Be Watchful

The failure of many lies here: they have reckoned themselves as dead to sin and have received the truth of their co-death on the cross, but they regard this as a once and forever act. A physical death is a once and forever act, so they imagine the same for the death of the old man—not realizing that it does not work the same way in spiritual matters. They should daily and hourly reckon themselves as having died with Christ. Whenever a believer fails to reckon, his old man is revived. This is why so many find their old man resurrected.

Had this been a once and forever matter, we would have no need to be watchful. But we know we must be watchful. Just as watching is a constant posture, so the reckoning of the death of our old man needs also to be constant. By knowing this, the children of God will be delivered from many defeats. Such an attitude is not sustained by the thought of the mind, rather is it maintained by the permanent assessment of the will. Consciously or unconsciously, "I count myself as dead."

Here again, though, God’s children encounter difficulty. They are troubled by their "forgetting" to reckon. But they have used the wrong faculty. For, reckoning is the judgment of the will, not the consideration of the mind. Whether you overcome or not depends on your attitude of reckoning yourself as dead, not on your memory of reckoning. Through the power of the Holy Spirit and the exercise of your will in maintaining this death attitude, you may consciously or unconsciously possess this attitude, which remains the same whether remembering or forgetting. Naturally, the mind has its place, but it is not necessary for it to affect the will. The will should instead control the mind and cause the latter to help the former in sustaining this attitude.

Let us stand, therefore, on the ground of the cross and let us—daily, hourly, consciously and unconsciously—reckon our old man as dead. This is the secret of overcoming sin and the Devil. We know that sin and the Devil are closely related. If sin does not reign in us, the Devil will have no ground in us.

If believers will understand and accept this aspect of the truth of the cross, apostasy and defeat shall be greatly diminished. Lasting victory is inseparable from constant standing on the ground of the cross.

Nevertheless, even after we take the action and maintain the attitude of reckoning our old man to be dead, the sinful nature in us does not henceforth become annihilated and disappear. For as long as we live in this mortal body, the sinful nature will co-exist with us. To say that our sinful nature can be annihilated in this life is a great heresy. We can deliver the old man to death by the power of the cross of Calvary and render it powerless and withered as though dead, but we cannot annihilate it. Whenever we are careless and unwatchful, whenever we do not stand on the death ground of Calvary, our old man will renew its activities and resume its office. Satan is always looking for an opportunity to reactivate the old man. And as soon as there is a loophole, the old man will recover its original position.

In view of this, we ought to be watchful lest the old man be revived. Is not this most difficult? Indeed, it is hard to the flesh. For this reason, a believer must have the power of the Holy Spirit in letting the cross work in him. The cross and the Holy Spirit are inseparable. On the one hand, the cross makes victory over sin possible to the believer; on the other hand, the Holy Spirit substantiates the accomplished fact of the cross in the life of the believer. A Christian who wishes to be delivered from the power of sin must not make provision for the flesh. He must be watchful and count no cost. He must be more disappointed in himself and place more reliance on the Holy Spirit. To man this is impossible, but to God all things are possible.