What part of your “old man” (the selfish, sinful, pride-driven old life that controlled and defined us before Christ) still needs to die?
Paul told the Colossians, “Therefore, consider the members of your earthly body as dead to sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry” (Colossians 3:5).
Or as the KJV phrased it, “Mortify therefore …”
Or the NKJV: “Therefore put to death …”
The Amplified explains the intention and intensity of the Greek, “So kill (deaden, deprive of power) the evil desire lurking in your members [those animal impulses and all that is earthly in you that is employed in sin]: sexual vice, impurity, sensual appetites, unholy desires, and all greed and covetousness, for that is idolatry (the deifying of self and other created things instead of God)” (Colossians 3:5 AMP).
Isn’t it fascinating that Christ came and died upon the cross to deal with the sin that reigned in my life—He set me free—and yet I long to continue in it?!
A.W. Tozer explained it this way…
There are a lot of people trying to get away with the old man. What do I mean by the old man? I mean your pride, your bossiness, your nastiness, your temper, your mean disposition, your lustfulness and your quarrelsomeness.
What do I mean, Reverend? I mean your study, your hunting for a bigger church, being dissatisfied with the offering and blaming the superintendent because you cannot get called.…
Deacons, what do I mean? I mean sitting around in board meetings wearing your poor pastor out, because you are too stubborn to humble yourself and admit you are wrong.
What do I mean, musicians? I mean that demeanor that makes you hate somebody that can sing a little better than you can. I mean that jealousy that makes you want to play the violin when everybody knows you can’t, especially the choir director. You hate him, wish he were dead, and secretly pray that he would get called to Punxsutawney. That is what I mean. All of this may be under the guise of spirituality and we may have learned to put our head over on one side, fold our hands gently and put on a beatific smile … and still be just as carnal as they come. …
So when the Bible says, “mortify your flesh,” it does not mean kill your blood and your bones and your epidermis and your hair and teeth and eyes and stomach. God is not mad at our physical body. When the Bible says, “Mortify your flesh,” it means your ego, your old man, that self, that evil that is in you.(1)
So let me ask you again …
What part of your “old man” (the selfish, sinful, pride-driven old life that controlled and defined us before Christ) still needs to die?
Would you freshly surrender, repent, and allow God to do His redemptive and transforming work within you?
As Paul asked the Corinthians, “Or do you not know that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you were bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19–20).
Would you allow every word, deed, desire, action, and motive in your life be scrutinized by the Holy Spirit to see if there is any pride/self/”old man”/flesh reigning and ruling?
Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace (Romans 6:11–14).
Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thessalonians 5:23).
Cheering you ever deeper into Jesus Christ who longs to sanctify us completely and deepen His holiness and life within us!
FOOTNOTES
(1) A. W. Tozer and James L. Snyder, Success and the Christian: The Cost and Criteria of Spiritual Maturity (Camp Hill, PA: WingSpread, 1994), 42.
Photo Credit: Ales Dusa
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