Deliverance Through Death

How to get free from the bondage of sin and self is the great question in many hearts. Such freedom looks impossible, but “the things that are impossible with man are possible with God.”

The word of God says:

“One died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, that they which live should not live unto themselves, but unto Him.” (2 Cor. 5:14-15). When we first came to Christ with the guilt and burden of our sins, deliverance looked just as impossible, but as we took God at His word, the Holy Spirit bore witness and proved to us that He could do what seemed the “impossible” thing. Let us go back to the first stage of deliverance and see how it was done.

1. We were convicted of sin and longed for something more.

2. We struggled to get peace, and looked inward for relief, but all in vain.

3. At the point of despair, we were shown that deliverance had to come from some power outside of ourselves.

4. At last, we looked away to Him, to the God given vicarious Christ on Calvary’s cross bearing our sins in His own body on the tree.

5. We ceased from struggling and, resting on His finished work of atonement, found peace through the blood of His Cross, and we had “no more conscience of sins.” (Heb. 10:2). The “impossible” thing was done. Justified by faith we knew we were at peace with God. (Rom. 5:1).

6. New life from God was imparted to us by the Holy Spirit, and He, the Holy Spirit Himself, bore witness with our spirit that we were children of God. (Rom. 8:16).

How clearly these steps are repeated in another stage of our spiritual walk, as the Holy Spirit leads us on to know deliverance from the bondage of self and sin.

1. The Holy Spirit first convicts us of the bondage of sin and the loathsomeness of the selfish life according to the flesh. (See 1 Cor. 3:1-3). We long to live a purer and more sanctified life.

2. We struggle to be free; we cry out to God, and yet victory appears more and more hopeless. The enemy taunts us, “This life of victory is not for you,” or “There is no such thing as victory.” We don’t know whether we are coming or going. We seek to surrender more fully to God but fall again and again; we long to do God’s will, but the more we try the more we seem to do the things contrary to our desires. The loathesomeness of sin increases, and its power seems greater, and we are put into circumstances that bring out the very worst in us, until at last we loathe ourselves, and cry, “Oh wretched man . . . who shall deliver me?” (Rom. 7:24).

3. At this point of bitter despair and darkness the Spirit of God shows us that deliverance must come from another source, out there beyond ourselves, and that our own self cannot conquer itself or sin.

4. The Spirit of God then leads us again to Calvary and throws light upon the crucified One. He whispers to us the written Word, “One died for all, therefore all died.” (2 Cor. 5:14), and we see that God reckoned His Son’s death as if we all died. We then consent to account ourselves crucified with Christ and agree to live the crucified life. We give our lives into His death, “Always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake that the life also of Jesus may be manifested.” (2 Cor. 4:11).

5. We are done striving; we cease from our own fighting efforts and enter into rest (Heb. 4:10), saying, in humble dependence upon the Holy Spirit, “I have been crucified with Christ.” (Gal. 2:20).

6. The life of God is now imparted in fuller measure, and the Holy Spirit reveals the living Christ indwelling the soul henceforth, enabling the believer, moment by moment, to not live for oneself, but rather to live unto Him.

“But I do not yet feel all this,” someone says! Nevertheless, this is the message of Calvary and the resurrection of Jesus, and we must come to the right position in the sight of God, by blind faith in His word before we can prove it in experience.

Have we been brought by the Holy Spirit to utter despair of ourselves, and are now ready to own that in us dwells no good thing, and everything is under the curse of sin? Then let us now in simple trust:

1. Look to Calvary once again and see that the Saviour did carry us in Himself to His Cross. (Rom. 6:3; Gal. 2:20).

2. Take our place in Him on the Cross, that by the choice of our will we have died with Him. (Col. 3:3; Gal. 2:20).

3. Then day by day, as any trace of the old “natural” life is revealed by the Holy Spirit, yield it to the Cross, and reckon it crucified with Him. (Rom. 8:13).

We can take our place as crucified with Christ day by day, but the Spirit of God must deal ruthlessly with the old life. We then surrender it to death on the Cross as it is revealed, and keep it there. As the work of God deepens in us, the resurrected Christ is manifested in us.

If we, hour by hour, quietly rest upon the word of God, “You died,” (Col. 3:3) and strike back at all unveiling of the self and, by the sword of the Spirit’s severing victory over Satan’s attacks, the Holy Spirit will at once “put to death” the “deeds” of the body, and we shall walk even more as Paul, in the wonderful liberty, (Rom. 8:2) wherewith Christ has made us free.