Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, BEING DEAD to sins, SHOULD LIVE unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. [1Peter 2:24]


"...that we, being dead... should live..."

Reading the above text very carefully, I notice that the emphasis in the verse is more about “living” rather than “dying”. The text reveals that Jesus Christ bore our own sins on the tree (i.e. on the Cross). Therefore, Jesus has achieved the part of death for everyone who gets to that cross where He died. This “death part” is a natural one. It is the one done by Christ on the Cross.

Death was achieved, not by our own operation or by our doing. Our death was actually achieved by Christ on the cross, and for the fact that Christ did bare our sins in His own body on that tree, the fact of death was totally consummated, it was concluded, and it was finished. When Christ actually said "it is finished", He was referring to the death of man bound up in His death. It was this death that now opened up the possibility of a new life.
Since Jesus died therefore, as a born again Christian, it means I also died. I was on that cross with Him. He took my sinful nature with Himself to the cross and killed (finished) it there. In summary then, because He died, I too also died. This is the ONLY THING that gives me capacity now to live a NEW LIFE.

This is NOT just a story, it ACTUALLY took place.


The Meaning of the believers death:

“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 [Romans 6:6-7]

When we say that the believer has died, we are NOT talking about physical death or separation between the body and the spirit, instead, we mean that the believer has died to sin. Sin no more has dominion over him. The power and the grip of sin over his life is finished, he is completely free, and he has daily victory over sin.

This occurred because the man of sin, the old sinful man inside him, which has the capacity, propensity and nature of sin, has been put to death by being crucified with Jesus on the cross.

The question now comes: “if the believer has actually died to sin, why then are many believers today still sinning?”, “Why are so called Christians still struggling daily with sin?” The reason is simply because many people are still concentrating on DYING, as if death has not taken place.

Many Christians today still want to die to sin, as if Jesus has not already done it by putting their body of sin to death. They ignorantly labour in the power of self to achieve what Jesus has already achieved on the Cross, but since the self-life is bound by sin, and does not have the capacity to finish sin, all their efforts to help themselves therefore remain futile. Man then continues to grope in sin [in ignorance of the finished works of Christ on the cross].

According to Scriptures, the believer is already dead to sin. He is NOT to be praying now to be dead to sin, no! this has taken place already through Christs death on the cross. The emphasis for the believer now, should be on “living” a correct life, and not about dying to sin.


HOW?

First of all, it must be clear that CHRISTIANITY IS A LIFE THAT GREW OUT OF DEATH. The Christian Life is actually a resurrection life. It is like a farmer who goes and plants a seed in the ground. That seed FIRST DIES before a new life can spring out. Unless that seed dies, we cannot have a new life that has capacity to grow, multiply and produce fruits. Such is the Christian life. SOMETHING FIRST DIED BEFORE WE HAVE LIFE. Death happened first before Life ensued.

You are not a Christian at all unless your body of sin had first died. The Cross of Jesus is what actualized that death, and when Jesus died on the Cross and declared, “IT IS FINISHED”, He was affirming the fact that “MY BODY OF SIN IS PUT TO DEATH”, Death has occurred, I have died, and the power of sin is destroyed, now I can live a new life (A Christian Life) in Christ Jesus… Halleluyah!!!

Resurrection is only possible for the one who had first died. If there was never death, then, we would not be talking about resurrection at all. In the same vein, if DEATH TO SIN never took place, then it means that there was no RESURRECTION TO LIVE A NEW LIFE, and if resurrection never occurred, then there is NO CHRISTIAN LIFE anywhere, since Christianity is a resurrection life. You cannot be talking about being a Christian believer except DEATH FIRST OCCURRED, and A RESURRECTION TOOK PLACE. For the fact that there is a Christian life, it surely means that death and resurrection occurred, because life ONLY EVOLVED after death had occurred. The life that Christ has taken over is actually a dead life.

So now, if a man is still emphasising dying or praying that his old sinful life should die (as a Christian), it means that the cross has NOT taken place in the life of such an individual. This is a clear indication that such a man is yet alive in his sins, he therefore CANNOT live to please God. He is NOT a Christian.

