Lay Stress on Spiritual Experience

Simply come to God, deny self and surrender all. Let us deliver our self life, with all that it contains, to the death of Christ’s cross by the Spirit of the Lord. We ought to say to God: "Hereafter it is no longer I, no longer my delight, idea, interest and prejudice. I deliver all to the cross. From now on, I will live only for Your will. Lord, it is You, not I." We should thus yield to the Lord and deliver our all to death. This, though, does not mean that henceforth our "self" is annihilated. No, self cannot be annihilated, nor should it be annihilated. Self will remain forever. But if that be so, then, why must self be crucified?

Here we need to understand an essential point: the problem before us is one concerning spiritual life. Such a problem lays stress on spiritual experience rather than on literary consistency. Many things might appear contradictory—even beyond reconciliation—in letter; yet, in spiritual life they are quite complementary void of any conflict. The very case before us falls into this category. According to letter, self seems to have died. How, then, is it not annihilated? Do realize that the word "dead" employed here is descriptive of a kind of experimental process. To say the death of self within this context of spiritual life does not suggest that hereafter there is no more self. It says instead that henceforth self will obey God, self will no longer be allowed to sit on the throne—it will be crucified, and all its selfish actions will cease. The self life will no longer be permitted to utilize self. For the self life and its living is now dead. There remains no more self life and its living. What is left is merely its skeleton.

We know the "self" has within it the faculties of volition, emotion and intellect. To believe that our "self" was crucified with Christ does not imply that all these faculties are cancelled out or annihilated. The soulical faculties of a person are never destroyed! To die with Christ simply denotes that self is no longer allowed to rule over its will, thought and feeling but that the Spirit of the Lord is to exercise control over all these faculties of the soul and cause them to obey the life of God within. Unless the self dies, it will never obey the Holy Spirit. The moment our self comes down from the cross, the self returns to its old position. A believer himself has neither the power nor the method to control his self. But Galatians 2.20 gives us light on this point: "I [the self] have been crucified with Christ ... and ... I now live in the flesh." Paul clearly states in the first clause that he has been crucified with Christ; nevertheless, in the latter clause, does he not also say that his self yet lives? Hence, the crucifying of self does not indicate the annihilation of the self; it simply denotes the cessation of the activity of the self and the allowing of the Lord to be Lord.

What we have just now discussed is something that is done once and forever. Yet is it sufficient for us merely to believe that our self was crucified with Christ? Is it in truth a once-and-for-all matter? These questions provide an introduction for us to consider the second passage of Scripture we wish to look at closely: "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me" (Luke 9.23).