PAPA, who else was crucified with Jesus? Of course, I know the thieves were. Was anybody else?”
“Yes, Eddie, there was indeed; but what makes my little boy ask such a question?”
“Why, papa, I heard it read the other day at meeting—something about ‘our old man being crucified with Jesus’—and I couldn’t think what it meant; I thought none but the two thieves died with Jesus.”
“You will think it stranger still, when I tell you that this ‘old man’ the Bible speaks of died on the same cross with the Lord Jesus, too.”
“Why, papa, I never heard of that. Who was it?”
“I think you know something of him, my dear boy. At least, if what you tell me is true, that you believe in Jesus. Are you sure of that?”
“I am quite sure I am a sinner, papa, and Jesus, you know, died for sinners. And I do trust Him.”
“Well, Eddie dear, ‘blessed are all who put their trust in Him.’ But is your heart quite changed, then, now? Have you a new heart that loves Jesus? —Is it all, all new?”
“Why no, papa, not all. I do so wish it was. But I sometimes think it’s as if I were two people now. There’s one Eddie still, that doesn’t seem to love Jesus after all; and there’s another one that does.”
“So there’s like an old Eddie, and a new. There’s one Eddie, a new Eddie, that God has made, and who loves Him; but the old Eddie that didn’t love Him isn’t gone. Well, even the apostle Paul found that. He found he had in him an old Paul still. That’s what he calls his ‘old man,’ and that’s what was crucified with Christ.”
“How, papa? Hadn’t Jesus died before that?”
“Yes, my dear, He had. But you know; for all who believe, it is just as if when He died they died, too. When God saw His dear Son hanging on that tree for us, He saw us there in Jesus. It is just as if we had been all put upon that cross with Him. Now, when He looks at you, He sees the Eddie He has made—not the old Eddie that you feel in you. The old Eddie, God says, is dead and gone. The blood of Jesus has blotted it all out. It is all put away. ‘Our old man was crucified with Christ.’ One day it will be gone, so that you will never find it any more. But, even now, while you do find it, God says, that is not you. The old Eddie died upon the cross with Jesus. The new Eddie is all He sees.”
“And that is how God can go on and bless us, in spite of all we find in ourselves. He has put all our sin away. And Jesus, who has gone up to God for us, is really what God sees. So, when He looks down at us, He sees only what is like Jesus in us. All the rest is put away.”
ML 04/23/1933