and pride are selfishness
in the form of personal esteem. Falsehood and malice are selfishness in the
form of personal justification and vengeance. Instead of making God the center
of the life and unconditionally surrendering to Him, sin causes the heart to be
turned against Him and makes our own interests the supreme motive and rule of
our existence.
Let us give our attention now to a consideration of this vital and important
matter of self-crucifixion. In order to do that properly we must consider
crucifixion itself, for surely there is significance in the fact that the death
prescribed for the self-nature in the Word of God is described by this awful
figure.
1
Crucifixion is An Unnatural Death.
It cannot be state too emphatically that the flesh, the old sinful nature,
will never die a natural death
. It will never die of old age, but rather increases in vigor with the passing
of time, so that an old person who has not been wrought upon by the Spirit of
God will be much more confirmed in his natural tendencies and propensities, and
far more unrelenting in them, than would have been the case in earlier years of
life, This accounts for the fact that the majority of the people who are saved
were saved in their teens.
Not only is it true that self will not die a natural death, but it actually
resists death—is determined not to die. This is clearly evident.
Self will not die, it must be put to death
. This must be done by violence and force, as in the case of crucifixion. How
violently and forcefully the Holy Spirit apprehended the “Old” Saul
on the road to Damascus, and nailed him to Christ's cross! It was more than
likely this incident that the apostle had in mind when he wrote, “I have
been crucified with Christ.” The old man will not die in any of us unless
we enter into the same experience with Paul and are “crucified with
Christ.”
2
In the second place it must be recalled that
Crucifixion is A Criminal's Death
. It was a death of ignominy and judgment, and was never inflicted upon an
innocent or law-abiding citizen. It was not for the righteous, but for the
unrighteous, the bad man, the outlaw. Now our natural man is all this and more.
He is an outlaw in every sense of the word, having utterly broken and defied
the just and holy law of God, in every form in which it has been revealed; he
is a guilty criminal, a
confirmed rebel
. That is the reason God demands crucifixion.
May God give us the grace to cry out against our flesh, as wicked men once
cried out against our Saviour, “Let him be crucified!” Let us show no
mercy, no compassion, no tolerance to the old sinful self, even though it
loudly cries out for consideration. Justice demands death; a life in the
knowledge of God's will and in obedience to God's will demands it; self-pity is
giving ear to the voice of the evil one. Bear in mind that there is nothing
good in self, only sin and iniquity, and thus secure it to that cross upon
which the Son of God was counted as sin for us!
3
Again,
Crucifixion is a Painful Death
. It is one of the most terrible deaths that cruel men could invent. Its
agonies cannot be fully realized unless actually endured.
Oh, the pains of crucifying self! The old man “dies hard”, and the
pangs of his death are sometimes most excruciating. But we must not relent. As
there cannot be such a thing as painless crucifixion, so there cannot be the
crucifying of the flesh, with its affections and lusts, apart from
“pain.” IF there are no pains in a man's soul it is a sign that self
is not on the cross, and no spiritual progress is being made. But when the
pains are the sharpest and most vicious, we must beware lest we give in to the
pleadings of self for leniency; we must follow in the steps of Paul, and others
who have more recently joined his train, as Bunyan, Brainerd, Judson, Carey,
Taylor, etc.
The more a crucified man resists his inevitable death, the more intense will be
the suffering. Every move, every effort toward release adds to his torture. The
best thing for a victim of crucifixion to do was to resign himself to his
inevitable death, and remain as still and quiet as possible. Oh, that the old
nature in us would but quietly resign itself to death! How much spiritual pain
we would be spared. How many times of weeping before the Lord in deep remorse,
how many seasons of inward agony, could be spared us. But, whether pain or no,
self must be kept on the cross in the lace of death,
and it must die
.
4
Lastly,
Crucifixion is a Slow Death
. This fact holds the secret of the saint's most vital experience. Paul
declares in Roman's 6:6 that we have been crucified with Christ, and later in
the chapter (esp. v. 11) he says, “Likewise (i.e. accordingly)
recon ye also
yourselves to be dead …” Here is the truth in a nutshell: the old
man is crucified but not dead yet.
A man may be crucified and live three days or more, and during that time he may
speak, revile, rage, sneer, beg, and demand. The “old man' does the same
in the believer, though he was certainly crucified with Christ. Our old self
does not die at once but lives on, speaking, reviling, pleading and demanding,
and will indeed continue to do so until our Lord in His own time and way calls
us out of this world.
But once a man was legally crucified his end was inevitable; he was
as good as dead
, knowing he must surely die though he might linger on the cross several days.
Such a man may be described as
living, yet dying
. When the Romans crucified a man his execution was recorded on the day he was
nailed to the cross, and not the day he actually died. You see he was
“reckoned” (counted) dead.
If some say the teaching that the old nature lives on in the believer is one
of bondage, it is because they have not understood this point aright. An
illustration: If a certain people had been governed by a tyrant king, and then
a revolution took place in which that tyrant were crucified, would his subjects
be bound to obey his commands and ragings while he was nailed to a cross,
doomed to die? Certainly not. They would count him conquered, helpless,
as good as dead
. So the Christian, although still conscious of the life of the old fleshly
nature, can and must reckon him dead and consequently, he will enjoy true
victory and liberty in his soul.
The Old Tyrant may be living, but is not reigning in the child of God, and none
of us are bound or obligated to do his bidding. By virtue of our relationship
to Christ we can reckon ourselves dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God; we
need not yield our members as instruments of sin in submission to self-desires,
but may learn God's will and submit ourselves to it. This is the way to victory
and joy.