Not a Single Crucifixion, but a Co-Crucifixion

What the self includes is very broad. Our will, excitement, affection, intelligence—all belong to its realm. The self is the "I" in each one of us. Its life is the power of my living. The self is the soul, which is a significant element or organ in man. Self life is that life of the soul which is the motivating force of that organ. When a person is in the self stage, his self life imparts its power to the will, excitement, affection and intelligence to do good. Its will has the strength to resist temptations from outside; its excitement creates a sense of joy and of the nearness of God’s presence; its affection turns on a deep intimacy with the Lord; and its intelligence causes him to conceive many wonderful teachings of the Bible as well as many methods by which to serve God. Yet these all are done by self and not by the spiritual life of God. Indeed, during this period, God frequently grants special grace to the believer. He gives him many wonderful gifts in order to draw him away from self and to follow the Lord. Yet according to experience, what the believer does and what God has planned are totally opposite. The believer will use these gifts for his own purpose instead of wholly turning to God. These gifts become the "lifesaver" of "self." What untold years and works God must spend on him before he denies self and turns wholly to the Lord!

When a believer receives a deeper knowledge of the wretchedness of self, he is then willing to deliver it to death. What is the way to the death of self? It is none other than the cross. Let us read and consider two passages in the Scriptures which reveal the relationship between the cross and self. The first is: "I have been crucified with Christ" (Gal. 2.20).

What Galatians 2:20 asserts as having happened is something which has been done once and for ever. The moment we realize that self must die, we should singularly exercise faith to confess, "I have already been crucified with Christ." "I" in the original Greek is "ego"—the "I." Aside from the cross, there is no true way of putting the "ego" of self to death. The phrase "with Christ" is also something to be especially noticed here. For the crucifying of self is not an independent act of the believer. He does not crucify himself alone by his own power. Self is crucified with Christ, in union with Christ and together with Christ. This does not imply that I help Christ in crucifying self, because Christ has already done it for me—I now simply recognize and believe it to be true.

Furthermore, Christ is the main player here. The passage reads that "I have been crucified with Christ" instead of it saying "Christ has been crucified with me." It is not because, I wishing to die, therefore Christ comes to accompany me. No, no. It is when Christ died that He brought all of my "ego" to the cross to there be crucified. For this reason, I am not going to be crucified; rather, I only confess this already accomplished fact. The words "have been" show that this is in truth a fact, not a theory. Our being dead to self is not only possible but is attainable, even factual. The apostles of old had experienced this life of self-death. But so we too may have this kind of life.

This is a co-crucifixion, not a single crucifixion. Apart from the Lord, we can do nothing. To crucify self with our own power is a myth. It can never be done. Unless we have died in the Lord’s death, we will never die. Christ alone in His death brought the old creation and all to the cross. It is foolish and futile to set up another way other than Christ or attempt another plan other than His. Hence, there is nothing left for us to do but to confess that what Christ has accomplished is ours and to ask the Holy Spirit to apply the work of the cross in us.