| We often hear Christians say that we should crucify ourselves, but God’s Word never tells us to do that. All four references to the believer’s crucifixion are in the past tense, indicating that this crucifixion has already taken place, once for all, when we died with Christ on the cross. “I am crucified with Christ,” “and they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.” Moreover, “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world,” and “knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.” God never tells us to crucify ourselves, but He does tell us to keep the flesh in that place of death to which He assigned it on the cross. “Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.” “But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof.” |
