There are two great truths we have to learn as to God’s ways in salvation with us. First, that “Christ died for our sins,” and put them away; and secondly, that we have died with Him. This latter truth is at the bottom of all true liberty. Many souls have learned the first who have not learned the second. There are thousands, too, who have never even learned the first of them. Even that, when we were nothing but sinners, God loved us and gave His Son to die for our sins. He has died and put them away. God Himself has cleared us, and justified us, and set us in divine favor before Himself, and given us to rejoice in hope of His glory: and in all this there is not one thought but that we were sinners, and needed grace; and He saw our need and revealed His grace to us. All this depends upon what God is to us, not upon what we are to God. It is mixing up these two that produces all the unhappiness and want of certainty you find in souls. I begin to think of what He has been to me, and then I begin to think of what I am to Him, even since I heard of His love, and I am uncertain and miserable. I see His love, and then I say, why I don’t love Him after all. My heart is cold and dead. I love the things of the world a great deal more than I love Him; and after all I would like to love Him, and I can’t do it. Many souls are in this state. But the secret of all is, that they are mixing up their own thoughts and feelings with the redemption that is in Christ, and consequently they have no real solid peace. What such want, is to be taken off their own estimate of self to God’s estimate of Christ. Thus, Christ takes the place of their estimate of self, and the soul is at rest.
There are two ways in which we learn the gospel of His grace. First, a soul goes through a deep legal process—deep exercises of soul before full forgiveness is known, and then when it has learned it, all is bright and clear. Another way is, a soul bears the gospel preached—full free pardon and forgiveness announced—and receives the message, but without the knowledge of self, or an evil nature within. By and by it begins to discover that there is the same old evil nature within as ever, no change in it—it is just as dead in divine things as ever, and alive in worldly things. Perhaps even a fall has come, and he begins to conclude he was not converted at all—that there was no true work of God in his soul.
The very joy of a first conversion which we are apt to have—a very real joy too, has thrown the soul off its guard, and the sense of entire dependence is lost—the joy has taken it off its dependence, and it has fallen perhaps into sin. The first beginning of a fall is the loss of the sense of dependence on God. The characteristics of the new man are dependence and obedience. When there is not dependence, we get away from direct reference to God, and then disobedience follows.
Now, not only has Christ died for us, but we have died with him. This is true in God’s mind for every believer; but the two things are quite distinct. If I say, “God has forgiven me through Christ,” it is exceedingly simple. Many souls know this, that do not know the other. Even the natural man who has not got forgiveness, can understand it. But to go and tell a man he is dead, he will reply, “What is the use of telling me that when I am alive.” The more sincere a person is the more difficult it is for him to say, “I’m dead to sin.” Yet God says, “Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God in Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Rom. 6:11). It is this that is the great subject of the sixth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. In the early part of the epistle we get the terrible condition of man unveiled in the presence of God Himself. Terrible, because so true. Sinning, law breaking, and God-hating characterizing all men—Jew and Gentile—all under sin, all under judgment. “All have sinned and come short,” of the duty of man? nay, but “of the glory of God.” Sinners must now have to say to God, every mouth is stopped and all the world guilty before Him. No use for a man covered with guilt talking about wanting help. Help won’t do when he has to face God as a judge. Hope for the day of judgment is all a delusion. Hope will then be over for eternity. Those who then will be judged will be lost forever and forever! But Christ died for sinners—died in perfect love, and pity, and goodness, for vile, lost, ruined sinners. He died “the just for the unjust, to bring us to God.” He brings us into God’s presence as a conscious thing now. God cleanses, and pardons, and justifies the vilest sinner who trusts in Him. The cross proves how righteous He is in doing so. Christ offered His blood to God, and its sweet savor so fills His presence, that He entreats sinners to come in-washed and cleansed by it. Can you doubt it value in God’s sight? Impossible. God never imputes one shadow of sin to the soul which trusts in Him. Christ was delivered for our offenses, and raised again for our justification. He came back from the grave after leaving them all behind Him. All that I am, all that I have done as a child of Adam, is put away forever. “Where sin abounded” in me, “grace did much more abound.” All the believing one’s debts are paid by Jesus. God sees not one shadow upon him who trusts in Jesus. If the enemy accuses, God says, “Who is he that condemneth?” I don’t see one spot, or stain!
But all this does not give me a new place with God now. God has put away all that was against me, because Christ took upon Him all that I earned, and died for me in love. Still, though cleansed, I have not by this got into a new place before Him. And now I learn another thing learn not merely that Christ died for my sins, and put them away, but that I have died with Him. The nature and condition in which I stood before God is thus, to faith, ended in the cross of Christ. It is easy to see that each man has his own sins as a sinner, and they never can become another’s. But all are of one common lump when you look at them in the nature in which the sins were committed; and even when I find my sins are forgiven, I find the same nature there, unchanged as before. This is what so troubles souls. I begin to look how this can be, and I find, “By one man’s disobedience many were made sinners.” It is not merely the many sins which each has done, but “one man’s sin” has given me this nature. It is unchanged though I’m forgiven, and I may fall into sin again. This is what troubles a soul more deeply than actual sins. Now, this nature never can go to heaven. It becomes a question, not merely of things done, but of this nature, what I am. He does not forgive a nature. Even suppose I have learned that He has forgiven my sins—what I have done, there is no forgiveness of a nature. A mother forgives her Child when it has been naughty; she does not forgive the nature that produced the naughty thing. What is now to be done? How am I to be delivered from an evil nature for which there is no forgiveness. It must die. I must reckon it dead. “Our old man was crucified with Christ.... reckon ye also yourselves to be dead.”
