June 29
“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 continue discussing the means which God has provided for overcoming our old nature, and with that, overcoming our sins – the cross of Jesus.
THE CROSS OF CHRIST – GOD’S WAY (Continued)
“The powerful effect of the cross was God, in heaven, in the blotting out of guilt, and our renewed union with God, is inseparable from the other effect – the breaking down of the authority of sin over man, by the crucifixion of self. Therefore scripture teaches us that the cross not only works out a disposition or desire to make such a sacrifice, but it really bestows the power to do so, and completes the work.” (Andrew Murray) (p. 46)
Understanding and appropriating the facts of the Cross proves to be one of the most difficult and trying of all phases for the growing believer. Our Lord holds His most vital and best things in store for those who mean business, for those who hunger and thirst for His very best as it is in our Lord Jesus Christ. The believer’s understanding of the two aspects of Calvary gives the key to both spiritual growth, and life giving service.
“Calvary is the secret of it all. It is what He did there that counts, and what He did becomes a force in the life of a Christian when it is appropriated by faith. This is the starting point from which all godly living must take its rise. We shall never know the experience of Christ’s victory in our lives until we are prepared to count (reckon) upon His victory at the cross as the secret to our personal victory today. There is no victory for us which was not first His. What we are to experience He first purchased, and what He purchased for us we ought to experience. The beginning of a life of holiness is a faith in the crucified Savior which sees more than His substitutionary work. It is a faith which sees myself identified with Christ in His death and resurrection.” (p. 48)
Our reckoning on the finished work of our death to sin, in Christ at Calvary, is God’s one way of deliverance – there is no other way because that is the way He did it. We learned not to add a finished work in the matter of justification, and now we must learn not to add to the finished work of emancipation. We will be freed when we enter His prepared freedom – there is no other. “The believer can never overcome the old man even by the power of the new apart from the death of Christ, and therefore the death of Christ unto sin is indispensable , and unless the cross is made the basis upon which he overcomes the old man, he only drops into another form of morality; in other words, he is seeking by self-effort to overcome self, and the struggle is a hopeless one” (C. Usher). (p. 51)