God’s Fact — The Spiritual Man

God’s Fact

When the Lord Jesus went to the cross, He not only brought our sins there, but He also brought us ourselves there. Our old self has already been crucified on the cross—this is an accomplished fact. Thus, the apostle tells us: “We know that our old self was crucified with him” (Romans 6:6, NRSVue). In the original text, “was crucified” is a verb in the perfect tense, meaning that our old self has once for all been crucified with Him and is therefore forever crucified with Him. Just as Christ’s crucifixion is an accomplished fact, so too the crucifixion of our old self with Him is an accomplished fact. No one doubts that Christ was crucified—why then do we doubt that our old self has been crucified?

Many believers, after hearing the truth of co-death, because they lack divine revelation or faith, think that they themselves ought to die and should exert effort to crucify themselves. They practice this way and also teach others to do the same. Yet the result is that they have no power to be delivered from sin. No matter what, they always feel that their old self has not died.

This is a great mistake. Scripture never tells us to crucify ourselves. On the contrary, what Scripture shows us is not that we must crucify ourselves, but that Christ, when He went to the cross, brought us there as well and crucified us there. Nor does Scripture show us that we must now begin to crucify our old self; rather, it shows that when the Lord Jesus was on the cross, our old self was already crucified. We need not look at other verses—Romans 6:6 alone is sufficient: “Our old self was crucified with him.” There is no hint here that we should crucify ourselves, nor that this crucifixion still awaits fulfillment in the future. It plainly shows that we were crucified with Christ, and that this co-crucifixion is an accomplished fact.

Here we see the outworking of one of the most precious phrases in the Bible—“in Christ.” Because we are in Christ, united with Him, when Christ went to the cross, we also went to the cross in Him; when Christ was crucified on the cross, we were crucified in Him. Oh, the most marvelous truth—we are in Christ!

A truth understood only by the mind can never withstand temptation. The revelation of the Holy Spirit is absolutely indispensable. The Spirit of God must grant us revelation, showing us how we are in Christ and how we are one with Him. He must open our eyes to see clearly how our old self, because we are in Christ, was crucified with Him. It is not mental comprehension, but spiritual revelation. With God’s revelation, this truth naturally becomes effective within a person. With God’s revelation, one also receives the power to believe. Faith comes from revelation. Without revelation there is no faith. Many people have only an intellectual grasp of this truth and therefore lack living faith, because they have not received divine revelation. So, brothers and sisters, let us ask God until He grants us revelation, so that we can truly say: “We know that our old self was crucified with him.”

What then is the effect of our old self being crucified? It is “so that the body of sin might be destroyed” (Romans 6:6, NRSVue). Yet the rendering “destroyed” is not very precise. It is better translated as “rendered powerless” or “made unemployed.”

Formerly, when “sin” stirred within, our “old self” responded, and consequently, the “body” carried out sin. Now, though sin still stirs as before and exerts its pressure as before, because the “old self” has been crucified and the new self has taken its place, sin can no longer tempt this person—for he is a new person, no longer the “old self.” Thus, there is no longer an “old self” to side with sin and drive the body to commit sin. Therefore, because the “old self” has been crucified, the “body of sin” is rendered powerless, unemployed, with nothing left to do. Its former occupation was to sin, but now it cannot succeed, so it is out of work. Praise the Lord—this is what He has prepared for us!

Why has God crucified our old self with Christ and rendered our body unemployed? His purpose is that we should no longer be “slaves to sin” (Romans 6:6, NRSVue). Because of God’s work, from now on we need no longer obey sin, nor be under sin’s oppression, nor be bound by its power. Sin will no longer be our master. Hallelujah! This indeed is something for which we must praise the Lord.