A man who was deeply exercised about his soul was conversing with a friend on the subject. The friend bade him come at once to Jesus. Said he: "He will take away all the load of sins from off your back."
"Yes, I am aware of that," said the other, "but what about my back) I find I have not only sins to take away, but there is myself! What's to be done with that? And there's not only my back, but there are my hands and feet, my head and my heart. Yea, I am such a lump of sin, such a mass of iniquity, that it's myself I must get rid of before I can get peace."
Ah, beloved sinner, that is a plain and searching way to put the matter; that is going not only to the stream, but to the spring from which the stream arises. You may take away the fruit of a bad tree but until the root is reached the fruit will appear again—and the same sort of fruit, too!
It is that miserable "I" which gives so much trouble—that "old man" which keeps souls in bondage. Concerning it the Word says: "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. For he that is dead is freed from sin.... Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Rom. 6:6-116Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. 7For he that is dead is freed from sin. 8Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: 9Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. 10For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. 11Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:6‑11).
When John Bunyan looked up at the cross, the bundle fell from his back; but he did not seem to learn that God had dealt with the back itself. So it is with many, and hence the bitter bondage.
Oh, to know more of the truth that makes us free from Satan, free from the "beggarly elements" which bring us into bondage; free from ourselves, the enemy which gives us so much trouble altogether free for Him who has bought us with His own blood!