1. 1. THE DEATH ON THE CROSS: AN EXPERIENCE FOR US

I [Paul] determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. I Corinthians 2:2

What we all need today is to know in experience the salvation to the uttermost that is ours through Christ's atoning death on the Cross. The apostle Paul's determination when he came to Corinth was to have not only an intellectual knowledge, but also an experiential knowledge of Jesus Christ and His Cross.

1. 2. DEEPER MEANING OF THE DEATH ON THE CROSS

The initial message of the Cross, which concerns our justification before God, has been regarded as basic throughout the years and has been presented somewhat clearly. But concerning other deeper meanings of Calvary's Cross, there has been, and is, much confusion. Many have not had clear understanding of such passages of Scripture as "I die daily"; "ye have put off the old man"; "crucified with Christ"; "the old man was crucified"; "make to die the doings of the body"; "deny yourself"; "ceased from sin"; sinneth not"; "dead unto sin"; "alive unto God," and others. For this reason even though we are told plainly that He always "giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ," and also that "His grace is sufficient for us," many Christians are still living defeated lives.

In many cases, the reason for the confusion and lack of understanding of the deeper meaning of the Cross is that there has not yet been a definite break with sin. All too many have not totally renounced self and so are still making provision for the flesh (Rom. 13:14). Until we come to an end of ourselves and make a full surrender to Christ, we shall never be able to understand the deeper truths of God's Word, for it is written, "The rich he hath sent empty away" (Luke 1:53). But on the other hand, there are those who really want a deeper life with God and who "hunger and thirst after righteousness." To all such, we are trusting the Lord to bring about the fulfillment of His promise, "They shall be filled."

1. 3. A BIRD'S EYEVIEW OF THE WORK OF THE CROSS

With these hungry souls in mind, we are setting forth in this booklet a bird's-eye view of the work of the Cross in three of its main aspects:

1. First, Christ Crucified FOR Us - Our Substitute. This aspect of the Cross of Christ deals with the unregenerate man, that is, with perversity-and makes possible the forgiveness of sins and regeneration.
2. Second, Christ Crucified AS Us-Our Representative. Here the Cross of Christ deals with the old man, that is, with carnality-and makes possible both freedom from the power of sin and also the filling of the Holy Spirit.
3. Third, Christ Crucified IN Us-Our Indweller. This aspect of the Cross of Christ does not deal with sin in the Christian. It deals with the new man, that is, with humanity (or the physical man). The daily Cross makes possible the disciplined control of the physical body, the sacrifice of the body that others too may live, intercessory prayer, and victorious warfare against Satan.

1. 4. WE ALL SEE IT IN PART: AN ELEPHANT IS LIKE A ROPE!

Though all who have been exposed to the Scriptures have some conception of the Cross and its meaning, yet even the most enlightened see only in part. Our capacity to see the whole truth of God's so great a salvation is very limited at best. The simple story of the four blind men and the elephant seems applicable here. One of the blind men felt the elephant's leg and said, "I know that an elephant is like a tree"; another, feeling his ear, knew that an elephant was like a fan; a third felt his side and knew an elephant was like a rough wall; still another felt his tail and said, "I certainly can't see how you all can be so mistaken, for any one would know that an elephant is like a rope."

All saw the elephant-in part. Did any really see the elephant?

1. 5. WE ALL NEED A REVELATION OF THE FULL MEANING OF THE CROSS: NOT COMMENTARIES

In the salvation of our souls, God has provided so much that even if we see in Calvary all that Luther saw, together with all that Calvin saw, and in addition all that Wesley saw, we still would not know the whole of God's tremendous work on our behalf at Calvary. The liberals see and accept only the third aspect of the Cross - a form of self-denial. Some fundamentalists (there are several varieties of those who believe the Bible is the Word of God) generally see only the first aspect. Holiness people see the first and second aspects but as a rule not the third. Others, accepting only the first and third aspects, would not consider the second crisis at all. Then, is not what we all need a revelation of the full meaning of the Cross? We must each appropriate all the benefits of Calvary. To this end may the Lord himself enlighten us now as we look into the three aspects in greater detail.

1. 6. THE FIRST ASPECT OF THE CROSS

The first aspect of the Cross, Christ Crucified FOR Us - Our Substitute, deals with unregenerate man, the man "dead in his trespasses and sins." First, the Holy Spirit begins to convict a man of his sins and to reveal to him that he is lost, outside the fellowship of God, and subject to eternal death. As this sinner responds and confesses his sins, the Holy Spirit through the Word shows clearly that the stroke due him fell on Christ (Isa. 53:8, margin). "Christ died for our sins" (I Cor. 15:3), and "His own self bare our sins in his body upon the tree, that we, having died unto sins, might live unto righteousness" (I Peter 2:24).

In this first work of the Cross, the Holy Spirit points out to the sinner the only way of salvation from sins. He reveals that God's plan is to save his people from-not in-their sins. God's terms for our receiving His provision of salvation are twofold: "repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ" (Acts 20:21). Repentance is turning from sin; faith is turning to, and receiving Christ as Lord and Savior. Only when the sinner repents and trusts does God forgive and regenerate. Therefore the sinner must repent, must forsake his sins, and must believe that Christ died for his sins. "Confess your sins," says I John 1:9.

That is our side of it, and if we do our part and receive Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior, God will do His part, applying the benefit and value of the Cross. He will both forgive us and regenerate us, for "He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins." Thus we will be "born again," and it will be true of us as it is declared in Ephesians 2:1: "You did he make alive, when ye were dead through your trespasses and sins." Salvation, then, is not by believing a doctrine or confessing a creed, but salvation is becoming united to a Person, and that Person is Jesus Christ.

1. 7. ONLY FORGIVENESS AND REGENERATION?

But is forgiveness and regeneration all that the Cross can do for us? No, it is neither all that our God can do nor all that He wants to do. He meets the sinner's first need and perhaps his only need at that time as he sees it-namely, salvation from the guilt and penalty of sin. But this is just the beginning of God's work.

Very soon the young convert, now no longer spiritually dead but alive unto God, knows that he needs a deeper work of grace in his heart. He knows that he has other needs besides the forgiveness of sins. Though forgiven, he is not always victorious, for there seems to be a power of sin in his life so that he "may not do the things that [he] would" (Gal. 5:17). He loves the Lord and His will, yet he finds himself in bondage so that he can not obey the Lord perfectly. Nor does he have abiding joy. Within is a conflict, for "the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh" (Gal. 5:17). To be sure, at times he has joy, but very much of his experience is up and down. The great tragedy in the Christian Church is that many are told this is the normal Christian experience, and so lose heart and go back to the world.

It is just here that the Holy Spirit can reveal to the hungry a deeper aspect of the Cross: Christ Crucified AS Us-Our Representative. This aspect deals not with Christ taking upon himself the stroke which was our due, but with Christ bearing us to the Cross. To the soul that really hungers and thirsts for righteousness and seeks for a way out, God reveals that Jesus died as us: "One died for all, therefore all died … that they that live should no longer live unto themselves, but unto him" (2 Cor. 5:14-15). God's Word also says that "our old man was crucified with him" (Rom. 6:6).

1. 8. THE SECOND ASPECT OF THE CROSS: DENIAL OF SELF, AND SURRENDER

God's Word declares specifically, "He [Christ] died for all." But it also says, "Therefore all died." Both statements must be accepted and believed. To receive salvation we must accept God's terms, which are repentance and faith-faith in the fact of Christ's death for us as our Substitute on Calvary's Cross.

It is exactly the same regarding the second aspect of the Cross. Though Christ's death as us happened two thousand years ago, in our experience this becomes real only when we meet Christ's terms. What are these terms? Surrender and faith. "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself" (Matt. 16:24).

Surrender is the denial of self-not the denial of things, and not even self-denial (so-called). Denial of self is an utter unconditional surrender to Jesus Christ, including the giving up of all my "rights to myself." Here is the root of sin in experience-my idea that I have a right to myself, or that these are my rights. Thus, the reason that we are so easily irritated, jealous, touchy, impatient, anxious, proud, or angry (to say nothing of the grosser sins) is that we have not denied ourselves.

Our part is to deny self, to nail the disposition to have our own way to the Cross. The Word says that positionally "our old man was crucified with him." It is already done, for there we were crucified, there we died, there we were buried. As far as God is concerned, He is through with the old man. However, in our experience, God will not make this real until we give Him permission by making an absolute surrender to Him-a surrender so complete that death (to self) is the only word that can properly describe it. Then we can go on and reckon ourselves "dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 6:11).

And so, God's part in redemption through the person of Jesus Christ is already full and complete. Our part is to get rightly adjusted to what Jesus Christ has already done-our part is to come and take all that He has done. Many come and take only the forgiveness of sins; some come and take a little deeper measure of victory; but God wants us to have the full value of the death of Christ. God's table is spread, and "all things are now ready." His great invitation is "Come" (Luke 14:17), for "according to your faith be it done unto you" (Matt. 9:29).

As we mentioned before, the principles involved in "entering in" to Christ crucified as us are the same as in Christ crucified for us. If we will but deny ourselves and forsake all that we have, giving ourselves with full abandonment to God, He will by the Holy Spirit make the Cross real in our experience. Then we will find that we are not only dead to sin (plural)-this must be our attitude if we are Christians at all-but we will also be able to "reckon ourselves dead to sin" (singular). Literally, we will be delivered "out of the power of darkness, and translated … into the kingdom of the Son of his love" (Col. 1:13). This truth, positionally true of all, will become experientially true, so that we will have a right to say no to temptation. We will have a right also too say no to the devil and to the claims of the old life. "If the Son shall make [us] free, [we] shall be free indeed."

Now there are many that think this second aspect of the Cross is a daily dying. But the context very plainly tells us that it is a definite crisis experience, for Romans 6:10, 11 says Christ "died unto sin once: … Even so reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin." This must be a crisis experience, a definite break with sin, a definite break with bondage to the flesh. If this is still a daily experience with us, it must be because we have not utterly denied self, we have not renounced all that we have, and we are still making provision somewhere for the flesh. God's Word says, "Make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof" (Rom. 13:14).

Here, then, in this second aspect of the Cross of Christ, is God's provision for the old man, for carnality-namely, death. There must be a willingness to die to the old life and all that pertains to it, and then a trusting the Holy Spirit to make real in us what God's Word promises. God's provision is to "put away, as concerning your former manner of life, the old man, that waxeth corrupt after the lusts of deceit … and put on the new man, that after God hath been created in righteousness and holiness of truth" (Eph. 4:22-24).

1. 9. THE THIRD ASPECT OF THE CROSS: OUR INDWELLER

Finally, there is still a deeper meaning of the Cross of Christ, a third aspect: Christ Crucified IN Us-Our Indweller, which deals with the physical man, or humanity. It is here we have a daily application of the Cross. Jesus said unto them all, "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me" (Luke 9:23). This deeper experience is not a daily dying to sin, but a daily bearing of the cross, and is necessary (as we show in separate booklets later) for several reasons: for the control of the body; for sacrificial living; for a spirit of brokenness; for intercession for others; and for warfare against the accuser of our brethren.

1. 10. THE DISCIPLINE OF THE BODY

First, we shall very briefly consider the control of discipline of the body. Though the old man (which was in bondage to the devil and the world) has been crucified, yet the new man needs to be brought into full subjection to God. Even though we have been forgiven our sins, and also have been cleansed from all sin, there must be right living and growth, and full adjustment to God and His purpose. Genuine though the blessing of sanctification may have been, it is not a state of grace from which we can not fall. It may be list. It is necessary therefore to live a disciplined life- "to keep under the body and bring it into subjection" (I Cor. 9:27, KJV).

