Dying daily to the Cross!
Gal 2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
Our ego is dead. Our will is submitted and surrendered . Very few of us have learned to let the cross do its deadly work in our flesh on a daily basis.
The cross has two operations:
- bought our eternal salvation,
- our ongoing sanctification the daily, continuous crucifixion of our flesh.
If Christ is on the throne, then self is on the cross! We must understand that “Putting our self to death is the only way to exchange our life for His
How do we know if we're dead to the flesh?
Spiritual law of the flesh: The measure to which the life of Christ is manifested in us is the same measure to which we're willing to put our self to death.
It is the submitted, dead-to-self life that the Lord can animate and use for His glory and is the only kind of life He will empower and use.
What are the factors that we can measure this: Our world view & priorities.
- Our time
- Our activities
- our relationships
- how we deal with our finances/purchases
- even our intake of food/drinks!
None of these things is any longer a personal decision when we've surrendered our life to Him. It is not what others say, what self says or what circumstances dictate. The only valid question is always, What does Christ say to me about this decision? ? WWJD ? What does my master wants?
A Spirit-controlled Christian will apply this principle, praying that each action and decision will be according to
the will of Christ rather than the flesh. ? Like an ambassador!
Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. (Mt 16:24)
Lk 14:26 "If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.
My life for His life : no parallel existence! The Lord Jesus Christ defeated Satan on the cross, we too will experience victory over sin, the world, the flesh and the devil, when we put our flesh to the cross.
conversion to Christ begins a lifelong battle with the flesh. If we think we've attained something/enough, its the start of the fall. There are several important defenses to respond successfully to the attacks of the flesh:
1. Lay aside religious pride regarding your knowledge, traditions and denominational identity.
- right doctrine without right living is worthless in the sight of God.
- The test of our spiritual reality is not on our creeds or anything else of this world, including other pride of life sins such as education, birth, parentage, social class or race. It hinges on how we can & have handled the flesh! (e.g.: Paul vs the other apostles, they give way for Paul to do His work!)
2. We must relinquish all hope that we can reform and redeem the flesh.
- No confidence in flesh (Phil 3:3)
- Nothing good dwells in our flesh! (Rom 7:18)
- Do not take our eyes of the giver and focus on the gifts! (Heb 12:2)
- Branches not connected to the wine do not produce any fruit! (Jn 15:4-5)
- do not try to do Lord's work by our power/strength talents/education/wealth (Zech 4:6)
- The idea is not to sanctify / reform / cleanse the flesh, but to put it to death!
- We're asked to change our mind! (Rom 12:2)
3. Do not seek mystical spiritual experiences to defeat the flesh.
- looking for a short-cut to victory in some mystical experience. (e.g. expel demon)
- virtually no one asks if you're dead to the flesh. (Gal 5:24)
- People who do not take their faith seriously.
- God will not put our flesh to death, its our responsibility!
- Its a moment-by-moment process on based of faith!!
- Problem is our own will we need to submit it to HIM!
4. Fellowship with the Lord:
- Most of us love sin & hate sinners! (remember Jesus said: take the log before pointing to the stick!)
- Nothing except constant fellowship with the Lord can teach us to HATE SIN the same way He hates it and runaway from it!
- Jesus hated sin but he loved sinners, that must be our objective too!
Meditation:
- Which areas of my life needs to be dead to the flesh?
- Confess and ask the Lord for help.
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