About two decades ago, one of the vessels God used to encourage us and bring us up in the faith narrated his experience as a Youth Corper in one of the Nigerian States which I would not like to mention in this forum. He recalled that one of the days at about 5 am; he had to board a taxi to catch up with an early appointment. In the course of the journey a young lady of easy virtue sat beside him making signs and passes at him. As soon as he caught the message he told the lady, you are sitting beside a dead man and immediately the woman became nervous and withdrew from him. According to him, up to the time he came down from the taxi the lady kept her distance thinking a ghost had entered the taxi with them.
Friends, this is actually the case with every one who is born again, saved and washed from sin by the blood of Jesus. We all are according to the scriptures are supposed to be dead people. For our old man is dead to sin and we are awake unto righteousness. Our old man which used to live in sin and enjoys sin has been crucified with Christ nevertheless not we that livesbut Christ lives in us, that is the life we now live is that of Christ, for Christ now lives in and through us. Hence sin does not have authority or power over us. If so then we have the ability and power to say
no to sin and ultimately have dominion over sin.
Rom 6:4 & 6 reads; Therefore, we were buried with Him through baptism unto death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Verse 6 reads further, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with that we should no longer be slaves of sin.
The old man is the person we were before we met with the Lord Jesus. The old man finds it convenient to live and dwell in sin without any bite of guilt in him. The old man reflects all the works of the flesh as highlighted in Gal 5:19-21. Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand.
Beloved no matter the years of your salvation and your position in the body of Christ, if you manifest the least of what is highlighted above; it is an indication that your old man is yet to be crucified with Christ. It is evidence that you are not yet a dead man and that the old man is still alive in you. May be your old man fainted but did not die. If the old man is fainted and not dead, at the slightest thing the old man comes alive again. When I hear people say as it concerns some issues or character of theirs which ought to have been done away with say “that is the way God has created me” hence you need to take me the way I am. I wonder if really God creates them that way or they have refused to die to self in them. Paul with all his walk and work for God had to say “I die daily”. This is to say, for the fact that the old man was crucified at salvation and the new life has come through Jesus Christ does not mean that
the old man will not want to come up again hence he had to admit saying `I die daily`. Death of the old man must be a daily issue in our lives. We must always put the old man to death on daily basis. No matter how old you are in your walk with God, you must die daily. Infact the older you in the Lord, the more dieing you must do in the Lord.
How do you react to situation that seems insultive, or how do you react to situation such as you getting to a place and you are not accorded the kind of respect or honour you think should have been accorded you. How do you react to such situation? Remember, a dead man cannot be moved by what people say around or be moved by insults. That does not mean that you should do things that will cause people to insult you from time to time. However in a situation that it does comes up, please note that a dead man is dead. As the breadwinner of the house, are you dead? As the wife of the home who probably for now seems to be the one that is financing the home maybe as a result of your husband’s loss of job. The question is has the pressure allowed the old man to come alive again? As a young person who is not married yet, how do you relate to that young lady who is your so called fiancées? Do you have sex with each other? Can you control your sex passion? If not, it’s an indication that your old man is still evidence alive and around. For you to be whom God desires you to be and be useful in His hands, then you must die, you must be broken, and you must be a man who is lost in His will.Beloved, you must surely die to sin. You must die.
That old man must die. Shalom!