Look at this scenario:
A man fully dressed in white for instance, will be very conscious of wherever he goes or whoever he relates with. He will not play with a palm-oil seller because he is mindful not to get his white dress stained. Now, the reason why this man in white will not want to play with the palm-oil seller, is NOT BECAUSE he is hoping and praying to get a white dress, No, (HE ALREADY HAS THE WHITE DRESS ON), he only does not want to stain the white dress he already has.

The above scenario is applicable also to the Christian. He keeps away from sin and the world, NOT so that he can be holy and be dead to sin, (NO, THE BELIEVER IS ALREADY DEAD TO SIN). Instead, he keeps himself because his new sinless nature now does not permit sin. Sin cannot overcome him, and he will not do anything that contradicts the state of sinlessness he already has.

When a Christian is praying "Lord, Let the old sinfulman in me die", Jesus says: "Which old man? If the old man was still in you, there was no way for Me (Jesus) to come into your life. Two Kings cannot reign on the same throne. The old man and the new man cannot occupy the same vessel at the same time. You could not have Me in you if the old man did not die. Your embracing My Cross meant the termination of your sinful nature”.

The Life of Christ in you, is called THE RISEN LIFE or THE RESSURECTION LIFE. SINCE RESSURECTION IS ONLY AVAILABLE FOR THE DEAD, it clearly means that Christs resurrection life (i.e. the new life in Jesus) ONLY came because the old occupant—the old man—died. Christian friend, THE OLD MAN IS DEAD, THAT IS WHY BY RESURRECTION, THERE IS NOW THE RISEN LIFE (which is CHRIST IN YOU).

For as long as you believe that your old man still lives, (after being born again!), then it is a pity, you will FOREVER remain a sinner. You will continue to have excuse for all your wrongdoings and misbehaviours. You will accredit and excuse your sinfulness to the fact that “it is because the old man in me is still active, that is why I am misbehaving”. So, you will still be praying that one day, you will become holy, pure and totally free. Friend, that day will never come again, you will forever remain in bondage due to your ignorance. The day you are looking forward to, is already behind you. It is the cross of Jesus. THE CROSS OF JESUS IS THE ONLY EFFECTIVE OCCURENCE THAT DEALT WITH AND KILLED THE OLD SINFUL MAN, it is not our prayers, commitments, fasting, self denial, dos or donts.
It is a slap on the face of Jesus to try to accredit what ONLY HE HAS DONE AND FINISHED ON THE CROSS to mere activities of human commitment.

Christian, YOU HAVE DIED, YOUR OLD MAN HAS DIED. THE SINFUL (ADAMIC) NATURE IS NO MORE IN YOU, JESUS KILLED IT ON THE CROSS, IT IS FINISHED. Whenever sin comes to knock at your door, stop giving excuses that it is because you are not yet pure, that is why you are incapacitated by that sin, Never! Rather, look at the sin and tell it that the man who used to commit sin in you, HAS DIED.


BEING DEAD to sins, SHOULD LIVE unto righteousness...

Christians today should rather begin to concentrate on LIVING a beautiful Christian life, rather than giving useless excuses that they have not died. The devil may keep cheating you that you need to pray strongly that your old man should die, friend, there is NO PRAYER that can kill the old man, ONLY THE CROSS can kill the old man, and THAT HAS ALREADY BEEN DONE AT CALVARY, you ONLY NEED TO GET TO THE CROSS and SEE THE DEATH of the man you have been struggling with.


“That ye put off concerning the former conversation the OLD MAN, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts... And that ye put on the NEW MAN, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness [Ephesians 4:22, 24]

Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the OLD MAN with his deeds, And have put on the NEW MAN, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him: [Colossians 3:9-10]

The life of sin, which is the old man in you, CANNOT please God. It cannot live for God. It cannot live the Christian life. You can ONLY live for God (be a Christian) AFTER YOU HAVE DIED. The old man (the life and nature of sin) and the new man (The resurrected life of Christ that pleases God) cannot cohabit in the same person at the same time - IT IS IMPOSSIBLE. Death and life cannot work together in the same life at the same time. Death takes place FIRST before you can have life. If you never died, you cannot live the resurrected life no matter how you try.

