“Daddy, 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, daddy, 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,” said his father, “when I tell you that this ‘old man’ the Bible speaks of, died on the same cross with the Lord Jesus.”
“Why daddy, 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 you do?”
“I am quite sure I am a sinner, daddy, and Jesus, you know, died for sinners. And I do trust Him.”
“Well, Eddie dear, ‘blessed are all they that put their trust in Him.’ But is your heart quite changed now? Have you a new heart that loves Jesus? Is it all, all new?”
“Why no, daddy, not all. I do so wish it were. But I sometimes think it’s as if I were two people now. There’s still one Eddie that doesn’t seem to want to please Jesus, and there’s another one that does.”
“So it’s as if there’s an old Eddie, and a new. There’s one Eddie, a new Eddie, called ‘the new man’ who loves the Lord: but the old Eddie, called ‘the old man,’ is there too. 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, daddy? Hadn’t Jesus died before I was born?”
“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 the cross for us, He saw us there in Jesus. It is just as if that bad ‘old man’ had been put upon that cross with Him. Now, when He looks at you, He sees the new Eddie He has made, not the old Eddie that you feel in you. The old Eddie, God says, is as dead before Him. ‘Our old man was crucified with Christ.’ In heaven it will be gone, so that you will never find it any more. But even now while you do find it, God says to reckon it dead. Do not let it lead you to sin. The old Eddie died upon the cross with Jesus. You are now to let the new Eddie be seen in your daily life.”
Dear Christian boys and girls, this may sound like a new and a strange lesson. But God says it is true, and I am glad.
ML 12/1954