“For you died, and
your life is hidden with Christ in God.”
(Col. 3:3 NKJV)
I died!
Yup. I died.
The old self? Buried.
Left behind. Forgotten.
“My old self has been crucified with Christ.” (Gal. 2:20a
NLT)
Calvary’s cross lays atop
that grave of the old me and I’ve said toodles!
The new me? Alive and
hidden in Christ.
“It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I
live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave
Himself for me.” (Gal. 2:20b NLT)
And if you are in Christ, your old self is dead and buried
also, right? “Your old, evil nature died with Him and was buried with Him.” (Col.
2:12 TLB)
Therefore, you and I are “a new creation; old things have
passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Cor. 5:17 NKJV), because “Those
who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful
nature to His cross and crucified them there.” (Gal. 5:24 NLT)
But are we content to leave well enough alone? Nooooooo! We
have to go get our handy-dandy, Lowe’s special, heavy duty, grave-diggin’
shovel and dig up our old selves again because self wants to come out and play.
Oh, we welcome that
rugged cross to rest upon our sins, but we won’t let it rest upon our nature.
Paul assures us through his letter to the Roman church “that
our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away
with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.” (Rom. 6:6 NKJV)
Unfortunately, after becoming a new creation in
Christ, that old man has a stubborn propensity for raising his ugly head and
yoo-hooing us from the grave. He likes to dangle his friends...impure thoughts,
words, attitudes, sights, and feelings...right before our eyes.
And what do we do?
Yup. We reach for the shovel handle and start
digging to accommodate him!
Then, we
find ourselves saying...
“Well, halllloooo there, old pal negative
attitude!”
“Howdy there, pardner selfishness!”
“Welcome back, ol’ addiction!”
“Glad to see ya, lust!”
But if “The Spirit of God, who
raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you,” then, “dear brothers and sisters,
you have no obligation whatsoever to do what your sinful nature urges you to
do.” (Rom.
8:11a, 12 NLT) Because “now you are free from your old master, sin” (Rom. 6:18
TLB), so “let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what
your sinful nature craves.” (Gal. 5:16 NLT)
Therefore, no more reaching
for the shovel! No more grave digging!
And “That means you must not give sin a vote in the way you
conduct your lives. Don’t give it the time of day. Don’t even run little
errands that are connected with that old way of life. Throw yourselves
wholeheartedly and full-time—remember, you’ve been raised from the dead!—into
God’s way of doing things. Sin can’t tell you how to live. After all, you’re
not living under that old tyranny any longer. You’re living in the freedom of
God.” (Rom.
6:12-14 Msg)
Do you have a
handy-dandy, Lowe’s special, heavy duty, grave-diggin’ shovel?
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