The old man does not have the capacity, the nature or the power to live for God. You cannot train it to live godly, just as you cannot train a goat to be gentle. The old man is not tameable, only the resurrected life can actually live for God.

When we claimed to be born again without the death of the old man, we lived a struggling life, trying daily to convince ourselves of our goodness. For instance, the Bible told us to be gentle, but since the power of a gentle life, which genuinely oozes out of the new man was absent in us (because our old man had not died), our old man simply practiced how to be gentle, contrary to his own nature. We minded the way we talked, lived and moved. Our steps were doctored every moment so that they would not go out of the way. We struggled to keep the law of God because the nature of sin was bound up within us. We suppressed the old man and compelled him to live the life of the new man. Though we achieved some success by looking gentle and acting gently, but all that was by “practice” and struggles , it was not our "nature". Our gentleness and holiness was by "performance" and "act", it was not by "life". We mandated and forced the old man to live newly, but deep in us, we knew that such things did not change who we were. We became hypocrites living the wrong life. We became deceivers living to please the world or living to show the world that we are what we are not, but heaven knew us through and through that we were only pretenders, performers and actors living the wrong life.

Though the desires to live holily and righteously was great, commendable and godly, but the means we employed in achieving it was completely opposed to the design of Christ, so we became greater offenders. In fact, by making use of the old man to do what the new man (Christ) ought to do in us, we simply put the old man to work and that old man, which ought to be killed, became more magnified and exalted. The flesh became more groomed to grow more in us, but it was still the same odious old man in the sight of God.

After death took place, and our old man died, the new man took over, oh!, how glorious it was. The fruit of the Spirit, the love, joy, peace, gentleness,..., all became an outflow of life, NO MORE a performance we do, or teachings that we practiced and acted.


If as a Christian, you are still struggling with sin, it is either you NEVER really died with Christ on the cross, or maybe the devil is cheating you with ignorance of the cross, and you will NEVER gain freedom over sin unless you SEE what Jesus has finished for you on the cross. There must be a recognition of who you are now in Christ and an appropriation of all the Cross has wrought on your behalf – Total death to sin.

Friends, Dying must first take place, and that dying actually, is not by struggling, it is not by doing some activities. Dying is not an activity you do. Dying is simply a yielding, it is simply a going to the cross, it is an appropriation of what has been consummated by Jesus.

Total death took place at the cross. If a man finds out he is yet alive in sin, and the old man is still very much active, you cannot train that old man to become a new man, it will not work. You only need to simply surrender all you are doing in the flesh and go back to the cross for a revelation of what has been FINISHED for you. The old man cannot live the resurrected life, only the new man is a resurrected man, and only the resurrected man can live for God or please God.


FINALLY…
DEATH actually is what separates the OLD MAN and the NEW MAN. DEATH is in the middle.


OLD MAN -------------- [DEATH] ----------------- NEW MAN


Before death, the old man lived, and after death (i.e. the death of the old man), a new resurrected life which is the new man ensues.

Death and life cannot be found in the same man at the same time. The man in whom sin operates has not yet died, so he cannot LIVE. The old man and the new man CANNOT operate in the same body, it is an impossibility. The new man COMES BY RESURRECTION, so you can never have the new man without the old man first dying.

The emphasis of the believer today must therefore shift from DYING to LIVING.

Living for Jesus is by living the resurrected life. It is a yielded life. It is a life being daily lived by faith in the Son of God. It is a life of constant and continuous victory over sin and the tyranny of the devil, and this is achieved NOT by fasting and prayer as the means... It is not by struggling, it is not by punishing the flesh, it is not even by self-denials, BUT IT IS BY FAITH in the finished works of Christ, and absolutely trusting in His grace. The Fasting, the Praying and the self-denials with all other spiritual activities, will only come as a product of the finished works of the Cross, and NOT as an input to gain victory.

Genuine living to please the Lord, genuine fruit of the Spirit, ONLY comes after the demise of the flesh (the old man). True holiness is the life that is lived by the new man, and NOT what we compel the old man to do. True holiness is a product of "life", it is not the performance of an act, neither is it a product of internal struggles nor a gruelling force to obey a set of rules and commandments.