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Chapter
III
THE SECRET OF VICTORY OVER
SIN
Continued
IT MEANS EVERYTHING to me,
as a Christian, that I was "born crucified,"--born all over again through
death, the death of Jesus Christ. When I was saved, I accepted death
as my only deliverance.
My sins deserved eternal
death
But Jesus died for me.
Christ died in my place.
I was indeed a dead man but for Christ. He died my death. "Who
his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being
dead to sins, should live unto righteousness" (I Pet. 2:24). 1 must be
either "dead in sins" or "dead to sin." If I am lost in Adam, I am "dead
in
sins." If I am saved through union with Christ, I am "dead to sin."
When I accepted Christ's death for my sin, I could not avoid accepting
my own death to sin. Christ died, not only for sin, but unto
sin.
I am committed to the cross. To attempt any other position is to
involve myself in an infamous moral contradiction. My only logical
standing is one of death. I have been "born crucified." It is a first
principle of the Christian life.
This is no mere mechanical
thing, no mere legal fiction. I am actually and vitally joined to
Christ. But, like every other Bible truth, it calls for my hearty
consent. That Christ indeed "liveth in me" is a glorious truth.
If I am saved, that is no mere cold, lifeless imputation. It is a
fact. But it is a truth that calls for my most cordial "Amen." That
I may realize His indwelling, I am commanded to reckon myself dead unto
sin but alive unto God in Christ Jesus. Such reckoning is not make-believe
or, as someone said, "Trying to make yourself believe what isn't so." However,
the reckoning of a lively faith implies more than is usually realized.
Reckoning, in order to be
real, includes self-renunciation. Our reckoning is doomed
to
failure unless we renounce self. In the power of Christ's death I
must refuse my old life. On the basis of Calvary and of my
oneness with Christ in His death, I must refuse to let self lord it over
me. I must choose whether I'll be dominated by the hideous monster
self, or Christ. The life that "Christ liveth in me" must have a
happy "yet not I" at its very heart. How can I have the benefits
of Christ's death while I still want my own way? Self must be dethroned.
I am indeed promised newness of life, but only on the basis that I put
off the old. If Christ went into the abysmal depths of self-emptying
and self-renunciation, I must sink my old self-life into harmony with His
ignominious departure. Let me with Samuel Rutherford "put my hand
to the pen and let the Cross of the Lord Jesus have my submissive and resolute
Amen."
When we thus begin to renounce
self we shall find that this will generally be done through our submission
to someone in the family or business circle. Home missions are good;
foreign missions are better; but "submissions" at home and abroad are best
of all. There are some women who will find practical victory at home
through submitting to that husband's temper; some men through accepting
the lashes of that long-tongued wife; others through embracing that seeming
handicap or infirmity. Often we can believe for victory only around
some such practical obedience. There self is renounced. Reckoning
without the practical renunciation of self proves mere make-believe.
It is just more self-righteousness, more self-effort.
Reckoning also includes rejection
of sin. Paul says: "Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed
unto sin," and then adds, "Let not sin therefore reign." We should
not let sin reign. That we already know. But better still,
we need not let sin reign since we died and passed through death into resurrection
beyond sin's dominion. Sin has no claim over those united to the
Crucified, and sin "shall not have dominion" over those who yield themselves
entirely to the Holy Spirit. "For the law of the Spirit of life in
Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death" (Rom. 8:2).
But as long as we have any controversy with the Holy Spirit we cannot escape
sin's dominion. The Spirit of God is specific and the Scripture is
plain. The "offending" member is to be done to death--not pampered,
or even prayed about. It is indeed good to pray for blessings, and
to cry out for clean hearts, but not when God says "cut off" and "pluck
out." God has truly cut us off from all evil at the |
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