In the old life, the body was an instrument of sin and under the dominion of the old man (which was energized by the devil); the body itself was not sin, but was an instrument of sin; the body was not bad, but was simply under the wrong management can come to an end. Through the wondrous working of the Cross, in place of the wrong disposition (the old man), God gives us the disposition of Christ. Therefore we are admonished:

"Neither present your members unto sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves unto God, as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God" (Rom. 6:13). The body has appetites, desires, urges, and passions, which are not wrong in themselves; but if these are not controlled by the Holy Spirit, they will become wrong. For this reason we must keep the body under the control of Christ and bear the daily cross.

1. 11. LIVING TO PLEASE GOD

Christ himself had to bear a daily cross to keep His body under the control of the Holy Spirit. We are told concerning Him that "Christ also pleased not himself" (Rom. 15:3). He did not have a sinful nature, yet He had to stay under the discipline of the Holy Spirit.

He lived only to please God. His daily cross was not always seen, but it was a cross nevertheless. For instance, as He was tempted of the devil in the wilderness, He fasted for forty days and then became hungry. Under ordinary circumstances, would it have been wrong to eat? No. But Christ did not eat, for this suggestion to eat was a temptation from the devil, and therefore to yield would have been sin. So, even though Christ's body demanded food, He pleased not himself but chose to trust the Father to feed Him whenever His Father's purpose in the wilderness had been fulfilled.

To sum up this working of the Cross in the control of the body; we will use again two simple illustrations. First, our eating. It is not wrong to eat, but it can become wrong if we eat too much or too often. Just here we need the repeated application of the Cross to keep our body under control. Second, our sleeping. Of course sleep is not wrong; it is necessary. But we know sleep can become wrong if we sleep when God wants us to be awake. Lest our bodies become again the instruments of sin, we must bear our cross and not please ourselves. Moreover, every other appetite and desire of the body-even though the appetite is not wrong in itself-must be kept under the control of the Holy Spirit.

1. 12. GREAT CONFUSION - LOCATING SIN IN BODY ONLY

Great confusion exists right here. So many locate sin in the body, thinking that sin is something material, that it is a sort of "lump of something" that either must be removed by some kind of spiritual surgery, or that must be retained as long as we are in the body. But sin is not material and does not have its seat in the body. Sin, rather, is in the soul, in the spiritual part of man. Sin is a tendency, an attitude, a wrong way of looking at things. Sin stems from self being at the center of the life. But when we surrender fully to Christ and trust Him to forgive and also to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, then sin is removed and the taint gone. The heart that is pure and filled with perfect love is ready for the anointing of the Holy Spirit. But even then, lest we again begin to please ourselves, we need the daily application of the Cross to maintain the decision made in the crisis of sanctification.

1. 13. DAILY WORKING OF THE CROSS NEEDED

Yet we need the daily outworking of the Cross not only in disciplining the body but also in sacrificing the body. That others may live, we must be willing to sacrifice all, even life itself. This is what the apostle Paul means in 1 Corinthians 15:31 where he says, "I die daily." The context is very plain and shows clearly that the reference is to physical death. This is not speaking about sin; this is speaking about Paul's physical body. Daily he was willing to hazard his life to death. The preceding verse says, "We also stand in jeopardy every hour" (1 Cor. 15:30), while the following verse declares, "After the manner of men I fought with beasts at Ephesus" (I Cor. 15:32). To apply this passage to "death to sin" would require the greatest stretch of imagination and the greatest liberty in exegesis.

Here Paul does not refer to sin at all, but to his willingness to sacrifice his life that others may live. We have this truth further explained in 2 Corinthians 4:7-12: "We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves … For we who live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake … So then death worketh in us, but life in you." Thus, not only must our body be kept under control (so that it does not rule us but we rule it), but also this disciplined body of ours must be used for others. In order that others may live, we must be "broken bread and poured out wine."

1. 14. FRUIT-BEARING AND LIVING SACRIFICE

In Romans 12:1 we are exhorted to present our bodies as a living sacrifice to God- "holy and acceptable." But man in his natural state is not holy; he is not acceptable. Controlled by the old man, the body is neither holy nor acceptable. Only the man who has experienced the crucifixion of this old life (the second aspect of the Cross) can present himself to God as a living sacrifice. Thus this third aspect of the Cross goes on to deal not with sin but with the physical body (or humanity), that our bodies may be kept under control and sacrificed so that others may live.

This is the secret of fruit-bearing that the Bible and all nature tells about: "Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone; but if it die, it beareth much fruit" (John 12:24). This verse does not refer to surrendering the old man (self-life) to God, for we do not plant bad seed but good. This verse refers to handing over the new life to God to plant it so that thereby it may bring forth fruit. In order to make bread for others, God will break the one who has already been cleansed from sin, and has already been liberated from the domination of self, the world, and Satan.

1. 15. THE ROLE OF INTERCESSORY PRAYER

There is another application of this third aspect of the Cross - intercessory prayer. This, too, has nothing to do with sin, but rather with the outworking of the purpose of God in the new man. Intercessory prayer is not mere praying for someone. It is "the supplication of a righteous man [that] availeth much in its working" (James 5:17).

Moses broke out in a great sob as he prayed for his people who had exchanged their Deliverer and Supplier of every need for a golden calf. This was no ordinary prayer. This was not just a prayer for someone's blessing. Moses said, "Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin-; and if not, blot me … out of thy book which thou hast written." So great was Moses' burden, his agony, his intensity that he could not even finish the sentence. Moses offered himself. It was as if he were saying, "God, You can do anything You want with me-only save the people. If it be possible for me to bear their sin, I will." Of course, his offer was rejected, for there is only one sin-bearer-that is, Christ. However, we see here a depth of prayer that few ever reach. Not many will follow the leading of the Cross to this depth, but the apostle Paul surely did when he prayed, "I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were anathema from Christ for my brethren's sake" (Rom. 9:2-3).

This is not an easy path. No experience of sanctification automatically makes an intercessor, and so one must go on from death to the self-life to this deeper experience of the Cross-intercessory prayer. The cleansed vessel must be broken before the Christ within may be revealed in all His glory. The easiest but yet the hardest way of bringing the lost to Jesus is intercessory prayer. "Who follows in His train?"

1. 16. TO CONCLUDE

In conclusion, let us sum up the three aspects of the Cross. First, we trust Christ to forgive us our sins. Secondly, we trust Christ to cleanse us from all unrighteousness and to fill us with His Holy Spirit. And thirdly, lest we begin to please ourselves, we need the daily application of the Cross, disciplining and sacrificing ourselves for the sake of Christ's kingdom to the ends of the earth.

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Making known ... the mystery of his will ... according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord ... till we all attain ... unto a full grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. Ephesians 1:9; 3:11; 4:13

2. 1. CHRIST CRUCIFIED AS US

To learn further of God's wondrous plan for man's salvation to the uttermost, let us approach the second aspect of the Cross -- Christ Crucified AS Us -- from the viewpoint of God's eternal will for man.

In the first chapter of the first book of the Bible, God makes known His eternal purpose for man in the words, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness" (Gen. 1:26). This was what God wanted, and this was what God made -- a man in His own image, after His own likeness. God wanted a man on earth to manifest the glory of God visibly. From this eternal purpose for creating man, He has never deviated, for Jehovah "changeth not." Though man's Fall made redemption necessary, it did not annul or change His purpose. Redemption was not God's afterthought, for long before man fell, even before his creation, provision for his restoration had been made. Therefore the central teaching of God's Word is still "Be ye holy, for I am holy" (1 Pet. 1:16, KJV); and "Walk even as he walked" (1 John 2:6). This is what God expects, and this is what God provided -- salvation to the uttermost, made possible through the redemption of Christ. Any other salvation is an illusion.

2. 2. "VERY GOOD MAN" IN THE HOUR OF TESTING

The reason man in his first estate was pronounced "very good" was a lack of evil rather than a definite choosing of good. But God wanted man to exercise his power of will and definitely choose to be Godlike and holy. Yet to be like God man must be like Him in will, and so Adam was given his own free will to make a deliberate choice (perhaps a series of choices) by which he would transform his state of innocency into holiness.

From Genesis 3, we know that in the hour of testing, Adam did not stand. He fell. The effects of this fall were far-reaching. Adam and Eve became dead to God but alive to sin and the flesh. Truly their eyes were opened. Thus through Adam "sin entered into the world, and death through sin; and so death passed unto all men, for that all sinned" (Rom. 5:12). Adam was more than just the first man on earth; he was the head of the whole human race, so that in Adam the whole race fell from a sinless level, where there was fellowship and communion with God, to a new level where there was no oneness with God. This new level to which Adam and the race fell is the sin and flesh level -- the carnal level -- where man lives for self. On this level all men are born into the world. On this level sin is inevitable.

God intended His man to walk UPWARD. God's intention was that man should constantly advance -- "increasing in the knowledge of God" (Col. 1:10). This increase was to have begun in the life of Adam and, we believe, will continue through all eternity -- as God unfolds His treasures, the mysteries of His love and of His grace. It represents God's purpose of fellowship and communion for the man whom He had created.

2. 3. GOD'S FOREKNOWLEDGE OF MAN'S FALL, AND GOD'S GRACE FOR MAN

Because God in His foreknowledge knew man's fall would occur, He made provision for it long before the Creation by the Lamb "slain from the foundation of the world" (Rev. 13:8, KJV). But for this provision to become actual history, the eternal Word of God had to leave heaven, come to earth, become flesh, and walk on the sinless level -- the same level on which Adam walked before the Fall: "Christ Jesus ... existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped [clung to], but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men" (Phil. 2:5-7). Jesus met on earth every temptation and every trial that Adam should have met (and that he would have met had he not fallen). And in all points He was tempted like as we are, and yet, God says, "without sin" (Heb. 4:15). Jesus did not fall. Surely One who himself hath suffered being tempted is able to succor us who are tempted (Heb. 2:18).

Having fully finished the earthly testings, on the day of His death Jesus stepped down from the sinless level to the sin and flesh level, for He was made to be sin on our behalf (2 Cor. 5:21). Just as soon as Jesus touched our sin, just as soon as He took sin upon himself, He died -- "obedient unto death, yea, even the death of the cross" (Phil. 2:8). That was Calvary!

2. 4. OUR INVOLVEMENT IN MAN'S FALL, AND THE CRUCIFIXION OF ALL HUMAN RACE IN CALVARY

Most of us have not had any difficulty in believing or understanding that we were all involved in Adam's fall, and that we were born not in the image of God but in the fallen image of Adam. This is depravity and is clearly manifested by our weakened bodies, our impaired minds, and our disturbed emotions. It is also manifested in that a child becomes committed to selfishness even before reason has developed. Thus the Bible categorically states that everyone chooses sin: "All we like sheep have gone astray" (Isa. 53:6). This is because of the depravity mentioned above and also because of the devil's temptations, the pull of the world, and almost universal example. We must bear in mind that we are born into an anti-Christ, pro-self world, and the result of choosing self (selfness, selfishness) is moral depravity -- depravity of the free will. Each man is a voluntary transgressor and verily guilty.

Though Adam was the federal head of the human race, the representative man, he was but the "figure of him that was to come" (Rom. 5:14), for the real head is the last Adam, Christ. Yet if Adam, the figure, could take the whole human race into sin, surely Christ, the substance of that figure, could take the whole race back to God. As Jesus Christ hung on the Cross of Calvary, He died not only for us (our Substitute), but as us (our Representative). He was united with the human race and became our representative so that when He hung on that Cross, we hung there with Him. When He died, we died. When He was buried, we were buried. As far as God is concerned, at Calvary the sinful human race was crucified, dead, and buried. "We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death" (Rom. 6:4).

