IT’S EASY TO SEE WHY WE OFTEN ASSUME THAT THE OLD SELF IS
only positionally dead or is slowly dying off. The old self must still be around, because we’re still getting these nagging sinful thoughts. Right?
But it seems the Scriptures leave no room for misunderstanding concerning the issue of the old self. If you’re in Christ, your old self is nowhere to be found within you. The old self is dead, buried, and gone. However, we now understand why believers still sin. We sin because of the continued presence of something called the power of sin—“hooking” us in various ways through the flesh.
I’ve read countless books on theology and Christian living that start with the premise that we still sin, and then they conclude that the old self is still around.
*
They decide that Christians have two selves and still need to “die to self.” And sometimes I’ve had people point to these verses in Ephesians to support a dying-to-self theology:
That, however, is not the way of life [giving yourselves over to sensuality] you learned when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to
your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds.
EPHESIANS
4:20-23
But apparently this passage is addressing behavior (way of life), and Paul is simply pointing out that they were originally taught that life in Christ brings behavior change.
The phrase die to self
is nowhere to be found, and the phrase put off your old self
is a bit ambiguous. Is it a present-tense command for them to obey right now? Or is it what they were taught (past tense) when Paul first instructed them? Most likely it is the latter, given that Colossians clearly states that Christians have taken off (past tense) our old self at salvation:
Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off
your old self with its practices and have put on
the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.
COLOSSIANS
3:9-10, italics added
Instead of trying to somehow “die to self,” which seems to me to be equivalent to exploring a bottomless pit,
*
I think we should start with the premise found in Scripture that the old self is dead and gone. We should then conclude that there must be some
other
reason why we still sin. As we take this approach, Paul’s teachings on the flesh and the power of sin within us make a lot of sense.
Is this an important distinction? Absolutely. I would argue that it’s essential for both a proper self-image and daily victory over temptation. We must realize that saying no to sin is not saying no to ourselves. As God’s workmanship, our regenerated selves are not the problem. Sin is the problem, and our calling as new creations in Christ is to say no to sin and say yes to who we truly are
.
IN THE
BODY
?
As you read the passage below, take note of the two actors—Saul the Pharisee and “another law.” Here the phrase another law
means a different principle, force, or power. Notice where this rogue agent is located:
So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.
For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body,
waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.
ROMANS
7:21-23 NIV, italics added
There’s a battle within our very own bodies. The key to winning a battle is to understand who is fighting against whom and what strategies are being employed. Imagine the confusion if, in the midst of a battle, you mistakenly begin to fight against your own army!
FROM
SAUL TO
PAUL
Saul of Tarsus hated being overtaken by the rebel force called sin. He cried out for freedom from it. And he eventually found that freedom through undergoing a radical surgery:
Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind
am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.
ROMANS
7:24-25 NASB, italics added
The Pharisee was frustrated with his spiritual experience. He cognitively understood what the law mandated, but he had no
power to carry it out. The power of sin got the best of him every time. But through his spiritual co-crucifixion with Christ, Saul became Paul. Under the New, Paul found victory over the power of sin that had overwhelmed him for so long.
Our fight
is
not
against
ourselves.
As Christians, we have gone through the same surgery. We’re now on God’s team, and we want what he wants. Our fight is not
against ourselves. The battle is against a parasitic force within us. That force may appear to be us. It may sound like us within our thought life. It may even feel like us within our emotions. Nevertheless, God has exposed the Deceiver’s lie. It is most certainly not
us.
We are new creations with God’s desires stamped on our hearts and minds. What a truth to relish! What a truth to set us free!
WHAT’S THE
BIG
DEAL
?
It’s liberating to realize that the power of sin is the source of temptation, not our own self.
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However, does this knowledge alone really help bring about a marked improvement in our responses to temptation? Well, it certainly can’t hurt! But there are a few more pieces of the puzzle to put in place. It’s not enough to know the source of the temptation. It’s also important to realize that we have
the power to resist
that source.
Nonbelievers are spiritually harnessed to the power of sin. As a horse is led by reins, nonbelievers are controlled by the reign of sin. When a person comes to Christ, their old self, which was controlled by sin, dies through the work of the cross. A new self is raised through resurrection in Christ. If we’re in Christ, we don’t have to submit to sin any longer. We’re free to choose expressions of life instead of always expressing sin and death
:
We know that our old self was crucified with [Christ] so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with [made powerless], that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.