It is not simple to be able to say, “I am dead.” If Christ has borne my sins, they are all put away; that is very intelligible, but it is not easy to say, I am dead to sin. It supposes a soul thoroughly subject to God. Sin has no dominion over me, if I reckon myself dead. We are never called to die to sin in Scripture. We have to mortify our members that are on earth; but to believe that we have died in Christ. One who thinks he has to die to sin has not understood that the flesh lusts against the Spirit to the very end. The will of the flesh never dies; and surely, I don’t want the new nature to die.
Now, the soul often goes through a deep painful process in learning this. When I learn, not only that I had sins, but “that in me—that is in my flesh—dwelleth no good thing.” Not, merely, that I have done bad things which are all blotted out, but that the mind of the flesh is incorrigible; it is enmity against God. When left to itself, the flesh brought in the flood; when it got the law, it broke it. When brought into the presence of Christ it crucified Him. When the Spirit dwells in us it lusts against Him; and if a man is taken up to the third heaven, when he returns to his consciousness as a man down here again, all that can be done is to send him a thorn in the flesh to buffet him. The mind of the flesh is not merely carnal, but enmity against God. There is no remedy for it—it won’t die. What then is to be done?
If I find a wild apple tree, I don’t dig about it and prune it to get fruit. I cut it down and graft it; but I never think of making it better. I graft it with a good kind of apple, then I get fruit. And, moreover, I don’t call it by the name of the old tree; I call it by the name of the new graft. God grafts us. He judged the old man in the cross of Christ. He looks for no fruit from it. To Him its existence is ended there: it is cut down. Faith thinks God’s thoughts as to it. A believer is one who accepts God’s thoughts instead of his own; and he is right! He grafts the old tree after cutting it down in the cross, and gets fruit. He gives us Christ for our life. Faith says, “I am crucified with Christ “the old tree is cut down. “Nevertheless, I live; yet not I”—not the old tree now; it is cut down—dead. “But Christ liveth in me;” the new life, the implanting of a new graft. I then have Christ really living in me—the life of Christ becomes the true “I.” The old stump is there, and if I’m not watchful it will sprout up again. It is the same old tree-not removed by grafting; and never will. So, we don’t talk of dying to sin, but of living to Christ “—the true “I.” Now I reckon myself dead to sin and alive to God in Jesus Christ, who is my life.
But, what Christ is it who is my life. It is He who died.
Then I’ve died in Him: and here is what exercises the honest soul. It exclaims, “But I can’t say I’m dead—I feel I’m alive.” You have not learned that God’s word is more true than your thoughts. I accept His thoughts, and I say, “In me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing.” When a soul has learned that by a humbling painful process, God then lets him see that Christ is his life; the true “I”—Christ is his standing before God.
When it is a question between my experience and God’s word, it is not so simple. When I bow to it, and give up all hope of being better, you say, “I give it up—I can’t master it,” then all is peace. I can then say, “When I was in the flesh.” “I have left it; I am in the Spirit before God. I am not now a child of Adam, but a child of God; though I’ve got a child of Adam in me to contend with. As I had the life of the first Adam, I have life in the second Adam. But the first Adam is no longer ‘I.’ It broke my heart. I longed to do good, and could not—sin was too much for me. The law was good, and I could not keep it. I hated the sin. The law came and said, I can’t let you lust now, and it condemned me. I hated the sin, and the law cursed it. It was no use trying to get peace by progress and victory over myself.” It is deep humbling work to go through those experiences necessary to find out that I have died with Christ. The law was good, and conscience owned it as God’s authority. It has power over a man as long as he liveth; but I have learned that I have died. The gaoler has not died, but the prisoner has. The gaoler has no dominion over a dead man.
Beloved brethren, we never learn this till we are brought to the miserable condition that makes us cry out, “Oh wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me?” Then I give up hopes of doing so myself, and the next moment I can say, “I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.” It is all done. I’m delivered—I’m set free. Thank God, I can reckon it dead. I have died with Christ—died in that wherein I was held, that I might be married to another, even to Him who is risen from the dead, in order to bring forth fruit to God. (Rom. 7:4.) I am partner with Him who is risen. Not merely are my debts paid, but what belongs to Him is mine. I have got His riches, His peace, His glory, His joy. I have a right to reckon myself dead, because I’m one with Him who died for me. You can’t charge sin upon a dead man; therefore; “He that is dead is justified from sin.” (Rom. 6:7.) He sinned when alive; but now he is dead. There is no accusation against such in the presence of God. God has condemned the nature in’ the cross of His Son. I find the nature in me; but I know God has condemned it in His Son (Rom. 8:3), and I condemn it too. I am dead and done with it. I don’t now try to manage it. I reckon it dead-then sin does not reign in my mortal body. The new “I” is free to live to God. If I reckon myself thus dead, how many things I have to deny—to mortify? See how it detects the conscience and searches the heart. Let it live—let it show itself for a moment, and you lose Christ’s blessed company along the way.
The Lord give us then to know, that not only has Christ died for us, and put our sins away, but that we have died with Him, and we are justified from sin. Alive now to God in Him who is our life, we have a new place before God, in which we have positive possessions in Him; all things that He as man in glory possesses are ours. There is a new “I,” and for faith and for God the old “I” is gone forever. I have not merely my debts paid by my kind Father, when I came home a poor spendthrift and prodigal, but He has taken me into partnership, when I had not a penny to bring in; and I can call all His mine now. I have a right to do so, because Christ is my life. He has won my heart in lowliness, and cleansed my conscience in death. But more, I’ve died with Him, and am now united to Him in a new place, to live to God with no motive but Christ! All that’s His is mine. “All things are yours, and ye are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.”