2. 5. VARYING ATTITUDES OF MEN TOWARD CHRIST'S DEATH

The varying attitudes of men and of God toward Christ's death is illuminating. Had Pilate cared to write an inscription on the stone at the door of the sepulcher, he would have written, "Here lies Jesus, King of the Jews." If the Scribes and Pharisees had written the epitaph, they would have written, "Here lies the impostor who claimed to be the Son of God." Had Satan written the inscription, it would have read, "Jesus of Nazareth, whom I have overcome." But if God had written the inscription, it would have read, "Here lies the sinful human race." This then is the deeper meaning of Christ's death. Jesus himself was crucified; but the Bible account declares that "with him were two others, malefactors, one on either side." The truth is that far more than two others were crucified with Him, for He identified himself with the whole sinful race. He bore us all to Calvary. In the person of Christ we all died.

There should be no difficulty in understanding this truth, for we all accept this fact of federal headship in the matter of the Fall. Adam acted for the whole human race so that when he chose sin rather than obedience, he, the head of the race, plunged all of us to that sin and flesh level. (See the lower black line with its downward trend.) Genesis 5:1 and 3 clearly tell us that though Adam was created in the likeness of God, Adam's posterity was begotten in his own likeness. After the Fall this likeness was therefore a fallen likeness, so that we all inherit a fallen nature, which is really not our fault but our calamity. We are not considered guilty simply because we are born with a fallen nature. We are guilty because by sinning we endorse Adam's sin and fallen nature. No one is condemned for being born in Adam's fallen image, but on the contrary for rejecting Christ as man's Savior from this heredity. Our condemnation is for persisting in going our own way, for endorsing Adam's sin by sinning.

2. 6. WE WERE ALL TAKEN THERE!

It is exactly this same principle with regard to endorsing Christ's death on Calvary. Positionally, we were all taken there; in the mind of God the whole human race died with Christ. But as we endorsed Adam's sin by sinning and thus became guilty sinners, so now we must endorse Christ's death by dying to sin and self. Only in this way do we renounce all that Adam entered into by his sin and fall. Jesus struck at the very heart of this fact when He said, "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself" (Matt. 16:24). "Whosoever he be of you who renounceth not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:33).

2. 7. ASSOCIATE WITH CHRIST'S DEATH IN AN EXPERIENTIAL WAY

It is possible to know all these great truths and still be entirely without the benefits they confer. To believe in our identification with Christ in His death in an abstract way is not enough. It must be experiential. Let us keep in mind that we become guilty when we endorse Adam's sin by sinning, but we become spiritual when we endorse Christ's death and resurrection by dying and being raised with Him. Jesus says that denial of self (giving up of all personal rights, renouncing everything that belongs to the old life -- in other words, a complete about-face) is a step we must take. Only then will the Holy Spirit make this great truth real in our personal experience so that we will receive its full benefit -- namely, ability to live unto God, and deliverance from the power of sin, of the devil, and of the world.

But if Adam, the figure of Him who was to come, could work such havoc with the race, taking us all down to sin (the level colored black), Christ, the Substance of that figure, can do infinitely more. If Adam's fall was drastic and far-reaching, how much more is Christ's so great redemption and deliverance when He took us not only to death and the grave but also raised us up with Him to the spiritual level. (Notice the blue broken line with its upward trend.) Remember that burial is not the end. The gospel delivered unto us is that Christ died and rose. "We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death: that ... we also might walk in newness of life" (Rom. 6:4). Christ did not remain in the grave, for God raised His Son from the dead on the third day. But since His Son had become identified with man, at His resurrection He raised up a new creation with Him, making it to "sit with him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus" (Eph. 2:6). For "if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection" (Rom. 6:5). "If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new" (2 Cor. 5:17).

2. 8. THE NEW LIFE IS BY FAITH

By birth man is unregenerate or natural. But on the basis of being identified with Jesus both in His death and in His resurrection, man can by faith become spiritual. (Study the chart to clarify this possibility.) Adam before the Fall, and Jesus Christ while on earth lived sinless lives. We too can become spiritual and live on earth free from sin on the basis of Christ's redemption. "Made free from sin, ye became servants of righteousness" (Rom. 6:6, 18, 22).

This new life is by faith. As we received Christ initially by faith, so now we are to walk by faith. This does not mean that it is not real. It is more real than the things that are seen, "for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal" (2 Cor. 4:18). Therefore "as ... ye received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him" (Col. 2:6).

2. 9. WE CAN CERTAINLY FALL AGAIN!

This spiritual level, however, is not a state of grace from which we cannot fall (though it is one from which we need not fall.) To be spiritual is to be rightly related to Christ; it is to walk and be led by the Spirit of God. "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God" (Rom. 8:14). Certainly the Spirit of God will not lead us into sin; He will lead us into holiness. If we will but respond to the leading of the Spirit, we will walk even as He walked (1 John 2:6) and be holy as He is holy, and so pass the test of being a child of God.

Of course, all outside of Christ live on the carnal level (which is the same as the sin and flesh level). But many who claim to be Christians are also walking on this level. Paul had to write to the Corinthians: "I ... could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, as unto babes in Christ." Thus, in spite of redemption, it is possible to live on the carnal level, for man still has his own free will to choose self or Christ. Redemption must be individually appropriated. A man living on the carnal level by choice is not saved. The salvation of a man who lives on the carnal level through ignorance is dependent upon faith in Christ and full obedience to the light which he has. He who refuses to surrender fully to Christ is rejecting and despising the provision God has made for his full salvation. He is trampling under foot the blood of Christ that was poured out for him. "A man that hath set at nought Moses' law dieth without compassion on the word of two or three witnesses: of how much sorer punishment, think ye, shall he be judged worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?" (Heb. 10:28-29).

2. 10. CHRIST'S REDEMPTION IS GREATER THAN ADAM'S FALL!

Many seem to think that Christ's power of full redemption is much less than the consequences of Adam's fall, but in Romans 5 we are told five times that the power of Christ's redemption is much more than the consequences of the Fall. There is super-abundance of grace! There is enough grace not only for the forgiveness of sins and to get man into heaven, but enough grace for a victorious life, for a life that will fully please God. "If, by the trespass of one, death reigned through the one; much more shall they that receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, even Jesus Christ" (Rom. 5:12, 17). Rejoice in all such promises.

Long before creation, man's redemption in the person of God's Son was planned, and when the fullness of time came, it was executed and became history. On the basis of that redemption, God's power is now able to save and to restore us to the life God planned for us.

Enoch, who lived long before the Cross became history, is an example of walking on the spiritual level. By faith he so looked forward to the Cross and laid hold of the grace and power of God that he was transformed and had witness borne to him that he was well-pleasing unto God. Hebrews 11:5, 6 says,

By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and he was not found, because God translated him: for he hath had witness borne to him that before his translation he had been well-pleasing unto God: and without faith it is impossible to be well-pleasing unto him; for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that seek after him.

2. 11. A WALK ON THE SPIRITUAL LEVEL, IMPOSSIBLE TODAY?

But a walk on the spiritual level is not possible today, many say. Such people have been trying to live the victorious life in their own strength. To live our lives as best we can after we have believed in Christ and accepted Him as our Savior is not enough. Most Christians agree to this, but they differ concerning how much God can do. But redemption is complete! And if God does not transform a sinner into a saint in walk as well as in his standing, it is because of rebellion or pride! A man's refusal to let God have His full way with him is rebellion! And if a man does not believe that God can save him completely, he is saying that God has finally found a problem He cannot solve. This reasoning is pride of the worst form, for it is making self bigger than God!

With a man who is fully surrendered to Him, God can do anything He pleases. What is needed is that we come to Christ and admit that we cannot of ourselves live the Christian life any more than we could save ourselves. That is why Jesus made so plain to us His terms of discipleship: "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me" (Matt. 16:24). We must deny ourselves; we must give up all our rights; we must surrender ourselves fully into the hands of God. "Whosoever he be of you that renounceth not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:33). We must forsake all, or we cannot be His disciples! We must trust Him fully and only. In no other way can God free us from dependence upon ourselves or things. If we will trust Him, the Holy Spirit will reproduce in us the life of Jesus Christ and enable us to walk as He walked.

Some say that they cannot understand how we can walk as He walked. No, it cannot be understood any more than the initial crisis of salvation can be understood by the natural mind. It must be experienced to be understood. Let us not come short of God's eternal purpose for man. God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." "Ye shall be holy, for I am holy." He is "able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus unto all generations for ever and ever. Amen."

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3. DELIVERANCE

[Christ] delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love. Colossians 1:13

3. 1. A GREAT SERMON WITH LITTLE RESULTS!

At Athens Paul's witness to the Jews in the synagogue and to others in the marketplace gave him an opportunity on Mars Hill to address a whole assembly of Jews and Greek philosophers. This message, Acts 17:22-31, is often used in homiletics classes as an example of a great sermon. But the results were disappointing. Elsewhere by the power of God, Paul had influenced great numbers to turn from their evil ways to Christ, but in Athens there was no great move of the Spirit. Only a few turned to Christ.

As Paul left Athens, a despised and lonely man, we can imagine that there were questions in his mind: Why did my message not have its usual power? Does the gospel not meet the needs of the upper-class Athenians? Does the gospel have a special appeal and power for the common people only? As he made his journey from Athens to Corinth, perhaps alone, he likely considered the points of his sermon. What had been wrong? He had spoken on creation, repentance, resurrection, judgment, and idolatry. He had used their own poets for illustration. What he had said was right and good. What was missing? He had made no mention of the Cross! For that reason Paul writes to the Corinthians:

And I, brethren, when I came unto you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power (1 Cor. 2:1-4).

3. 2. WHEN THE CROSS IS OBSCURED OR LEFT OUT . . .

That was it: in the preaching of the Cross there was power; but when the Cross had been obscured or left out altogether, there was no power. Today also, there is definite need for the Cross to be preached in its fullness.

As we have just seen, Christ's substitutionary death on the Cross is for the unregenerate man and makes possible the forgiveness of his sins and an assurance of eternal life. This is a conscious, crisis experience of new birth received when the God-given conditions of repentance and faith are fulfilled. Soon after this, the babe in Christ receives a revelation by the Spirit of the need of a deeper working of Calvary. He discovers that even though he has been converted, sin has power over him still, and therefore he cannot do the things that he would (Gal. 5:17). He loves the Lord and His will, yet finds himself in bondage so that he cannot fully obey God. Within him is a contrary principle that makes it difficult for him to give instant and glad obedience to the commands of Christ. He determines to obey the Lord in all things but finds that he does not have the power to carry out his good intentions. He discovers that in many ways he is a captive. Outward victory is not so difficult to gain, but within, a battle rages. Again and again he goes down in defeat until he is almost at the point of despair.

3. 3. THE GREATER THE SENSE OF SIN, GREATER THE ADVANCEMENT IN CHRISTIAN LIFE?

Throughout the years in evangelical circles, only the first aspect of the Cross, Christ crucified FOR us, has been generally presented, while the deeper aspects of the Cross -- Christ crucified AS us and also IN us -- have not been so well taught. And so, not knowing God's provision for victorious living and fruitful service, many Christians have remained in bondage. Often a Christian with inner problems such as we have described is told, "This is just the normal Christian experience"; or else he is solemnly instructed, "The greater the sense of sin, the greater the advancement in the Christian life." This is not so. Praise God, there can be an end to inner conflict of the soul. God has provided a way out.

