It is by the Spirit that we put to death the flesh (Gal. 5:16). The cross of Christ gives us the standing or the basis to deal with the flesh. We not only have a base objectively, but we also have the Spirit subjectively to enable us to execute the cross of Christ upon our flesh. If we apply the cross to our flesh by the indwelling Spirit, our flesh will be nailed to the cross. This is to crucify our flesh. When the flesh is on the cross, only the Spirit remains, and we experience the Spirit as everything to us. In this way, we walk by the Spirit and are led by the Spirit. The more we experience the Spirit, the more we are transformed and conformed to the image of Christ, God’s firstborn Son.
To crucify the flesh by the Spirit is to experience the death of Christ practically and not to live habitually according to the flesh. If we would be conformed to the death of Christ and thus conformed to His image, we should not live according to our habits. We always need to be alert related to our habits because we are accustomed to living by the flesh. We need to reject and forsake our habits and live according to the Spirit.
Romans 8:13 says, “If you live according to the flesh, you must die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the practices of the body, you will live.” If we live according to the flesh, we will die spiritually. However, if by the Spirit we put to death the practices of the body (that is, to restrain or crucify them), we will live in spirit.
Romans 8:13 corresponds to Romans 8:6. To live according to the flesh is mainly to set the mind on the flesh; to put to death the practices of the body by the Spirit requires setting the mind on the spirit and walking according to the spirit. When we set our mind on the spirit, our flesh is put to death. Hence, by setting the mind on the spirit, we put to death the practices of the body.
We have the genuine experience of the crucifixion with Christ in our putting to death the practices of the body by the Spirit. This does not happen once for all; it is a daily exercise. Every practice of the body must be put to death by turning our mind to the spirit and setting it on the spirit.
To put to death the practices of the body by the Spirit means that we do not live habitually according to the flesh. This requires the exercise of our will to cooperate with God. We need to determine resolutely to stand on the Lord’s side and be conformed to His death by forsaking all the habits in our natural life so that we no longer live habitually according to the flesh. This is to put to death the practices of the body.
Matthew 16:24-25 speaks of denying the self. The self is the soul-life with its emphasis on man’s thoughts and opinions. The self, soul-life, and opinion are three aspects of one thing. The essence of the self is the soul-life; the expression of the self is the opinion. The soul-life is lived out through the self, and the self is expressed through the mind. What the mind thinks or considers is an opinion, idea, or concept. The mind’s opinion, idea, or concept is the expression of the self, the embodiment of the soul-life. Since opinion is the expression of the self, we need to deny ourselves by applying the cross to our opinion.
We deny the self by subjectively experiencing the death of Christ. There are three steps to the experience of the cross of Christ: first, the accomplishment by Christ of the objective fact that our old man has been crucified; second, our acknowledgment, acceptance, and application of this fact; and third, our continual subjective experience of this fact.
In the dealing with the self, there is an objective fact that our old man, which includes the self, has been crucified with Christ. We subjectively experience this fact by the Spirit, allowing the Spirit to execute the death of the cross on our opinion and to put it to death. This is the subjective experience of dealing with the self.
In order to deny the self, we need to see the divine revelation that our old man has been crucified with Christ. Then we need to see that our natural opinion is the expression of the old man. Once we know that our old man has been crucified and understand that our opinion is the expression of the old man, we can apply the death of Christ by the Spirit to our opinion. This is the denying of the self spoken of by the Lord Jesus in Matthew 16:24.
The real experience of denying the self takes place in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. We may understand that the old man has been crucified and also know that our opinion is the expression of the self, but if we are not living in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, we have only empty doctrine which cannot render us any real spiritual experience. When we live in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, our seeing will be real, and our experience will be real. Therefore, if we desire to continually live in the experience of denying the self, we need to live in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit and let the Holy Spirit apply the crucifixion of Christ to our expression of the self. This is the reality of denying the self through the subjective experience of the death of Christ by the Holy Spirit.