The Naked Gospel: Truth You May Never Hear in Church (10 page)

I
T’S EASY TO SEE WHY WE OFTEN ASSUME THAT THE OLD SELF IS
only positionally dead or is slowly dying off. The old self must still be around, because we’re still getting these nagging sinful thoughts. Right?

But it seems the Scriptures leave no room for misunderstanding concerning the issue of the old self. If you’re in Christ, your old self is nowhere to be found within you. The old self is dead, buried, and gone. However, we now understand why believers still sin. We sin because of the continued presence of something called the power of sin—“hooking” us in various ways through the flesh.

I’ve read countless books on theology and Christian living that start with the premise that we still sin, and then they conclude that the old self is still around.
^*
They decide that Christians have two selves and still need to “die to self.” And sometimes I’ve had people point to these verses in Ephesians to support a dying-to-self theology:

That, however, is not the way of life [giving yourselves over to sensuality] you learned when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to
your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds.

E
PHESIANS
4:20-23

But apparently this passage is addressing behavior (way of life), and Paul is simply pointing out that they were originally taught that life in Christ brings behavior change.

The phrase
die to self
is nowhere to be found, and the phrase
put off your old self
is a bit ambiguous. Is it a present-tense command for them to obey right now? Or is it what they were taught (past tense) when Paul first instructed them? Most likely it is the latter, given that Colossians clearly states that Christians have taken off (past tense) our old self at salvation:

Do not lie to each other, since you
have taken off
your old self with its practices and
have put on
the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

C
OLOSSIANS
3:9-10, italics added

Instead of trying to somehow “die to self,” which seems to me to be equivalent to exploring a bottomless pit,
^*
I think we should start with the premise found in Scripture that the old self is dead and gone. We should then conclude that there must be some
other
reason why we still sin. As we take this approach, Paul’s teachings on the flesh and the power of sin within us make a lot of sense.

Is this an important distinction? Absolutely. I would argue that it’s essential for both a proper self-image and daily victory over temptation. We must realize that saying no to sin is not saying no to ourselves. As God’s workmanship, our regenerated selves are not the problem. Sin is the problem, and our calling as new creations in Christ is to say no to sin and say yes to who we truly are.

As you read the passage below, take note of the two actors—Saul the Pharisee and “another law.” Here the phrase
another law
means a different principle, force, or power. Notice where this rogue agent is located:

So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there
with me.
For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work
in the members of my body,
waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work
within my members.

R
OMANS
7:21-23 NIV, italics added

There’s a battle within our very own bodies. The key to winning a battle is to understand who is fighting against whom and what strategies are being employed. Imagine the confusion if, in the midst of a battle, you mistakenly begin to fight against your own army!

Saul of Tarsus hated being overtaken by the rebel force called sin. He cried out for freedom from it. And he eventually found that freedom through undergoing a radical surgery:

Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand
I myself with my mind
am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.

R
OMANS
7:24-25 NASB, italics added

The Pharisee was frustrated with his spiritual experience. He cognitively understood what the law mandated, but he had no
power to carry it out. The power of sin got the best of him every time. But through his spiritual co-crucifixion with Christ, Saul became Paul. Under the New, Paul found victory over the power of sin that had overwhelmed him for so long.

As Christians, we have gone through the same surgery. We’re now on God’s team, and we want what he wants. Our fight is
not
against ourselves. The battle is against a parasitic force within us. That force may appear to be us. It may sound like us within our thought life. It may even feel like us within our emotions. Nevertheless, God has exposed the Deceiver’s lie. It is most certainly
not
us.

We are new creations with God’s desires stamped on our hearts and minds. What a truth to relish! What a truth to set us free!

It’s liberating to realize that the power of sin is the source of temptation, not our own self.
^*
However, does this knowledge alone really help bring about a marked improvement in our responses to temptation? Well, it certainly can’t hurt! But there are a few more pieces of the puzzle to put in place. It’s not enough to know the source of the temptation. It’s also important to realize that we have
the power to resist
that source.

Nonbelievers are spiritually harnessed to the power of sin. As a horse is led by reins, nonbelievers are controlled by the reign of sin. When a person comes to Christ, their old self, which was controlled by sin, dies through the work of the cross. A new self is raised through resurrection in Christ. If we’re in Christ, we don’t have to submit to sin any longer. We’re free to choose expressions of life instead of always expressing sin and death:

We know that our old self was crucified with [Christ] so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with [made powerless], that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.

R
OMANS
6:6-7

Paul goes on to urge us to count ourselves dead to sin but alive to God (Romans 6:11). Some English translations use the term
reckon
here: “reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin” (NKJV). Whether one prefers
reckon
or
count
or
consider,
it makes little difference as long as we realize that our reckoning is not what causes this to become reality. Instead of our “making it a reality,” we’re invited to bank on the fact that our death to sin is already real.