ROMANS
6:6-7
Paul goes on to urge us to count ourselves dead to sin but alive to God (Romans 6:11). Some English translations use the term reckon
here: “reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin” (NKJV). Whether one prefers reckon
or count
or consider,
it makes little difference as long as we realize that our reckoning is not what causes this to become reality. Instead of our “making it a reality,” we’re invited to bank on the fact that our death to sin is already real.
Some would put the burden on Christians to believe hard enough in order to make our death to sin a reality. This isn’t the meaning of reckon, count,
or consider.
These words mean “to rely on the fact” that you’re dead to sin because God has already said it is so (and it is
so!): “In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:11).
Here we’re invited to live in reality. If we’re living under the assumption that sin is the most natural thing for us, then we’re being deluded. We’re different from the way we were before. We’re now alive to God, and we must come to grips with an essential truth: It is more normal, more fitting, and more like us to display the fruit of the Spirit than it is for us to display sin!
NEGATIVE TO
POSITIVE
You are now
100 percent OK
with God.
Whenever I read Romans 6, it makes me think of a numeric scale ranging from negative ten to positive ten. Negative ten would represent “alive to sin,” while positive ten would represent “alive to God.” It’s not enough for us to be dead to sin. That would
merely cause us to register as a zero or neutral on the scale. Instead, God has taken us all the way from a negative ten (alive to sin) to a positive ten for his use. He not only made us dead to sin; he made us alive to himself. Likewise, he not only removed our unrighteousness; he then made us righteous.
God is communicating that you are now 100 percent OK with him. God doesn’t spiritually join himself to neutral people. He has reserved himself exclusively for perfect, righteous saints.
The amazing news is that he has made us precisely that!
My intent is to put the pieces together to explain why a perfectly righteous new creation still struggles with sin in order to show that the person we used to be in Adam has indeed been obliterated. I don’t believe this should be relegated to the realm of the positional, the symbolic, or the “true in heaven only” category. To do so results in double-talk that is inconsistent with the “old self” passages and in my experience fails to provide believers with any real answers for daily living.
The solution is to consult the same author who spoke of the old self’s crucifixion to see if there’s an explanation for our continued struggle. Paul comes through by attributing our current battle to the ongoing presence of two forces—the flesh and the power of sin. Neither of these is the old self.
God calls us to consider his explanation of our ongoing struggle as truth. Why? Because if we don’t, we’re living under the delusion that we’re no different from the guy next door.
And that’s a pitiful, half-baked gospel.
GO
OUT ON A
LIMB
!
Many of us have already gone to extremes in our faith. We believe that God spoke the universe into existence. We believe that
a flood engulfed the earth and that a man spent three days in a big fish. To top it off, we believe that Jesus rose from the dead and then floated up into the sky amidst many onlookers.
What crazy events we’ve chosen to swallow as truth! Is the death of our old self any more difficult to believe? Alongside an explanation for why we still sin, I think it’s much easier. So why not reinterpret
our thought life in light of this revelation concerning the flesh and the power of sin?
The miracle of spiritual regeneration is a concept that has existed for thousands of years. Even Old Testament prophets spoke of the miracles that would one day take place within the children of God under the New:
I will give you a new heart
and put a new spirit
in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit
in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.
EZEKIEL
36:26-27, italics added
It is our human spirit
that is exchanged.
God gives us a new heart. This means that our core desires are now changed. We also receive a new spirit. Notice that the word spirit
here is translated with a lowercase s
to communicate that it is our human spirit that is exchanged. Finally, we also receive God’s Spirit within us. Although many Christians are aware that the Holy Spirit is within them, we may not differentiate him from our human spirit that has died and been re-created to be like Christ.
The Scriptures speak clearly about our union with Christ. It’s essential to understand not only the presence of Christ in us but also who we are
in him. I hope this brief look into our real identity has sparked your desire to examine further who you are, what type of heart
you have, and what it means to be one spirit with God (1 Corinthians 6:17).
We’re invited to celebrate a radical truth—a truth that has been misunderstood over the centuries due to our inability to explain ongoing sinning or our fear that others will think we’re claiming sinless perfection in our performance. Once we accept God’s explanation for continued sinning, we’re rejuvenated to consider our spiritual death and resurrection as an actual fact that will forever change the way we approach life: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:17).