Let us then consider in detail the second aspect of the Cross -- Christ Crucified AS Us, Our Deliverer -- and thereby learn two basic facts: every Christian's need for the Deliverer, and the way of a Christian's deliverance.

3. 4. A BASIC TROUBLE

A good indication of the basic trouble is found in Romans 7, especially verses 15-24, where the personal pronouns I, me, and my are repeated at least thirty-three times. The basic problem is simply I trouble or self-trouble.

That which I do I know not: for not what I would, that do I practice; but what I hate, that I do. But if what I would not, that I do, I consent unto the law that it is good. So now it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwelleth in me. For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me, but to do that which is good is not. For the good which I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I practice. But if what I would not, that I do, it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwelleth in me. I find then the law, that, to me who would do good, evil is present. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?

To Paul's question, "Who shall deliver me?" the answer comes, "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." But the next sentence which says, "So then I of myself with the mind, indeed, serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin," reveals that this fact of Christ as Deliverer is only mental knowledge and not heart experience. The defeated one sees Christ as Deliverer; but then he sums up the best he himself can do -- that is, continue to live as a dual personality (serving God with the mind, and sin with the flesh). This is indeed a wretched state. It is the carnal level of Christian living mentioned by Paul to the Corinthians: "I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, as unto babes in Christ" (1 Cor. 3:1). They were in Christ and truly born again, but they were still carnal, walking after the manner of men, in jealousy, strife, and divisions.

3. 5. THE INNER CONFLICT

These very sins are as much in evidence in the Church today as they were in Paul's time. Believers indeed need more than the initial forgiveness of sins. They need both cleansing from sin's defilement and also deliverance from its power. Many who are living in a state of justification still have an inner agreement with sin. They have not been delivered completely from the love of sin. They may not really love sin, but they do love their own way and will sin to get it! They are still in bondage and consequently need the deliverance which Christ paid such a great price to procure for every man.

To understand better this inner conflict described so graphically in Romans 7, let us study in detail man's original condition in the Garden of Eden, as well as man's Fall and its results, as recorded in Genesis, chapters 1, 2, and 3. God declares His eternal purpose: "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion ..." (Gen. 1:26.) This is what God wanted and made -- a man in His image and after His likeness, someone on earth to manifest the glory of God visibly. From this eternal purpose God has never deviated, for He changes not. Today He still wants on earth a visible representative of himself: men who are "pure in heart" (Matt. 5:8), "perfect" (Matt. 5:48), and "not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing" (Eph. 5:27). On this matter, our standard, which is God's Word, is extremely plain; and its central teaching is still "Be ye holy."

3. 6. EVERYTHING REVOLVED AROUND GOD: CONCERNING HOLINESS, MAN IN GOD'S OWN IMAGE

Concerning holiness, God has also said: "Follow ... sanctification without which no man shall see the Lord" (Heb. 12:14); "The marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And it was given unto her that she should array herself in fine linen, bright and pure: for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints" (Rev. 19:7-8). We need to be reminded that a holy God must have holy followers, and that sin must not be only forgiven but removed altogether, for "the Lamb of God ... taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29); He "was manifested to take away sins" (1 John 3:5).

According to Genesis, then, God's eternal purpose was to have a man in His own image. In Genesis 2:7 we read, "Jehovah God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." This word life is in the plural -- lives. God breathed into Adam both the animating principle of life and spiritual life. Thus the newly created Adam was unique, for he possessed both earthly life and heavenly life. Through his body he had correspondence with the earth; but through his spirit, quickened by the breath of God (which is the Spirit of God), he had correspondence with heaven and so was a partaker of the divine nature. God was the center of his life. Everything revolved around God.

Of this man and his wife the Word says, "God saw everything that he had made, and, behold it was very good" (Gen. 1:31). But though Adam and Eve were "very good" in their present condition, they needed to be tested. Through obedience, their innocence needed to be transformed into holiness. Even though God had breathed into them the breath of life (His Spirit), this did not mean that Adam and Eve were filled with the Spirit. For instance, in the New Testament Jesus Christ the Son of God breathed on the disciples and said, "Receive ye the Holy Spirit" (John 20:22); yet until Pentecost, some fifty days later, the disciples were not filled with the Spirit. Adam and Eve, however, had the opportunity of being filled with the Spirit through faith and obedience, even as Christians do today (though they did not need cleansing as we do, for they had not yet entered into conscious transgression).

3. 7. TWO-FOLD WRONG ACTS

Then came the awful facts of our first parents' failure and transgression (Genesis 3). As rational, self-conscious beings, they were confronted with conditions requiring the exercise of choice. To guide them aright, the Lord had carefully given them instruction and commandments. Both their endowment and environment were such as to enable them to continue in fellowship and union with God. Yet the devil, the enemy of their souls, tempted them successfully. Their first mistake was in listening to him. This resulted in the awakening of a wrong desire, which resulted in a wrong choice, which led to a wrong act. The Fall became an accomplished fact.

The wrong act of Adam and Eve was twofold: first, their act was disobedience to their God and Creator, and so broke fellowship and union with Him; second, their act meant that they had yielded to, obeyed, and established a relationship, a fellowship, and a union with their unsuspected enemy, the devil, so that he whom the Scriptures call "the god of this world" (2 Cor. 4:4) now became their new master.

3. 8. CHANGE OF CENTER: MAN BECOMES THE CENTER

The Fall of Man resulted then in a change of center. Up to this time God had been the center of Adam's life, so that everything revolved around God. (Glance at the chart on the inside front cover, noticing the two centers -- self and Christ.) Adam's real sin was rejecting God as the center of his being, thereby elevating and substituting self as the new center and ruling principle. From then on, Adam ceased to be God-centered; now he was self-centered, a slave to Satan. Moreover, Adam's choice involved his progeny, for Adam was not only the first man but also the federal head of the human race. Because of his fall, he lost his federal headship and never regained it. Yet his fall involved the fall of the whole race, and so all his progeny manifest the same tendency of self-will and of self-centeredness. Even though Adam, we believe, was subsequently saved, he was not saved as the federal head of the race but as an individual.

And so, the evil of man's fallen nature is selfness or self-centeredness, rightly termed depravity, or sinfulness of nature. Many wrongly think of this sinfulness as the injection of a literal poison into the bloodstream, or the placement of a material substance called sin within the human nature, and that this has to be eradicated. Isaiah explains this sin principle as "all we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way." Therefore this sin principle may be called our own-wayness -- that is, the substitution of our way for God's way. Basically, fallen man is selfish. The manifestations of this are many: sometimes it is manifested in a coarse, gross way, boldly insisting on "my rights"; at other times, subtly and quietly but just as definitely, it is manifested in trying to engineer things so that self is pleased. Every single sin man can possibly commit can be traced to this basic selfness. Jesus himself bore witness to this truth, for He insisted that first of all each one of His disciples deny self. Thus He laid His axe at the very root of this principle of sin within man which is responsible for all his wrongdoings. This selfness is the law of sin that Romans 7 speaks about.

3. 9. A GLORIOUS TRUTH

But over and over again Paul states a great and glorious truth about deliverance. He says that when a person is saved, the old man comes to an end: "Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away, that so we should no longer be in bondage to sin" (Rom. 6:6). Strictly speaking, the old man died when Christ died. This great fact becomes our heritage when we are saved. Paul, however, seemed to anticipate both our blindness and our unwillingness to accept and believe this truth; and so he adds proof after proof in this wonderful sixth chapter of Romans to establish the fact in our minds that for the Christian the old man was crucified (v. 6), has died (v. 7), and has been buried (v. 4).

Our part is to reckon on this great fact. We are not to make it true, for it is not a matter of imagination but of reckoning on the unalterable Word of God. When we are born again we are new creatures in Christ Jesus, for "if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new" (2 Cor. 5:17).

It is a sad fact that simply because the majority of Christians do not know the truth of their deliverance, they still are dominated by their former manner of life. But God says, "Put away, as concerning your former manner of life, the old man ... and put on the new man, that after God hath been created in righteousness and holiness of truth" (Eph. 4:22-24). This is another way of saying, "Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God" (Rom. 6:11).

In the former manner of life before our renewal through the redemption of Christ, the old man directed the life, allowing the flesh to have its way, so that the whole being was largely, if not entirely, ruled by its appetites, desires, passions, and senses. Many are confused right here, thinking the flesh and the old man are the same, but they are not the same. The old man comes to an end when a person is saved, so that for the Christian, the old man is crucified, dead, and buried. On this fact we are told to reckon, count, believe.

3. 10. FLESH ALLOWED TO RULE IS ANARCHY

On the other hand, nowhere in Scripture does it say that the flesh (human nature) is dead, though it does speak of the flesh being crucified: "they ... have crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts thereof" (Gal. 5:24). There is nothing essentially wrong with the flesh except when living for itself. The only time flesh or human nature is wrong and sinful is when it rules. God never intended the flesh to rule but rather the Spirit; and when the Spirit rules, the flesh is pure and right. But the flesh allowed to rule is anarchy.

Romans 8 speaks of "the mind of the flesh," but reference to the original makes it clear that Paul says it is the minding of the flesh that is enmity against God. "The mind [minding] of the flesh is death ... because the mind [minding] of the flesh is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be: and they that are in the flesh cannot please God" (Rom. 8:6-8). This word is plain enough so that it needs no explanation. Luther used to say, "Do not tell me what the Word means; tell me what the Word says." As clearly as possible, this passage states that the end result of continuing in this wretched state of minding the flesh is death!

3. 11. A SOLUTION TO OUR AWFUL PROBLEM

Galatians 5:24 gives the solution to our awful problem: "They that are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with the passions and lusts thereof." The Cross is the answer. The Cross is not only the place where Christ died, and not only the place my old man died and came to an end, but the Cross is also the place for the flesh. The flesh as a ruling principle must be crucified and be deposed, and the Spirit of Christ enthroned as the very center of the life. This is the only solution. We do not get far by saying "less of the flesh" or "less of self." The flesh must be deposed altogether. God never intended the flesh to rule. It was only after the Fall that the flesh began to rule the life; so we need to be saved not from sin and hell only, but also from our own deranged nature, and from the dominance of the flesh. The flesh is crucified in the sense that its dominion is ended and its place of rulership given to the Spirit, who wants our spirit dominating and our body a willing servant. While the flesh is ruling, it accumulates many new garments, or habits, which must be put off.

Yes, the Fall of Man in Eden brought disaster to the human race. But the most hopeful thing about the disaster of Eden was that it was God's child who was in the wreck. Let this simple illustration illuminate this point:

The engineer of Train No. 1 had a running order from his father, who was the train dispatcher, to take a certain siding and wait for Train No. 2. He disobeyed the order and a collision resulted. The news of the disaster flashed over the wires, including the fact that the engineer of Train No. 1 was pinned under his engine and would die if not soon rescued. Calling the division superintendent, the father demanded a "special" train and also a wrecking crew at once, exclaiming, "My son is in the wreck! I know he disobeyed my orders, but he's my child, and he's under the engine. Man, can't you understand? Give me that train quick! A thousand dollars, did you say? No matter what it costs, order that train! My life for his life!"

What truth is revealed when this story is applied spiritually! In the Garden of Eden, God's son (Adam) disobeyed orders and was in a "wreck." But because he was God's child, he must be delivered -- no matter the cost to the Father. Thus, foreseeing the disaster of man's disobedience before the foundation of the world, God, with His father-heart, took command of the forces of heaven and earth, and then, to rescue His child, himself suffered death and conquered hell -- offering His life for a life! And so, in the person of Jesus Christ, God came to earth as the last Adam, as the representative of the human race, identified himself with man and also with sin, and then bore the sinner and his sin to an awful death on the Cross and then into the grave. There He brought this old creation to an end. "Him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf" (2 Cor. 5:21).

