"WHATSOEVER God doeth, it shall be forever; nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it." What rest there is in this! It is the perfection of God, and of His work, which is the very essence of the gospel, and which gives such solidity to the heart of the believer in Christ.
"By one offering he has perfected forever them that are sanctified." "Now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." "So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many." He came, indeed, to do the will of God: "by the which will we are sanctified by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once." It is a perfect atonement, for it avails for the "sin of the world." It is a finished work, for it can never, nor need ever, be repeated.
Christ crucified for sinners is the foundation of the gospel message; it is also the foundation of the sinner's peace. His work is indeed the very work of God. One mind and purpose were in the Father and the Son in counsel; one heart in the carrying out the work of redemption; and it is "forever." "There remaineth no more sacrifice for sins." The heart that trusts Christ's finished work, trusts that which, for time and for eternity, has met its deepest need.
But not only does the cross represent the death of Christ for the sinner when he believes, it also necessarily represents the penalty due to the sinner himself. If death and judgment be the sinner's due, whether that penalty be borne by himself, or by his substitute, it is still his penalty that is paid, and, as the penalty is death, it is virtually his death. Christ died not for His own (for He was without sin), but for the sins of others. In believing, then, we acknowledge that death is the "due reward of our deeds," the "wages of our sin," and we see the blessed Lord in love dying that very death for us upon the cross. When faith grasps this fuller view of substitution-of the atoning work of Christ-it can say, indeed, with Paul, "Our old man was crucified with him" (Rom. 6:66Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. (Romans 6:6)); and, again, "I am crucified with Christ." (Gal. 2:2020I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20).) His cross thus becomes mine, His death mine. By faith I identify myself with Him there, and rest in the certainty that the judgment of God which passed upon Him there has forever passed away from me. "I am crucified with Christ." Can this act be repeated? Never. Christ can never be crucified again. "In that he died, he died unto sin once." The work of atonement has once and forever been accomplished by Him, and God has once and forever "laid on him the iniquities of us all." "He bare our sins in his own body on the tree."
Thus we find that the word of God contemplates the believer's crucifixion with Christ as a completed and never to be repeated act. He died once, and we were then, and there, and forever identified with Him; and so it is said, "I am crucified with Christ." "They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh." "By whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." "Our old man was crucified with him." Deeply important it is for the peace and establishment of our souls to grasp these conclusive statements of God's word. The believer is never told to crucify himself or his flesh; it is always accounted to have been accomplished. "Whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever."
But we may be asked, Are not the flesh and its workings to be subdued, and is there not a continual and necessary conflict to be maintained? Yes, most assuredly, is the reply; and for this very reason, that we can already say, we are "crucified with Christ." Because, by faith, we reckon ourselves dead with Him, and so, "dead unto sin," we are called on to "mortify our members which are upon earth," but not to crucify them.
In the sight of God, and in our account by faith, we are crucified with Christ-never without Him. His crucifixion was ours. If we endured for ourselves what He on the cross endured for us, it would be eternal condemnation to us. But as to the “members which are upon the earth," they are not said to be crucified. The old mortal body and its members, prone to evil, are yet present, and they have to be subdued. "Mortification" is the process by which they are to be controlled. "If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live." (Rom. 8:1313For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. (Romans 8:13).) "Mortify, therefore, your members which are upon the earth." To mortify is to put to death. We cannot put to death what is already dead. Mortification, then, is a perpetual killing, if one may so say, of the members and of their deeds.
The believer can say, Because my old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth I might not serve sin, because God, in His infinite grace, has reckoned the death of Christ to my account, and I am in His sight as one who has died to sin-has died with Christ; because of this precious and peace-giving truth, I will with gladness and determination mortify every motion of sin in these members of my body which are yet upon the earth. By the power of the Spirit who dwells in me through God's grace, and who enables me to judge between flesh and Spirit, between good and evil, between the precious and the vile, I will bring the cross of Christ (whereon He died for me) to bear upon everything with which I come in contact, and on all the motives and desires of my heart and of my mind, and " bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus," will treat as worthy only of death all the workings of the flesh in my members, whether in thought, or word, or deed.
May God grant, then, to our readers to grasp the difference between " crucifixion"-Christ's finished work for us, the blessed and peace-giving truth of identification with Him on the cross, who hath loved us, and given Himself for us-and "mortification," the daily and hourly subduing, by the only divinely-appointed or possible means, of the workings of sin in the members. For, beloved friends, by death, and death alone, can the old man escape judgment, and this is by crucifixion. By death alone can sin in the members be overcome and subdued, and this is by mortification.
“Knowing this, that Christ being raised from the dead, dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once; but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. 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 bodies, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin; but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under law, but under grace." (Rom. 6:9-149Knowing 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. 12Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. 13Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. 14For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. (Romans 6:9‑14).) H. C. G. B.