Some would put the burden on Christians to believe hard enough in order to make our death to sin a reality. This isn’t the meaning of
reckon, count,
or
consider.
These words mean “to rely on the fact” that you’re dead to sin because God has already said it is so (and it
is
so!): “In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:11).

Here we’re invited to live in reality. If we’re living under the assumption that sin is the most natural thing for us, then we’re being deluded. We’re different from the way we were before. We’re now alive to God, and we must come to grips with an essential truth:
It is more normal, more fitting, and more like us to display the fruit of the Spirit than it is for us to display sin!

Whenever I read Romans 6, it makes me think of a numeric scale ranging from negative ten to positive ten. Negative ten would represent “alive to sin,” while positive ten would represent “alive to God.” It’s not enough for us to be dead to sin. That would
merely cause us to register as a zero or neutral on the scale. Instead, God has taken us all the way from a negative ten (alive to sin) to a positive ten for his use. He not only made us dead to sin; he made us alive to himself. Likewise, he not only removed our unrighteousness; he then made us righteous.

God is communicating that you are now 100 percent OK with him. God doesn’t spiritually join himself to neutral people. He has reserved himself exclusively for perfect, righteous saints.

The amazing news is that he has made us precisely that!

My intent is to put the pieces together to explain why a perfectly righteous new creation still struggles with sin in order to show that the person we used to be in Adam has indeed been obliterated. I don’t believe this should be relegated to the realm of the positional, the symbolic, or the “true in heaven only” category. To do so results in double-talk that is inconsistent with the “old self” passages and in my experience fails to provide believers with any real answers for daily living.

The solution is to consult the same author who spoke of the old self’s crucifixion to see if there’s an explanation for our continued struggle. Paul comes through by attributing our current battle to the ongoing presence of two forces—the flesh and the power of sin. Neither of these is the old self.

God calls us to consider his explanation of our ongoing struggle as truth. Why? Because if we don’t, we’re living under the delusion that we’re no different from the guy next door.

And that’s a pitiful, half-baked gospel.

Many of us have already gone to extremes in our faith. We believe that God spoke the universe into existence. We believe that
a flood engulfed the earth and that a man spent three days in a big fish. To top it off, we believe that Jesus rose from the dead and then floated up into the sky amidst many onlookers.

What crazy events we’ve chosen to swallow as truth! Is the death of our old self any more difficult to believe? Alongside an explanation for why we still sin, I think it’s much easier. So why not
reinterpret
our thought life in light of this revelation concerning the flesh and the power of sin?

The miracle of spiritual regeneration is a concept that has existed for thousands of years. Even Old Testament prophets spoke of the miracles that would one day take place within the children of God under the New:

I will give you
a new heart
and put
a new spirit
in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put
my Spirit
in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

E
ZEKIEL
36:26-27, italics added

God gives us a new heart. This means that our core desires are now changed. We also receive a new spirit. Notice that the word
spirit
here is translated with a lowercase
s
to communicate that it is our human spirit that is exchanged. Finally, we also receive God’s Spirit within us. Although many Christians are aware that the Holy Spirit is within them, we may not differentiate him from our human spirit that has died and been re-created to be like Christ.

The Scriptures speak clearly about our union with Christ. It’s essential to understand not only the presence of Christ in us but also
who we are
in him. I hope this brief look into our real identity has sparked your desire to examine further who you are, what type of heart
you have, and what it means to be one spirit with God (1 Corinthians 6:17).

We’re invited to celebrate a radical truth—a truth that has been misunderstood over the centuries due to our inability to explain ongoing sinning or our fear that others will think we’re claiming sinless perfection in our performance. Once we accept God’s explanation for continued sinning, we’re rejuvenated to consider our spiritual death and resurrection as an actual fact that will forever change the way we approach life: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Let us remember that [God] is holy and he is righteous,
and that a holy and righteous God has the right to say that
the blood is acceptable in his eyes and has fully satisfied him.

Watchman Nee (1903-1972)

P
ICTURE THE SCENE
. A
N
I
SRAELITE CAMP IN THE DESERT, SEVERAL
thousand years ago. The tabernacle, pitched on top of a hill in the center of the camp. The high priest, running down the hillside shouting that he has found the perfect spotless lamb, which will be sacrificed on behalf of all the people, taking care of their sins for the rest of their lives.

Imagine the excitement! After that one final sacrifice, all the men of Israel gather to begin tearing down the tabernacle. Then they move on with a whole new way of life. No longer do they have to worry about sacrifices to clean up their track record. Instead, they can live guilt free, knowing that a perfect lamb has done away with their sins once and for all.

Of course, this never happened. Instead, what we see is the Israelites having to offer animal sacrifices over and over throughout their history, because no single sacrifice was sufficient to perfectly cleanse them. Hebrews explains clearly:

[The law] can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers
would have been cleansed once for all,
and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins.

HEBREWS 10:1-2, italics added

Although we never read of an Old Testament priest finding the perfect lamb, this announcement was, in fact, made. When? Not long before the sacrifice that would initiate the New. Upon seeing Jesus, John the Baptist declared, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).

