You Have Died

Reminder: your Old Man is dead!

Dead Old Man (4)

You have died!

I am not kidding you.  If you have scarcely given it a thought it’s high time you do so; it will change your life for good. Not just a thought, let this fact sink in and grab hold of you, and be absolutely sure about this: your Old Man is dead. You can live by it.

There can hardly be better news than this. Imagine one day Mr. Sin wakes up and wishes to dispatch his slave to run some errand – inevitably something bad: to steal; to worry; to get sick; to condemn a cell group member because she failed to turn up in cell group (mind you, all these and more the Old Man used to faithfully comply) – but alas, the slave is no more. He is dead! Mr. Sin has just lost the instrument to propagate darkness in your life and in the world around you.

What Jesus has done on the cross is not only to put your sins on Himself so that He could pay the penalty on behalf of you. More than that, He put you – your Old Man the sinner, Mr. Sin’s slave – in Himself so that you were crucified together with Him.

Do the following scriptures mean anything to you? These should do in convincing you that you have been crucified with Christ and died with Him.

… our old man was crucified with him… (Rom 6:6, NKJV)

 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me… (Gal 2:20, NKJV)

For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. (Col 3:3, NKJV)

How God managed to do so I don’t know, but the result is far-reaching. Mr. Sin used to have a legal right over you – your Old Man. But because your Old Man died, even if you are alive now Mr. Sin has no right over you. His relationship was with your Old Man. He knows that your Old Man is dead.

The problem is that many believers don’t know. Perhaps I should put it this way: many believers are not sure what it means that their Old Man is dead and they act as if he is still alive. They do things only meant for the Old Man. They pull out God’s Law and try to become righteous by trying to fulfill the Law. They get miserable when they cannot. They try to become righteous when they are already righteous. They try to become wealthy when they are already rich. They try to become healthy when they are no more sick.

It’s vitally important that you realize your Old Man is dead. Don’t try to do anything to him. Don’t try to resurrect him! Be very glad that he is dead.

Photo Credit: renjith krishnan on FreeDigitalPhotos.net