A person with spiritual knowledge may be very introspective. It is more difficult for this kind of person to be delivered from the self than it is for others. Such a person may be slow and cautious, and he looks at himself and analyzes himself. Some believers are at the opposite pole; they are careless. An introspective person, however, is very capable to take care of himself in the best way, but this is his problem. It is hard for such a one to forget about himself. He “sticks” to himself all the time and cannot get away from himself. It is hard for the Lord to work on such a person.
For a person to overcare for himself is to always look at, think about, and consider himself. This is not to care about his living, eating, and drinking; rather, it is to always consider whether he is proud or humble; whether he is really with the Lord; whether he is proper; or whether he has offended anyone. With such a one, ninety-nine percent of what he has may be his self, and one percent is the Lord. He is mostly occupied with the self to care for the self. For this kind of person, many failures become his helpers. Failures make a person bankrupt in caring for his self.
Many believers need to care for their character, but an introspective person should forget about his character. The more he builds up his character, the more he is in the self. This kind of character building simply helps him to analyze himself more. Day by day he checks to see if he is genuine and real. This becomes a very serious hindrance to his spiritual growth. Rather, spiritual growth depends on the denial of the self, and the denial of the self simply means to forget about the self.
The cross refers to the blood of Christ and to the death of Christ. The blood is for cleansing, but the death is for dealing with negative things. There are three aspects to the work of the cross. The first is the accomplished fact seen in Romans 6:6, which says that our old man has been crucified with Christ. Galatians 2:20 also indicates that we are crucified with Christ. This is a fact accomplished by the Lord. To see the fact is the first aspect, or the first step, in the experience of Christ’s work of the cross.
The second aspect of the work of the cross is the realization of the fact. The Lord as our Savior died for us, and we died with Him. Along with His crucifixion for us was our crucifixion with Him. We can see this in the type of Noah’s ark. The ark passed over the judgment of the flood with eight persons. In this way the ark suffered the judgment for the eight persons, but it also suffered the judgment with the eight persons because the eight persons were in the ark. If the eight persons were not in the ark, how could the ark suffer the judgment for them? The ark could suffer judgment only for the people who were in it. In the same way, the substitution of Christ’s death for us depends on our identification with Him. If there is no identification, there is no substitution. Christ’s death is for us because we are identified with Him and are in Him, and because we are in Him, we have died with Him.
When we receive the Lord Jesus as our Savior, we recognize that He died for us and also with us, and because He died with us, we died also. Therefore, we hand ourselves over to the cross. This is the meaning of Galatians 5:24, which says, “But they who are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and its lusts.” They who are of Christ Jesus recognize and realize the fact that they have died, so they put their flesh to death. With respect to the accomplished fact, we simply need to say, “I am crucified with Christ.” To realize, recognize, and admit what the Lord has accomplished is the second aspect, the second stage or step, of the experience of the work of the cross.
This is the experience spoken of in Romans 6. On the one hand, verse 6 tells us that we have been crucified with Christ, while on the other hand, verse 11 tells us to reckon that we are dead. To reckon is to recognize a fact, just as we recognize that three plus two are five. As we recognize that we have been crucified on the cross, we are released from the bondage and dominion of sin (vv. 18, 22).
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