A MAN who was deeply exercised about his soul was conversing with a friend on the subject, when the friend bade him come at once to Jesus; “for,” said he, “He will take away all the load of sins from 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 clone with that? And there’s not only my back, but there’s my hands and feet, and bead and heart; yea, I am such a lump of sin, such a mass of iniquity, that it’s myself I want to get rid of before I can get peace.”
I thought that was a plain and searching way of putting matters; and that is, going not only to the stream, but to the spring whence 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.
I believe that is the reason of so much misery among honest hearts who have never inquired of this matter at the Word of God. They do not know what God has done with that “I” which gives so much trouble―that “old man” which brings them into bondage, concerning which 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. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him: knowing 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” (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)).
In Galatians 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) the “I” is a crucified thing, put away from before God. “I 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.”
When the truth of myself is not known, there will always be trouble; but God would have me see how He has dealt with it on the cross―that it is a crucified thing, that as He reckons it so, I am to reckon it so also, and that henceforth I am not to live unto myself, but unto Him who died for me and rose again. The Spirit of God tells me that in the flesh (the evil principle in one that is at enmity with God) dwells no good thing; and knowing it is a thing to be reckoned dead, I am told to mortify (not to crucify) the members.
There is no part but what is sin, and therefore good cannot be expected from it; so that it is not only the sins which were as a burden upon my back put away, but my back too. I, myself, am not recognized: that is, not as a child of Adam; but being born again of incorruptible seed by the Word of God, and being indwelt by the Holy Ghost, I and a new creature in Christ Jesus, so that the “I” that is living is the “I” “in Christ Jesus.”
When John Bunyan looked up at the cross, the bundle fell from his back; but then he didn’t seem to learn that God had dealt with the back itself.
So 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 the world which undermines the current of divine joy in our hearts; free from ourselves, the enemy which gives us so much trouble―altogether free for Christ, who has bought us with His own blood. ―Extract.
WORTH REMEMBERING. ― “It is not what you think of Christ’s work, but what God thinks of it, that saves. Your knowledge, by faith, of what God thinks of it gives peace.” J. N. D.
Oh, the mighty love of God for a poor, vile sinner like me He found me on the brink of hell, and that I might be saved from it, His Son stooped to the shameful death of the cross.