June 28
“For the death that He died He died to sin, once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so, consider [or reckon] yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 6:10-11)
Today we will focus on the means which God has provided for overcoming our old nature, and with that, overcoming our sins – this is the cross of Jesus.
THE CROSS OF CHRIST – GOD’S WAY
It was on the cross of Calvary that God, in Christ, dealt fully and finally with self, the nature from which all our sins flow. “We know that our old (unrenewed) was nailed to the cross with Him in order that [our] body, [which is the instrument] of sin, might made ineffective and inactive for evil, that we might no longer be slaves of sin” (Rom. 6:6, Amplified). The reason that there is no other way for self to be denied is that God has done the work this way: our identification with Christ Jesus in His death and resurrection! It is done, now ours to believe.
“The flesh will only yield to the cross; not to all the resolutions you make at a conference, not to any self-effort, not to any attempted self-crucifixion; only to co-crucifixion, crucified together with Christ (Gal. 2:20). It is not by putting yourself to death, but by taking, through faith and surrender, your place of union with Christ in His death. That is the blessed barrier of safety between you and all the attractions of the flesh, and that makes the way open to do the will of God.” (G. Watt)
The Cross of Calvary resulted in the death of the Lord Jesus, both for sin, and to sin. In that He died to sin, He died out of the realm of sin, and He arose into the realm of “newness of life,” eternal life. And our identification with Him on Calvary took us into death; down into the tomb; up into “newness of life” (Rom. 6:4). First, Romans 6:3 – “baptized into [His] death”; then, Romans 6:4 – “buried with Him”; then, Romans 6:5 – “For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection”; also, Colossians 3:3 – “For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God”; therefore, Romans 6:11 – “reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Praise the Lord! It all happened at Calvary: our sins were paid for, and our sinfulness was dealt with, and both by the ultimate – death. And we receive the benefits of the work of the Cross simply by reckoning on, believing in, the finished work of the Cross. First, through the Word, we find out what God did about our problem. Then, as we become thoroughly convinced of the fact and begin to understand it clearly, we are able to agree to “reckon” it true. And as we exercise faith in God’s fact, we begin to receive the benefits of that finished work in experience. Was it not true in the matter of our justification? Yes, and we will likewise find it to be true in the matter of our emancipation from the slavery of the self-life.
Tomorrow we will continue our look at God’s way of conquering the old man, through the cross of Christ, as we almost finish our perusal of The Green Letters.