Because of the Cross, You Died
This week as we celebrate Holy Week in anticipation of Easter Weekend, I want to consider our co-crucifixion with Christ and what all we died to when we died with Him. Most of the focus is usually on Jesus dying for our sins and the benefit of complete forgiveness. That is good news, but it’s not the only good news.
So, each day this week, I’ll be posting a short blog about our co-crucifixion with Christ and what we died to when we died with Him.
First, let’s talk about our co-crucifixion with Christ.
BECAUSE OF THE CROSS, YOU DIED!
When Jesus was hanging on the cross 2,000 years ago, He wasn’t the only one who died that day.
Here’s what the apostle Paul said in Romans 6:3-4.
3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death…
“Baptized” here means “immersed.” We aren’t talking about water baptism. It means to be “taken into.” In other words, to be baptized into Christ means that whatever happened to Him, happened to us, and here Paul says that we died with Christ.
Paul even said so about himself personally in Galatians 2:20.
20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live…
WHICH PART OF ME DIED?
Now, obviously, you aren’t physically dead, so who really died with Christ?
Your “old self.”
Paul continued in Romans 6 and says this in verse 6.
6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him
Your old self is the one who was in Adam. All people are either in Adam or in Christ.
Our old self inherited a sin nature. This left us separated from God. Our “self” was the only thing left to be the source of our life since we were cut off from The Source of life.
Here’s the way Dan Stone puts it in The Rest of the Gospel.
“The source of that life (the one in Adam) had to die. You can’t put Band-Aids on it. It had to die. It had to be cut off. It’s like the dandelions in the field next to my house. I used to break them off at the ground and hope for the best. But dandelion roots are very long. I didn’t realize how long until I finally pulled one out. You have to get them out by the root, or they’ll grow right back. God had to cut off the old man at the root or he would continue to produce his sinful fruit. So, God crucified you with Christ.” (p. 41)
WHAT DOES THIS PRACTICALLY MEAN FOR ME?
So many of us as Christians are trying to “die to self.” We’re trying to get rid of the part of us that we don’t like or that acts out sometimes. But the problem is that we are trying to kill someone that God already killed!
We get confused because of our emotions, thoughts about ourselves, or the sinful behavior that comes out occasionally. We think that means that our old self still exists and we must kill him or her.
But just because you act a certain way every now and then doesn’t mean that’s who you are. I can act like a chicken all day long, but that will never make me a chicken.
Maybe we act like our old self every now and then because many of us believe that our old self is still alive.
When we come to know the truth, we may experience thoughts, feelings, or emotions that seem to align with our old self, but now we can renew our minds to the truth, “THAT IS NOT WHO I AM ANYMORE!”
As we focus on the cross during this Easter week, know today that because of the cross, you are dead.