One of the most underemphasized truths within Christianity is concept of our “old self.” What should be center stage, this truth is founded on our identification with Christ in His death through faith as communicated by the Apostle Paul as “having been buried with him in baptism” (Colossians 2:12).
In the temptations of living in a rich world, our greatest fears are often losing these temporary joys. God calls us to love something greater, he calls us to find our minds and hearts occupied with our Savior above all else. We therefore need a better, more Biblical, understanding of both life and death.
Observations & Conclusions:
1. If you trust in Jesus, you are presently “raised”
Ephesians 2:4-7
“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.”
Romans 6:2-4
“By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”
2. If you trust in Jesus, dwell on Jesus and Jesus’ country
3. If you trust in Jesus, the old you has died
Galatians 2:20
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Romans 6:6-7
“For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.”
C.S. Lewis – Mere Christianity
“Give me All. I don’t want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want You. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good. I don’t want to cut off a branch here and a branch there, I want to have the whole tree down. I don’t want to drill the tooth, or crown it, or stop it, but to have it out. Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked—the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself: my own will shall become yours.”
4. If you trust in Jesus, your life is found in Christ
Philippians 1:21-23
“For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far”
5. If you trust in Jesus, your promise is resurrection life with Jesus
1 John 3:2
“Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”
Romans 6:5
“For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.”
Application:
1. Christianity is a serious thing. How serious are you about your faith?
2. What would need to be striped away so that you would long for Jesus above all?
3. Can you identify your “old self?”
4. How would you answer Paul’s conviction, “for to me, to live is Christ?”
5. Is there anything that keeps you from looking and longing for Christ to return?
C.S. Lewis – The Weight of Glory
“Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
Turn you eyes upon Jesus
Look full in His wonderful face
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory and grace