You believe in the death of the Lord
Jesus and you believe in the death of
the thieves with Him. Now what about
your own death? Your crucifixion is
more intimate than theirs. They were
crucified at the same time as the Lord
but on different crosses, whereas you
were crucified on the selfsame cross
as He, for you were in Him when He
died. How can you know? You can
know for the one sufficient reason
that God said so. It does not depend
on your feelings. If you feel that Christ
has died, He has died; and if you do
not feel that He has died, He had
died. If you feel that you have died,
you have died; and if you do not feel
that you have died, you have
nevertheless just as surely died. These
are divine facts. That Christ has died is
a fact, that the two thieves have died
is a fact, and that you have died is a
fact also. Let me tell you, You have
died! You are done with! You are
ruled out! The self you loathe is on
the Cross of Christ. And "he that is
dead is freed from sin" (Romans 6:7
Amplified). This is the Gospel for
Christians.
Our crucifixion can never be made
effective by will or by effort, but only
by accepting what the Lord Jesus did
on the Cross. Our eyes must be
opened to see the finished work of
Calvary. Some of you, prior to your
salvation, may have tried to save
yourselves. You read the Bible,
prayed, went to church, gave alms.
Then one day your eyes were opened
and you saw that a full salvation had
already been provided for you on the
Cross. You just accepted that and
thanked God, and peace and joy
flowed into your heart. And now the
good news is that sanctification is
made possible for you on exactly the
same basis as that initial salvation.
You are offered deliverance from sin
as no less a gift of God's grace than
was the forgiveness of sins.
For God's way of deliverance is
altogether different from man's way.
Man's way is to try to suppress sin by
seeking to overcome it; God's way is
to remove the sinner. Many Christians
mourn over their weakness, thinking
that if only they were stronger all
would be well. . . If we are
preoccupied with the power of sin
and with our inability to meet it, then
we naturally conclude that to gain the
victory over sin we must have more
power. . .
But this is altogether a fallacy; it is not
Christianity. God's means of delivering
us from sin is not by making us
stronger and stronger, but by making
us weaker and weaker. That is surely
rather a peculiar way of victory, you
say; but it is the divine way. God sets
us free from the dominion of sin, not
by strengthening our old man but by
crucifying him; not by helping him to
do anything, but by removing him
from the scene of action.
For years, maybe, you have tried
fruitlessly to exercise control over
yourself, and perhaps this is still your
experience; but when once you see
the truth you will recognize that you
are indeed powerless to do anything,
but that in setting you aside altogether
God has done it all. Such discovery
brings human striving and self-effort
to an end

Bump!