3. 12. NOT ONLY A SAVIOR, BUT A DELIVERER TOO!

Jesus came, then, to be not only our Savior but our Deliverer. At Nazareth He entered the synagogue and read from the book of the prophet Isaiah concerning himself: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor: he hath sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord" (Luke 4:18-19). Afterward He said, "Today hath this scripture been fulfilled in your ears" (Luke 4:21). Christ came into the world not only to forgive sins and give eternal life, but also to bring release to those who are in bondage to self-will and to set at liberty those that are bruised by the devil.

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4. WHO WILL MAKE US FREE?

"The truth shall make you free."
"The Son shall make you free." -- John 8:32, 36

4. 1. BONDAGE TO SELF-LIFE

Every Christian has experienced forgiveness of sins and has assurance of eternal life. But every Christian has not experienced deliverance from the self-life. "Self," William Law once said, "is the whole evil of man's fallen nature." Self is expressed in the desire to have and maintain one's own way and one's own rights -- instead of giving them up as Jesus enjoined. Yet because one who is full of self cannot be filled with the Spirit, any salvation that will truly meet the need of fallen man must deliver from the power of the self-life. Indeed it is in this connection and to meet this very need that the Holy Spirit reveals to the hungry a deeper meaning in the Cross of Christ -- Christ Crucified AS Us.

Although almost every Christian admits some need of deliverance from bondage to the self-life and to the devil, in most cases the realization of this need has not become acute. For instance, one who had been faithfully witnessed to freely admitted her self-centered condition but excused herself by saying, "I am jealous and irritable and self-centered, I know; but I had the experience of salvation when I was a little girl. When most other Christians are manifestly living for themselves, why should I be bothered about my self-centeredness?" The Church of God today certainly needs the "recovering of sight to the blind," for the Bible pointedly says, "Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God" (1 John 3:10). Small wonder, then, that these words of God in John's Epistle so shocked an honest and awakened soul that one day she cried out, "Either this Word of God is not true, or else we are not Christians."

4. 2. FIRST STEP IN DELIVERANCE

Again and again in both the Old and New Testaments God declares His standard for men. In his first letter the apostle Peter says, "Like as he who called you is holy, be ye yourselves also holy in all manner of living" (1 Peter 1:5). This refers not to positional holiness but to practical, everyday holy living. This is impossible to the natural man, for all descendants of our fallen parents, Adam and Eve, find themselves hopelessly in bondage to the self-life. (Peter calls it the "vain manner of life handed down from [our] fathers," and Paul calls it the "old man.") But for man's lack there is a God-given provision which Peter declares in 1 Peter 1:18-19: "Ye were redeemed ... with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, even the blood of Christ." Here, then, is God's great answer for our desperate need of deliverance -- Christ has redeemed us from that selfishness handed down from our fathers.

We have stated that the first step in deliverance is the realization that God has been aware of our problem and has already made provision according to our need. To work out deliverance by our own resolution or determination is impossible. By grace through faith we are delivered from the self-life, even as we are saved by grace through faith. As federal head of the whole race (a headship lost by the first Adam and then transferred to the last Adam), Christ bore us to Calvary and died as our representative. We were identified with Him in His death. Paul's testimony is our testimony: "I have been crucified [together] with Christ." Here, then, is God's method of dealing with the sinfulness of our nature -- "our old man was crucified with him" (Rom. 6:6). Thus at Calvary, not only Christ was crucified and died, but we were crucified and we died; there, not only Christ was buried, but we were buried. Ever since Calvary, God has been through with our old man. As far as God is concerned, when a person is saved, the old man comes to an end. This wonderful truth Paul states over and over again in Romans 6.

4. 3. DYING UNTO SIN IS NOT A DAILY DYING: A DEFINITE CRISIS EXPERIENCE

To the soul who really hungers and thirsts for righteousness and is seeking a way out from his conflict in soul, God reveals that Jesus died as his representative: "One died for all, therefore all died" (2 Cor. 5:14); "ye died" (Col. 3:3). This is God's truth for every single person, just as Christ's substitutionary death is for every person. Positionally, all are dead. Jesus Christ crucified is the ground of deliverance, the very same as He is the ground of salvation, so that all salvation and all deliverance is dependent upon what Jesus already accomplished on the Cross two thousand years ago. Yet just as only those who definitely accept Him as Savior are saved, so only those who reckon Christ's death as their death actually experience the crucifixion of the old man. Romans 6:10?11 says, "The death that he died, He died unto sin once: ... Even so reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin."

Some think that reckoning oneself to be dead to sin is a daily dying unto sin, but the context shows that it is not so. Reckoning self dead to sin is a definite crisis experience. The Word says that Christ "died unto sin once." Even so, we are to reckon ourselves to be dead to sin (Rom. 6:10-11). Having died with Christ is a fact whether it has become true in one's experience or not. If our daily experience requires a new decision every day, it is because we have not settled the issue, utterly denied self, and renounced all that we have. In spite of the Word's telling us to "make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof" (Rom. 13:14), we are still making provision for the flesh somewhere.

4. 4. PAUL'S LIST OF SINS

In Galatians 5:19-21 Paul catalogues the works (sins) which are the result of a flesh-controlled life. Let us go through the whole list one by one: "The works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness" (these are the terrible sins of impurity). Next in the list is "idolatry." Any idol (anything we put in place of God) is an indication that we are still controlled by the flesh; and the flesh, we have already learned, is incapable of guiding the life aright. All self-seeking (which is self-love) is really self-worship, and self-worship is idolatry of the grossest form. For instance, too often we cannot give an immediate answer to the leading of God because we must first bow to ask permission from our idol (family, money, security, comfort). Truly this form of idolatry is subtle, but so often it is the chief hindrance to obeying God. On the contrary, when the apostle Paul was called, he "conferred not with flesh and blood" but obeyed instantly.

Next in Paul's list of sins resulting from a flesh-controlled life come the following: "sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousies, wraths" (Gal. 5:20). Thus, if we are angry with our brother, if we have any grudges, if we are irritable and self-centered, the flesh is in control. In this state we need more than forgiveness. We need deliverance from the dominance of the flesh-life. It must be deposed, and the Spirit given His rightful place. The flesh in control leads to "wraths," as well as the remainder of the sins in the list: "factions, divisions, parties, envyings, drunkenness, revellings, and such like" (Gal. 5:20-21). In conclusion, we might list other expressions of the self-life in control, such as touchiness, impatience, anxiety, laziness, gossip, resentment, levity, self-pity, self-love, self-esteem, criticism, pride, dishonesty. All these sins stem from the center of self. (Perhaps a glance at the chart at the beginning of this booklet will clarify this point.) Certainly when self is the center, we cannot expect anything worthwhile to develop in the life.

4. 5. TO HELP DISCOVER OURSELVES TO OURSELVES: RESOLVING THE CONFLICT OF DUALITY

To help discover ourselves to ourselves, to open our eyes to our true condition, we might ask ourselves these five questions: Am I absolutely truthful? Am I absolutely honest? Am I absolutely pure? Am I easily offended? Am I living for something really worthwhile? If we find evidence of the works of the flesh in us and cannot give the right answer to these questions, it is a positive indication that we have not been delivered. We are still walking after the flesh.

Until the issue is settled and there is a definite break with bondage to the flesh, this experience of inner conflict is a wretched state, for in this condition the Bible says "ye may not do the things that ye would" (Gal. 5:17). A person who is born again may not altogether go into sin, for the Spirit is there; but on the other hand, unless the flesh has been deposed, the Holy Spirit cannot have His way completely, for the flesh insists on ruling. Because one in this state cannot be altogether bad or altogether good, this condition often ends in confusion, frustration, and sometimes even insanity.

Paul gives us an awful warning that to continue in this state of duality is not only truly wretched and wicked, but dangerous. He says, "Of which I forewarn you, even as I did forewarn you, that they who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God" (Gal. 5:21). This is God's Word.

"But I am saved!" you say. "I know I am a Christian."

That makes no difference. The Bible says very plainly that if these things continue in your life, you shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

"But wasn't I truly saved, then?"

Yes, you may have been, but this is a dangerous state that you are in now, and you must settle the matter of whether you are going to walk after the flesh or after the Spirit.

You reply, "Oh, it can't mean that."

All right. Try to get peace of heart by changing the Word of God. You will never get it that way. The only way you will get real peace of heart is to agree with the Word of God and appropriate the blessings and benefits of Calvary. The reason God tells us plainly that these awful things are the result of the flesh-controlled life is to bring us to admit our sin, confess it, and receive the deliverance He offers us. May the Holy Spirit of God so convict us that we will be willing to accept the truth. Real repentance is simply being honest before God, opening up our hearts and calling the things we find there by their rightful names. We must turn from sin and be willing to hate what He hates and love what He loves. God hates the works of the flesh; God hates sin. And we, too, must be willing to hate the works of the flesh (self-life) and to hate sin so that we will be ready to meet the conditions for the wonderful deliverance that He has provided through Christ's so great salvation.

4. 6. GOD'S SOLUTION FOR THE INNER CONFLICT

Better than any other passage of Scripture, perhaps, Galatians 5:16-25 explains not only the two contrary principles at work (in those who have not yet found victory), but also God's solution for the inner conflict.

I say, Walk by the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh, for the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are contrary the one to the other; that ye may not do the things that ye would (Gal. 5:16-17).

To be delivered from bondage to self and to the devil, we see the absolute necessity of a definite choice. We, too, as Adam, are confronted with conditions requiring the exercise of choice. The issue in our case, as it was with Adam, is that of choosing Christ or self. It is on the basis of the redemption of Jesus Christ that we can and must choose to walk after the Spirit instead of after the flesh. We cannot obey the Spirit and the flesh, for these are contrary to each other. We must choose one of two roads: the road of the self-life or the road of the Christ-life.

The self-will road is broad and smooth at the beginning, but the pleasures of the world and the satisfaction enjoyed through self-pleasing prove to be all too temporary. Soon both the pseudo-freedom and counterfeit happiness are dimmed by fruits of unrighteousness, such as inner conflict, jealousy, resentment, touchiness, dissatisfaction, self-pity, rebellion, irritability, unbelief, hypocrisy, selfishness, criticism, despair, impurity, and a host of other sins that eventually destroy peace of heart.

The other road, the Christ-way road, may begin narrow, at least from the world's point of view, but it is not too narrow for one who has yielded all to Christ. On this road we find the fruits of righteousness such as victory, peace, joy, satisfaction, rest, assurance, purity, brokenness, sacrificing love, power, fruitfulness, and other blessings both temporal and eternal. The crowning joy will be at the end of the road when faith turns to sight -- a face-to-face encounter with Jesus Christ himself.

4. 7. A CHOICE OF SECOND CROSSROAD

This choice of roads is a crisis experience, a sort of second crossroad. At the time when we make our initial choice -- the choice of our eternal destiny -- we receive Christ as Savior from past sins and Lord of our life for the future. Generally, however, the full implications of salvation are not understood until later. As we have seen, the second choice or issue is between Christ and self as absolute ruler in our present life. But these are mutually exclusive, for to choose Christ is to make a complete renunciation of self, which has ruled for years, and built up unnatural appetites, passions, and desires that still clamor for attention. Christ can never be our deliverer from the "vain manner of life handed down from our fathers" unless we make a complete renunciation of all we are and of all we have. The flesh must be deposed; in other words, we must renounce all allegiance to the first Adam and all he fell into. This old way of life must be entirely set aside so that the Spirit of Christ may be enthroned as the new ruling principle and may lead us into the new life, a life of union with the last Adam, the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Many claim to be disciples of Jesus Christ who have not denied themselves and taken up the cross to follow Him. They have changed the level of their living, but they are still living for self. God has given us a wonderful illustration of our deliverance from the self-life in Israel's crossing of the Jordan River on their way to Canaan. We read that

when the people removed from their tents, to pass over the Jordan ... and the feet of the priests that bare the ark were dipped in the brink of the water ... the waters which came down from above stood, and rose up in one heap, a great way off ... and those that went down toward the ... Salt Sea, were wholly cut off ... and all Israel passed over on dry ground, until all the nation were passed clean over the Jordan (Josh. 3:14-17).