Today, we have a perfect Lamb in the person of Jesus Christ. His sacrifice rendered the temple ceremonies null and void. There’s no longer any purpose for the tabernacle, the temple, or the daily sacrifices.

Because Jesus Christ’s sacrifice cleansed us
once for all,
not repeatedly over time, there’s no method or procedure required for us to remain forgiven. We’re invited to depend on the onetime sacrifice as the means to lifelong forgiveness, without any strings attached: “Christ died for sins
once for all,
the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God” (1 Peter 3:18 NIV, italics added).

The issue concerning forgiveness becomes crystal clear if we understand God’s economy, which hasn’t changed since the beginning of time. To illustrate, let’s travel back in time as an investigative reporter to interview a Jew as he exits the tabernacle.

“Excuse me, Mr. Jew, you seem very relieved compared with the way you looked when you entered the tabernacle just a short time ago. What’s your secret? What makes you feel so much better about the past year of sinning? Did you promise Yahweh that you’d do better this coming year—that you would turn over a new leaf?”

The Jewish man responds, “No, nothing like that took place.”

Slightly confused, you press on to discover the truth. “Well,
did you carefully name off each sin and ask Yahweh to cover your sins?”

“Certainly not!” the Jewish man exclaims.

“Well, then, what
exactly
made you feel relief from guilt for all the sins you’ve committed over the past twelve months?”

At this point, any well-educated Jew would give the same response: “What made me feel better? The blood of bulls and goats that covered my past sins, of course! Yahweh has always demanded a
blood
sacrifice for sins, and now—because of the animal I bought to offer as a sacrifice—my sins are covered!”

This is God’s economy. It has always been the case that one thing brings forgiveness of sins, namely, blood—nothing else: “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Hebrews 9:22).

If we accept God’s blood-only economy, it revolutionizes our perspective on how we stand before him. The bottom line is that no amount of dialoguing with God about our sins will bring us more forgiveness. No amount of asking God to forgive us will initiate his cleansing in our lives. Instead, blood sacrifice is the only action that results in forgiveness and cleansing. This was true in the Old Testament, and there’s no exception today.

Because there are no more blood sacrifices being made for sins, we must conclude something about the onetime sacrifice of Jesus Christ: either it was or was not sufficient to bring a lifetime of forgiveness and cleansing. If so, then God is satisfied regarding our sins, both now and in eternity. If not, then we are stuck with no biblical way of dealing with God’s wrath toward us.

Unfortunately, right here is where I see many of us getting
creative, as we use terms such as
positional truth
and
heavenly bookkeeping.
We say we’re forgiven and cleansed “in God’s eyes.” But then we claim that Christ’s death does
not
translate into “once for all” forgiveness in the here and now. Perhaps it just feels too easy: “You mean I don’t have to do anything? That doesn’t sound right.” Our human pride won’t allow us to enjoy
that
kind of grace.

Some exhort believers to do something, such as asking for forgiveness, to impel God so that he will
actually
forgive and cleanse them. This certainly satisfies us; there’s nothing like a daily list of sins to pore over to relieve us from guilt.

Some claim a procedure is necessary to “appropriate” or “activate” forgiveness. They say we must “keep short accounts” of our sins and ask God to forgive and cleanse us in order to “make it real in our own experience.” But didn’t God announce that only one thing—blood—brings forgiveness and cleansing?

Without realizing it, we end up believing that Christ’s blood has real effects only for heaven. If we want to maintain a cleansed state before God here on earth, we begin to think it comes through a work that
we
initiate through remembering, confessing, asking, and claiming. Ultimately, it becomes
our
responsibility to make the cross carry real benefits in the present.

In adopting this fine-sounding belief system, we fail to recognize that the cross is a historical event. Its effects are already accomplished, no matter what we believe or claim.

We don’t initiate forgiveness, because we cannot. Only blood brings forgiveness. Our acts of remembrance, confession, asking forgiveness, and claiming—whether done with good intentions or not—don’t cause more blood to be shed.

I’ll discuss the scriptural idea of “confession” in a moment, but realistically, we only have two choices: (1) accept as fact the complete, unconditional forgiveness that God purchased through the crushing of his Son, or (2) create some system of our own to feel better about our sins.

Jews actually felt better (yes, in the real world!) because of the blood of bulls and goats that was shed on their behalf. There was no further “activation” needed to appropriate that forgiveness. The act of the high priest’s slaughtering the animal was sufficient to cause the entire nation of Israel to shout from the rooftops with real-world relief from guilt. The only difference between then and now was that sacrifices of Old were continuous, whereas Jesus’ sacrifice was once for all.

What then are we saying about the sacrifice of Jesus when we insist that something further be done to “activate” it? In essence, we’re insulting the work of Calvary. We’re valuing the Son’s sacrifice even less than the people of the Old valued their animal sacrifices.