Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-03-22

sure that there ShOuIQ De no PUNISH
ment for our sin in the future.
Saved from the guilt of sins in the
past, the power of sin in the present,
and the punishment of sin in the
future! What a wonderful Saviour
is Jesus, my Jesus!
Our Problem
Yet the tragedy of it is that, while
He died for the sins of the whole
world, the whole world lieth in the
wicked one. It becomes effective
only to those who trust in Him, who
are .crucified with Him, whose sins
were nailed in His body on the tree
who know therefore that the devil
is a defeated foe and treat him as
such. You and L therefore have a
problem it is to find that place
where what the Father planned
and what the Son accomplished for
us may become effective in our own
lives, where we may be saved from
the guilt of past Ains, from the pow
er of present sins, and from the
punishment of sin in the future.
That place is the cross! There God
in Christ crucified the old man that
a new creature might be born; there
God in Christ defeated the devil and
potentially destroyed the works of
the devil; there God in Christ pun
ished sin for once and all.
To make that effective for us, we
must also be crucified, crucified with
Christ. He was crucified for us:
we must be crucified with Him.
knowing this, that our old mao is
crucified with Him, that the body
of sin might be destroyed, that
henceforth we should not serve SIM"
Romans sc. This is not self-cruci-
fiXion, but co.crucifixion. 1 cannot
cruelty myself, but I may have the
old nature, my passions, my affec-
tons, my desires nailed to the tree
-co-crucifiXion.
The self life may be crucified
with Christ, and must be if Christ's
salvation means anything to me-
Paul wrote this to the Galatians
(2:20), 81 am crucified with Christ.
Nevertheless I live; yet not I, but
Christ liveth in me, and the life
that I now live in the flesh, I live
by the faith of the Son of God,
Who loved me and gave Himself
for me-" And how absolutely
necessary it is for the self life to
be crucif1ed with Christ! In so many
ways it makes itself known - an
hydra headed monster, truly. This
is particularly true of those who are
trying to serve Christ. Dowdell. an
old Scotch saint, once said however,
"No man can bear witness to Christ
and to himself at the same time.
No man can give at once the i'm
preston that he himself is clever
and that Christ is mighty to save"
And the only way to victory over
self is the way of the cross, the way
Of the co-crucifiXion. We do not
win over self by fighting. but by
dying.
Our affections and inordinate de-
sires must be crucified with Christ.
1t is in the soul that the affections
and the desires reside. Today we
are hearing much about developing
the psychic. But Jesus said thar
whose findeth his life shall lose it;
and whose loseth his life shall find
it. The word life here is our word
psyche, the soul life. Our problem
therefore. is not to develop the
psychic, the soul life with it's af-
fections and lusts, but to let it be
u uClIIeu WIFI OIlI1Sl. w t CdnUOl
make ourselves what We want to
be, or rather what God wants us TO
be; but He can, if we will let Him.
His way is for US to die, to die on
the cross with Christ, to have our
affections and desires nailed to the
cross with Him. Only in this way
car the salvation which He wrought
for us become effective over our at
fections and lusts.
CrucifiXion was a slow death. Ere
quently it took days for death to
come and bring an end to the tor
ture of the body. Co-crucifixion is
also slow process. You may not
impale your self life, or your affec-
lions and lusts on the cross with
Christ, and then think that there is
the end of it. The devil never let
up on Jesus. He was defeated on
Calvary, but he will not admit 1t un-
til you make him by constantly re-
minding him of the Christ with
whom you died on the cross He
| has the most marvelously trained
and mysterious army in the uni
verse, for we fight not against flesh
and blood. but against principalities