In considering what this account has to teach us, it is interesting to notice first that the water rose up in a heap thirty miles upstream at the city of Adam. Nothing is unimportant in Scripture, not even names. The fact that the cutting off of the flow of the river was at the city of Adam is God's way of telling us that the power of the Cross avails right back to our forefather Adam. From this vain life handed down from our father, we have been redeemed with the precious blood of Christ (1 Pet. 1:18-19). Thus Christ's redemption touches original as well as actual sin. Praise God.

Consider secondly that Israel's deliverance was gained by a definite act of crossing the Jordan. One specific morning the Israelites left their tents on purpose to cross the river. Perhaps many times before, the Israelites had left their tents for other reasons. But there came a time when they left them on purpose to cross over the Jordan. In obedience to God's command, they also took twelve stones from the old side of the river and deposited them in the river bed.

Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of the Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests ... stood: and they are there unto this day (Josh. 4:9).

4. 8. COMMIT OUR OLD MAN TO THE CROSS

Even so, by one definite act we must commit our old man to the Cross. We too are literally to hand ourselves over to Christ in a full surrender so that He may crucify the old man. (We have said before that the crucifixion of the old man was a fact. This positional truth must now become actual and personal.) Because He has given us a free will, He waits for this surrender and full consecration. If we want to, we can refuse and resist and defy God to His face. Yet in His love and mercy He will patiently wait for us, and will bring about experiences, circumstances, and conditions to cause us to will to surrender ourselves wholly into His hands. He wants to make the Cross real in our experience. He wants the Cross to stand between us and the old life as definitely as the Jordan River ran between Israel and the wilderness life.

But Israel also took twelve stones from the river's bed to the Canaan side for a memorial.

Joshua said unto them ... "take you up every man of you a stone upon his shoulder, according unto the number of the tribes of the children of Israel" and they took up twelve stones out of the midst of the Jordan ... and they carried them over with them unto the place where they lodged, and laid them down there. And those twelve stones, which they took out of the Jordan, did Joshua set up in Gilgal (Josh. 4:5, 8, 20).

4. 9. AN ASSURANCE OF VICTORY IN EVERY SITUATION

Our experience of sanctification must be just as vital, definite, and conclusive as it was for Israel, of whom the Word says that they "were passed clean over the Jordan." The Israelites crossed over into a new land. On the other side of Jordan everything was new. They no longer lived by the manna or by water out of the rock. No longer were they wandering about in the wilderness -- wandering and oftentimes wondering. They were to live on the old corn of the land, to enter into their very own land which God himself had deeded to them when He promised Joshua, "There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee; I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Be strong and of good courage" (Josh. 1:5-6). Here Joshua was given an assurance of God's presence so that He would make Israel's way prosperous and they would have good success. In other words, they were given an assurance of victory in every situation.

As Christians, having crossed our Jordan (the Cross), we have Christ as our new center, who so rules us through the Holy Spirit that we will manifest the fruit of the Spirit -- "love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control" (Gal. 5:22). The Spirit-walk is a walk according to the will of God, while the flesh-walk is simply a walk according to our own desires. What a contrast between the fruit of the Spirit and the works of the flesh! What a difference! Yes, the fruit of the Spirit is what we want and that is a natural result, not of striving after these good things, but of a right relationship to Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit -- of walking by the Spirit. Romans 8 gives the only satisfactory answer to the problem of our deranged nature: the "I" of Romans 7 has been changed for the Spirit of Christ, who is offered to take the place of the law of sin and death which we inherit from our father Adam. Romans 8:2-4 says,

The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

The possibility of walking by the Spirit is plainly set forth in God's Word, and this is what every Christian should seek -- not only for occasional times of need, but as a settled, consistent way of life.

4. 10. A STATE OF GRACE FROM WHICH WE CANNOT FALL?

Is this experience a state of grace from which we cannot fall? No! But it is a state of grace from which we need not fall. It is simply Jesus delivering us from inward agreement with self-pleasing, and trusting Jesus to keep us from sin. It is renunciation of the love of sin. We all know He can keep us from some sin. But if we have fully yielded to Him, it is no harder for Him to keep us from all sin. Anything less than this is making provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof. Even though the old life is ended and the new life begun, the Christian must still keep choosing to walk not after the flesh, as in the past, but by the Spirit. Instead of changing His Word to conform with our lives, we must trust the Spirit of God to change our lives to conform with His Word.

4. 11. STEPS FOR THE SOULS SEEKING THE VICTORIOUS LIFE

In conclusion, let us state briefly the three steps that have been helpful to souls seeking the victorious life:

1. Know
2. Surrender
3. Trust.

First, know that there is a way of deliverance. God's redemption in the Person of Jesus Christ is full and complete. It is for all to get rightly related and adjusted to what Jesus has already done. Many come and take only the forgiveness of sins. Some come and take a little deeper measure of victory, but God wants us to have the full value of the death of Christ. God's table is spread. All things are ready. His invitation is to come and "according to your faith be it done unto you" (Matt. 9:29).

Second, surrender. Consecrate your life to Christ in total abandonment so that He can make the Cross real in your experience. Believe not only in an outward Cross but an inward Cross. Actually go through the Cross as Jesus did. Let the Cross set you free from all bondage. "If therefore the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." Then you will find that you are not only dead to sins (if you are a Christian at all, your attitude must be that of being dead to sins), but you will be delivered literally "out of the power of darkness, and translated ... into the kingdom of the Son of his love" (Col. 1:13). This truth, which is positional for all, will now become experiential. You will have a right to say no to the devil. You will have a right to say no to the claims of the old life.

Third, trust God to accept and deliver as you yield fully to Him. Trust the Holy Spirit to apply and make real in you all that God in Christ has done for you. This then is God's redemption. This is His way of deliverance. The Son of God died for you and His blood bought you. His redemption is far greater than the results of the Fall, for if

by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one; much more shall they that receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, even Jesus Christ" (Rom. 5:17). "Wherefore also he is able to save to the uttermost them that draw near unto God through him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them (Heb. 7:25).

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CONTENTS PAGE

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5. DISCIPLINE

The fruit of the Spirit is ... self-control. -- Galatians 5:22-23

5. 1. A PRELUDE TO THE THIRD ASPECT OF THE CROSS

Before we begin a detailed study of the third aspect of the Cross, Christ Crucified IN Us, it may be helpful to review very briefly the first two aspects of the Cross. First of all, we considered the aspect, Christ Crucified FOR Us, which deals with unregenerate man and makes possible the forgiveness of sins and assurance of eternal) life. This crisis experience of the new birth takes place when any man or woman, boy or girl, fulfills the God-given conditions of repentance and faith.

Then we considered the second crossroad, sanctification, an experience as conscious and as definite as salvation. We learned that Christ was crucified as us, even as the apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians: "One died for all, therefore all died; and he [Christ] died for all, that they that live should no longer live unto themselves, but unto him" (2 Cor. 5:14-15). Again one must make a choice -- this time choosing to die (to sin, to self, to the world, and to the devil), to surrender fully to Christ, and to become truly "alive unto God."

5. 2. THE CRISIS OF SANCTIFICATION: THE CASE OF THE DEMONIAC

Before we go on to study the discipline of the believer's body by the Holy Spirit, it is absolutely essential to reemphasize the crisis of sanctification. If the great blessing of sanctification has not been experienced, any discipline would be merely trying to improve the old man, and this would be impossible. The Scriptures declare that the old man is dead, for Christ embraced the whole sinful race and bore us all to Calvary. But it is up to us to consent to this truth (that in the mind and purpose of God we died), and to trust the Holy Spirit to make it so real in our experience that we can go on and do what the Scriptures enjoin us to do -- "Reckon [ourselves] ... dead unto sin, but alive unto God" (Rom. 6:11). Nothing is removed in the crisis of sanctification except sin, for God does not dehumanize us. The old nature is the human nature tainted by sin; the new nature is the human nature purged from sin -- the very same nature in a different relationship. As we see it, sanctification is not the eradication of a nature at all but the cleansing of the whole personality of sin. No part of us can or should be removed.

The best illustration of a change of relationships is in the record of the once wild, untamed demoniac who lived in the tombs (Mark 5). No man could tame "him that was possessed of demons." They could not tie him up; he would break the chains. They could not clothe him; he would tear off the clothes. They could not do a thing with him and so were afraid of him. One day Jesus came and delivered the demoniac from the evil spirits that possessed him. Afterward, we find this same man sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind. He is the same person before and after deliverance. When he was related to the devil, he was wild, tameless, uncontrollable, and dangerous; but when delivered from his relationship with the devil and rightfully related to Christ, he was quiet, loving, harmless, and filled with a strong desire to follow his Deliverer. Why the difference? Because of a change in relationship. Even so is it today. By the Cross, Christ sets the Christian free, delivering him from the power of sin and of the devil.

Even though there is much resistance to the truth of sanctification, we must not bypass this crisis. The Church today needs the message of sanctification. For lack of proper instruction on this subject, converted people have not gone on with God; therefore we must make known this truth. In no other way is the sinfulness of the heart so completely exposed as in its opposition to holiness. Someone once said, "It isn't the doctrine I object to so much, but your constant insistence upon it. You preach it all the time."

The answer was, "That's true, but if you preached to defeated, unfruitful Christians, what would you preach?"

The reluctant reply was, "The same thing that you are preaching."

Someone once told a Keswick minister that his preaching was lopsided. "Yes," he remarked, "but I preach to a lopsided people."

5. 3. THE CRISIS OF REGENERATION

There is then a crisis of regeneration, followed by a crisis of sanctification. But after sanctification, then what? What kind of daily life will now be consistent with this profession of freedom from the power of sin and the devil? How shall we live the sanctified life? Having seen that the "old man" needs the Cross (a real denying of self in a conclusive act), we must now go on to see that the "new man" also needs the Cross. This introduces us to the third and still deeper aspect of Christ's Cross -- the daily application of the Cross to the new man in daily disciplines, daily sacrifices, daily brokenness, daily intercession, and daily warfare. In Luke 9:23 Jesus goes on from the phrase, "Deny [yourself]," and adds, "take up [your] cross daily, and follow me." It is that word daily that He emphasizes. The new man that walks in newness of life must be disciplined. Unless the new man bears a daily cross, he will have the same old trouble.

Because most of our temptations are addressed to the body, its control is absolutely necessary. Since the devil cannot directly touch the soul's inner relationship to God, he spends most of his time attacking the outer man, the house in which we live. Therefore, this outer man must be kept under control and bear a daily cross. The apostle Paul, speaking of the control of the body, says,

I do all things for the gospel's sake, that I may be a joint partaker thereof. Know ye not that they that run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? Even so run; that ye may attain. And every man that striveth in the games exerciseth self-control in all things. Now they do it to receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, as not uncertainly; so fight I, as not beating the air: but I buffet my body, and bring it into bondage: lest by any means, after that I have preached to others, I myself should be rejected (1 Cor. 9:23-27).

The real need in the human life is not only that we be cleansed from all sin but also that we get things back into God's order -- making the body to be the servant rather than the master. So many have confessed that their prayer life is not what it ought to be and are trying to do something about it. Their only time for real prayer is in the mornings, for their days are so full. But though rising early for several days in succession is comparatively easy, yet soon all kinds of reasonings advise staying in bed a few minutes longer -- such as, "It was late last night"; or "I was extra tired"; or "I did not sleep too well." So, because the body has been allowed to dictate, the eyes close again; prayer is forgotten. The body must not have that position. One version translates "buffet my body" "beat black and blue." I must keep my body in control, the spirit ruling, the body obeying and not ruling.

Mathilde Wrede, the cultured daughter of a provincial governor in Finland, well educated and a gifted musician, gave herself over to the Lord in her teens to work out His purposes in her. God called her to minister to criminals in prison. She lived on the same fare as they, and the prisoners loved her for it. Early in the morning she would bring them food and encouragement and then tell them about the Lord, His gift of salvation, and the life in Christ that they could live. All was not easy for her, but she knew by the Spirit how to buffet her body. She spent herself to the utmost. After a sleepless night when she felt almost unable to resume her usual duties, Mathilde would reassure her poor, tired body that it had always cooperated with her in doing her Father's will before, and she was sure it would be patient, loving, and obedient that day also. For Christ's sake and by the power of His Spirit, Mathilde Wrede had her body under control.

Similarly, as a soldier on a battlefield was going "over the top," he once was heard to remark, "Body of mine, if you knew where I'm taking you today, you'd shake more than you're shaking now." That is what it means to bear the daily cross in the matter of discipline.

That is the spirit we must have.

5. 4. TO BEAR THE CROSS DAILY COSTS!

Of course, to try to discipline the body by self-energy always fails, for self-control is not of ourselves but is a fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:23). True self-control is never separate from the Cross. There is a fleshly attempt to discipline, and there is a spiritual way. The spiritual way is the way of the Cross-yielding gladly on any and every point, in obedience to the Holy Spirit.

To bear the cross daily costs. Are you doing all things for the gospel's sake? Or do you say: "Others expect too much of me. If it were not that my body says, I'm too tired, I would be witnessing to more souls"? May God save us from pampering or coddling our bodies. Rather, let them be yielded as willing servants. It was said of Jesus that He "was not yet fifty years old." He was only about thirty, but may He not have looked nearer fifty because He had burned himself out in prayer? "In the morning, a great while before day, he rose up and went out, and departed into a desert place, and there prayed" (Mark 1:35). In the original, this passage indicates that it was not an occasional but a continual thing. It was evidently His habit to rob His body of sleep (if necessary) in order to find time for prayer.

5. 5. A TRIPARTITE ORDER: TO RULE AND DISCIPLINE

Scripture says we are tripartite beings: "May your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire" (1 Thess. 5:23). Yet more often than not, this phrase is quoted in the reversed order -- body, soul and spirit. Why? Because to us the body is more important than anything else. If you don't believe that for you the body is the most important, just ask yourself, "If I get up too late in the morning for prayers and breakfast, do I skip prayers or do I skip breakfast?" Most of us would skip prayers. How we need this daily cross -- not a crisis but a process! The Lord asks us to be a living sacrifice, to be disciplined continually. We are complex beings, but why do we seem more complicated than we really are? Because we are not unified. Because we are out of God's order. The Spirit is not directing the life -- with the soul interpreting, and the body carrying out the decisions that the spirit dictates.

Through the spirit (with its faculties of conscience, worship, and intuition) we are God-conscious. Through the soul (with its faculties of intellect, emotions, and volition) we are self-conscious. Through the body (man's visible part, together with his senses) we are world-conscious. We cannot see the real person; we can see only the house in which he lives. But the body is not the important thing. Far more important is the hidden man of the heart -- the personality. Therefore we must not let the body rule us, but we must rule and discipline the body. At the Fall, man was not only tainted by sin but turned wrong side up. Instead of the spirit being supreme, the body became supreme. Though we may not like to agree with this, on checking into many of our decisions, we will find that the spirit actually received very little consideration -- at least it received much less than the body. We need to be turned right side up to have the order that God intended.

The running of a factory affords a good illustration: There is an inner office for the proprietor or general manager; there is an outer office, where the clerks and secretaries do their work; and there is the factory, the shop itself. Directions should always come from the inner office, then be interpreted and put into force in the outer office, and finally be fully executed in the factory or the shop. As long as the inner office has control of the outer office and of the factory, everything goes right. But if the outer office workers or the shop workers go on a strike, what happens? There is no production. Unless some solution is found, the business fails, everything is disrupted, and the owner gets no profit out of his investment.

So it is with us. Unless the whole personality is in the God-appointed control, neither God nor our own personal spirit will receive any eternal benefit. Too often the body dictates and demands that this or that appetite or passion should be satisfied. For instance, we are called to minister. But invariably it is at the wrong time -- either it is mealtime, or bedtime, or a time when we are all worn out. Usually there is opportunity to refuse. Yet in such cases our feelings should not rule, but rather our own personal spirit indwelt by God. Orders must not come from the body but from God, and God will never call without supplying strength to obey. The body generally tries to bluff us and save itself, but just here we must demonstrate the spirit ruling the body.

5. 6. THE SPARTANS

The disciplined lives of the Spartans (500 b.c.) are a challenge. The one purpose of their education was to make soldiers. Their young boys were taken from their homes at the age of seven and never slept under their mother's roof again. From then on they wore the same weight clothing summer and winter, cooked their own food, and slept on a mat of rushes instead of an ordinary bed. On festival days they were publicly whipped before the altars of their temples to test their endurance. Rather than cry out under the lash, some would die. Spartan training produced strength of body -- though hardness of heart. Everybody was trained to live not for himself but for the state.

As a result of disciplining their bodies, Greek military exploits were almost unbelievable. For instance, though outnumbered more than two to one in the Battle of Marathon, yet the Spartans were victors. This is what discipline will do. A little later, in 479 b.c. in another decisive battle fought near Plataea, the Greeks again were victorious. Of Persia's 260,000 soldiers, only 3,000 returned to their homes, while the Greeks lost only 154 men out of their 100,000. Their overwhelming victory was largely the result of the discipline and valor of the Spartan heavy infantry.

The Spartans trained and disciplined themselves for their country's sake. How much more should the Christian be willing to train for Christ's sake. The fact is that much of our trouble after sanctification is because we were not properly disciplined when young. We would not be so apt to withdraw our surrender when the going becomes difficult if we knew disciplining of the body. Because we were never disciplined and always have gone the easy way, begin to say, "A surrendered heart and life is wonderful, but is it really necessary? There surely must be an easier way." But for the disciple of Christ there is no easier way than the way of the Cross. We are continually choosing either to follow the way of the Cross or to go back. And God's Word says, "If any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him" (Heb. 10:38, KJV).

5. 7. LIFE AFTER SANCTIFICATION -- WAIT FOR THE HEAVEN?

Many think that after the crisis of sanctification everything is settled, and all that is needed is to fold one's hands and wait for heaven, so to speak. But this is not so. The Lord does not make a new character for us at the crisis of sanctification, for we are to make our own character. Yet He does deal with our disposition to have our own way and brings it to an end so that the Spirit and the Blood cleanse the heart. He also gives us a new disposition. However, we ourselves must continually put off many habits, carried over into the new life, which neither glorify God nor belong to the new man. Every habit that is off-color and off-size must be put away. One day God may say to put off a habit which He may never have said anything about before, but now He does not want it in our lives any longer. The next day or week He may point out another habit, not wrong in itself but something we are better off without. We are to put off progressively these old habits related to the old man, lest life again turn to self-pleasing.

So many confuse the old man and the flesh (human nature). They are not the same. When God speaks of His relationship to the old man, it is always of a conclusive fact: "Ye are dead"; "that the body of sin might be destroyed"; "we died with Christ"; "we were buried therefore with him." But nowhere in Scripture does it say that the flesh is dead. God does not kill the flesh. (Nor are many of us looking for the flesh in us to die -- for when the flesh is dead, that is the end of the body until the resurrection day.) The flesh must be deposed as the ruling agent and then kept in the place of crucifixion. Essentially, there is nothing wrong with the flesh except when it rules and lives for itself. God condemns sin in the flesh. "They that are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts thereof" (Gal. 5:24). The flesh is crucified in the sense that its dominion is ended and its place of rulership given to the Spirit. The Lord does not want to "de-flesh" or dehumanize us. What He wants is to get us cleansed from sin and then returned to His right order (where the spirit dominates and the body is a willing servant).

5. 8. PUTTING OFF OLD GARMENTS: THE STORY OF A THREE-STEAK MAN

Because while the flesh was ruling it accumulated many "garments," or habits, these must now be put off. We are like the resurrected Lazarus, who was once all wrapped up in grave clothes. Having raised him up, Jesus said, "Loose him and let him go." We too must put off habits related to the old man -- grave clothes that do not fit us anymore. This is the way of the Cross, the way that Jesus himself walked. The Spirit led Him and He obeyed the Spirit in all things. He is not asking anything of us that He did not do himself. He had flesh like every other man, for the Word speaks of Him "in the days of his flesh." The only difference was that His flesh was not sinful; it was not ruling. Only sinful flesh (human nature as a ruling agent) must be rejected and deposed. Only when the flesh rules is it sinful. When the Spirit rules, the flesh is pure and right, a visible expression of the personal spirit.

A very homely illustration may help us in this matter of putting off old habits. A man was once given to eating far more than he needed, more than enough for two ordinary men. Thus he was decidedly overweight. He generally ate his meals at the same restaurant; the waitresses knew him well. Because when he ordered his dinner he always said, "I want three steaks, extra potatoes, and two (sometimes three) pieces of pie," he was called the three-steak man.

But one night while proceeding toward the restaurant on a different street, he was drawn to a gospel meeting through hearing a song that his mother used to sing. It was the first time in many years that he had been in such a meeting. Something moved in his heart, a tug that he had never experienced before. He listened intently to the message of salvation through Christ. More and more his heart was drawn out, and finally he was led to Christ. The three-steak man was born of the Spirit.

With a light heart he left the mission hall on his way to order his dinner. More hungry than usual (it was about two hours later than his mealtime), he ordered only one steak.

"Did I hear right?" asked the waitress. "I presume you want three steaks as usual?"

"No," he said in a firm tone, "just one, and one piece of pie." Never had he done this before. What had happened? For years and years he had been eating more than twice what he needed, but now he realized that it was wrong to eat like that. Gluttony was a sin. So he said no to his abnormal appetite, and ate just an ordinary meal. That first night he could hardly sleep. It was a terrible struggle, but he went back the next morning and ordered no more than an ordinary breakfast. In a week or two he was perfectly satisfied with a normal meal.

5. 9. SAY, NO! AND BE READY!

As it was with the three-steak man, so it may be with us. We may have many bad habits that need to be controlled and to which we must say no. For instance at mealtime, even though we may still seem to be hungry and every nerve in our being clamors for immediate satisfaction, we often must say no and refuse to give in to our strong desire for more. The same principle holds true for other flesh-controlled habits. They must not rule us. If we want to be disciples of Christ and remain so, we must put off many old habits, take up our cross, and follow our Lord.

Some say that we live on half of what we actually eat, and the doctor lives on the other half. I believe there is much truth in that. The most common ways of letting our body rule are through our eating and sleeping, and our other appetites or We must do what Paul says and keep the body "under," for we are running a race and want to run so that we may attain. It is absolutely necessary that "every man that striveth in the games exerciseth self-control in all things." Those early Greek boys disciplined themselves not only in eating but in those other habits that the rest of the world indulged in. Just for the purpose of making their bodies strong to fight better or to attain a "corruptible crown," the Greeks lived clean lives. How much more should we discipline our bodies for a "crown that fadeth not away"? What a difference there would be today if all Christians disciplined themselves to become better soldiers for Jesus Christ.

Lord Roberts was a field marshal in the English army at the time of the Boer War. England was greatly distressed in the dark situation and asked Lord Roberts if he would lead the campaign. Quietly he said, "Yes." Thinking he surely did not understand the difficulties and the perils of the time, they began to explain the situation and then asked him again to lead the forces. Lord Roberts said not a word until they were through. Then he replied, "For twenty years I have been training for this campaign." Lord Roberts was ready!

5. 10. HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN READY?

How long have you been in training to be a soldier for Jesus Christ? How long have you disciplined yourself in the matters of exercise, of eating, of sleeping, of prayer life? We too are in an army. Jesus Christ, the Commander in Chief, is calling for soldiers who are willing to discipline themselves, take up the cross, and deny themselves not only that which is sinful but also those things that may be right. He is calling for those who are willing to lay aside every weight so that they might run for Him, not in self-energy (creaturely activity) but in the power of the Holy Spirit operating through their lives in the new man.

The Son of God goes forth to war,
A kingly crown to gain;
His blood-red banner streams afar:
Who follows in His train?

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CONTENTS PAGE

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6. SACRIFICE

King David said ... Nay; but I will verily buy it for the full price: for I will not take that which is thine for Jehovah, nor offer a burnt offering without cost. -- 1 Chronicles 21:24

6. 1. THE COST OF DISCIPLESHIP

"When Christ calls a man to himself, He bids him come and die," says Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his book The Cost of Discipleship. The words of Bonhoeffer, who sealed his testimony with his own blood (he was killed by Hitler), are true; and in them is the essence of Christian discipleship -- "come and die."

6. 2. THREE KINDS OF DYING: THREE DIFFERENT INROADS OF THE CROSS

There are three kinds of dying, or should we say three different inroads of the Cross of Christ. Each creates a deeper fellowship with God and a greater conformity to Christ's death. As a result, even as Christ promised, God releases the very life of Christ through men in an unhindered stream of grace so that "from within ... shall flow rivers of living water" (John 7:38). As we have already said, the first kind of dying is death to the old life in the initial crisis of justification. "If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new" (2 Cor. 5:17). Thus, for the sake of Christ, the Substitute, all who repent and believe in Him are pardoned and born from above.

Later, there is the death of the old man, that is, the carnal mind, the "sin that dwelleth in us," the contrary principle in those who are justified but not sanctified. As the Holy Spirit reveals the self-life in all its subtle forms, we Christians discover our deep derangement and the enslavement of our nature to the things of the world. Longing and seeking for a deeper deliverance from these problems of the inner life, we learn that Christ took the sinner, as well as his sins, to the Cross. Then a crisis occurs. From then on, we reckon on the fact of the death of our old man -- we reckon ourselves dead and alive -- dead to the whole sordid business of self, but alive unto God and His kingdom of love. Then, in place of the old bitterness and jealousy, the envy and impatience (to say nothing of temptation plaguing us to greater sins), we can begin to bring forth the ninefold fruit of the Spirit -- love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control (Gal. 5:22-23).

But there is a third kind of dying -- the death of the new man. This deals neither with the sinner nor yet with his sin but rather with the "new" man, that is, with cleansed humanity and the physical body. (In this is included death to creature comforts, to security, and to avoiding pain at any cost.) To maintain the decision made in the crisis of sanctification, there must be a daily handing over of the new man to God that He may plant it and thereby bring forth fruit. Paul calls this "always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our body."

6. 3. DYING DAILY

The Apostolic Church knew this dying daily; therefore it produced genuine disciples, true learners of Christ. But about a.d. 300 the chill of worldliness crept into the Church and began to produce nominal Christians. When the true followers of the Master spoke against this low level of Christian living, the leaders, too wise to deny there was a higher level, offered opportunity for those who wanted to be out and out for God, to join a monastic order where they could separate themselves from the world and live only for God. Though such communities were founded by sincere men whose motives were right, yet these leaders did not solve the problem of Christian living, but merely recognized two levels. Ever since, we have wrongly had two classes of Christians.

Today, all admit that the Church at large is not what it ought to be, yet for the most part the idea is prevalent that discipleship with its demand for cross-bearing is wonderful but not necessary. And so, to be called a Christian today does not necessarily mean that one takes up his cross and follows Christ. The commonly used term Christian is no longer synonymous with the term disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. Men who are not disciples of Jesus also use the term Christian. But a true Christian must follow the example of Christ in daily dying. One word in the Apostles' Creed that sums up Christ's whole life and sayings is the word "suffered." Even so, Jesus not only expects us, His followers, to have the joy of forgiveness and divine peace and assurance of eternal life, but to follow Him in lives of sacrifice. Having been "taken" by the Cross, we are not only to live sacrificial lives but to find that the only life that satisfies is the life of sacrifice. The Spirit of Jesus dwelling within will lead us by the way of suffering and the Cross, and then from the Cross blessings of life and salvation will flow.

6. 4. TO USE THE DISCIPLINED BODY SACRIFICIALLY

In the last chapter we showed that this way involves disciplining and ruling our body by the Spirit, and not allowing our body to rule us. Let us now go on to discover how this disciplined body must be used sacrificially for others. The way of the Lamb is the way of sacrifice. But how can we sacrifice? Primarily, there are two sacrifices which we can make: first, sacrificial giving; and secondly, sacrificial living. We can sacrifice what we have, and what we are.

When we sacrifice what we have, we call it sacrificial giving. Remember David at the threshing floor of Araunah? When Araunah, a yielded Jebusite, offered David oxen for the sacrifice, as well as the threshing instruments and the yokes of the oxen for wood, David refused to accept them without charge, saying, "Nay; but I will verily buy it of thee at a price; neither will I offer burnt offerings unto Jehovah my God which cost me nothing." So, too, giving without cost is no sacrifice. To learn sacrificial giving, we must be prepared to pay the price.

6. 5. THREE LEVELS OF CHRISTIAN GIVING

In the New Testament we find three levels of Christian giving: First, there is proportionate giving, for Paul tells us to lay aside according to the degree in which God has prospered us. He does not state the amount, but no doubt expects at least what is commanded in the Old Testament (which was ten percent plus some extras, which made it fifteen per cent). The second level of giving is illustrated in Zacchaeus, who, when he was saved, gave half of what he had. (The fourfold restitution perhaps took the rest.) But there is still a third and deeper level. We find it in the case of the widow who did not have much but gave all that she had. This pleased Jesus so much that He called His disciples' attention to her act. Today God is looking for men who will give sacrificially. Lest in any wise we think we are giving too much, read Brenton Thoburn Hadley's "The Nail-Pierced Hands":

Lord, when I am weary with toiling,
And burdensome seem Thy commands,
If my load should lead to complaining,
Lord, show me Thy hands --
Thy nail-pierced hands,
Thy cross-torn hands --
My Savior, show me Thy hands.
Christ, if ever my footsteps should falter,
And I be prepared for retreat,
If desert or thorn cause lamenting,
Lord, show me Thy feet --
Thy bleeding feet,
Thy nail-scarred feet --
My Jesus, show me Thy feet.
O God, dare I show Thee
My hands and my feet?

6. 6. REVEAL THE CHRIST WITHIN!

The true Christian life is a sacrificial life. Not only must we sacrifice what we have, but also what we are. It costs more than money. It will cost time, effort, comfort, and security. We must learn how to live in such a way that we no longer seek to save ourselves but are willing to be broken, and thereby to reveal the Christ within. There are countless ways to give of ourselves. Sacrificial living is not only sharing our funds but, as Isaiah says, drawing out of our souls to the hungry, satisfying the afflicted soul (Isa. 58:10).

This is the way Paul lived. He said, "I die daily" (1 Cor. 15:31). As we have mentioned before, the context is very plain and shows clearly that this reference is not to dying to sin but actual physical death, a daily willingness to hazard his life to death. The preceding verse says, "We stand in jeopardy every hour." The following verse says, "After the manner of men I fought with beasts at Ephesus." It would require the greatest stretch of the imagination and the greatest liberty in exegesis to apply this phrase, I die daily, to death to sin. It does not at all refer to sin here but to Paul's willingness to sacrifice his life that others might live. Someone has said, "I once saw the trail of a bleeding hare on the snow." That describes the life of the apostle Paul: "in deaths oft." Wherever he went, he left his blood as it were. He never saved himself, but over and over literally sacrificed himself.

Yes, friends, when we are "taken" by the Cross, we too will live sacrificial lives because we love Christ. The crisis of sanctification, including cleansing from indwelling sin and the filling with the Holy Spirit, merely gives quality to our life so that we can present it to God as a living sacrifice. The crisis of sanctification is no substitute for sacrificial living. Those who have already been made pure, holy, and acceptable are called by the mercies of God to present themselves as a living sacrifice. The crisis of sanctification is not the end but merely the means to an end in the Christian life. God saves and also sanctifies us in order that our lives will have the proper quality that can produce good fruit. Jesus said the same thing in a slightly different way: "Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone; but if it die, it beareth much fruit" (John 12:24). We plant good seed, purified seed, seed with life in it. But it is planted not for purification but for reproduction. It is necessary first for us to be made pure and made holy so that our lives will have proper quality. Yet we must not stop there, but allow ourselves to be planted into a deeper experience of death so that fruit will be the result.

6. 7. TO LIVE AMONG MAN-EATING LIONS

That great soldier of the Cross, Willis Hotchkiss, was once telling of his early life in Kenya Colony, East Africa. In those days of pioneer mission work (about 1895) missionaries had to live on native fare (even ants), for they could take along little equipment and no special food. Once he lived, so he said, for two and one half months on beans and sour milk. Another time, for weeks on end he was without the commonest of all necessities -- salt. He also mentioned his fear of attacks from man-eating lions. They had other sufferings too. After giving a long account of the dangers of living there, of how many lost their lives, and of the costliness of the whole thing, he concluded by saying,

"But don't talk to me about sacrifice. It is no sacrifice. In the face of the superlative joy of that one overwhelming experience, the joy of flashing that miracle word, Savior, for the first time to a great tribe that had never heard it before, I can never think of these forty years in terms of sacrifice. I saw Christ and His Cross and I did this because I loved Him."

Then he quoted Isaac Watt's matchless song:

When I survey the wondrous Cross
On which the Prince of Glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.
Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small.
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.

"Do you like your work?" someone asked another missionary in Africa. "Like this work?" he replied. "No. My wife and I do not like dirt. We have reasonably refined sensibilities. We do not like crawling into vile huts through goat refuse. We do not like association with ignorant, filthy, brutish people. But is a man to do nothing for Christ which he does not like? God pity such a one. Liking or disliking has nothing to do with it. We have orders to go and we go. Love constrains us." Such is the drawing power of the Cross.

6. 8. GOSPEL MESSAGE WITHOUT THE CROSS

When the gospel message today leaves out the Cross, it has no chance of having its claims taken seriously. The strength of the appeal of communism lies in the call to the crucifixion of self. It copies more of the Christian principle of the Cross than present-day Christianity. The human heart instinctively recognizes the sign of the Cross as the sign of God. Self-sacrificing Communists find their power in the principle of a cross. This power enabled them in six years to increase the extent of the Kremlin's dictatorship from 193 million to 800 million -- about 100 million per year! But theirs is a cross without Christ; therefore, though it is powerful, it has for them no lasting benefit.

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