Will you please turn to the book of Romans? Romans 6:6.
Knowing this, that our old man has been crucified with Him,
that the body of sin might be annulled,
that we should no longer serve sin.
Let us have a word of prayer.
Dear Lord, we want to thank Thee for gathering us together this morning. We do give thanks unto Thy holy name.
We do thank and praise Thee that where Thy name is, there is Thy presence. Dear Lord, we are in Thy very presence. We stand on holy ground.
We want to remove our shoes before Thee. We want to prostrate ourselves before Thee and say, “Lord, what hast Thou to say to us? Thy servants hear.” We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.
We do thank the Lord for gathering us together this time. We know that we are living in the last days. The coming of our Lord Jesus is so near, and this is the time that we all should be prepared to meet Him face to face.
That is the reason why we are gathered here. Our theme is The Way to the Eternal Purpose of God: The Cross. Even though our emphasis this time will be on the cross, dear brothers and sisters, I hope that we still remember: the cross is only a means to an end.
The cross is not the end. So we must not forget: what is the end? The end is God’s eternal purpose. We must put that before us all the time.
What is God’s eternal purpose? To put it very simply, God’s eternal purpose is concerning His own Son. He wants His Son to have the first place in all things.
It is God’s will to sum up, to gather up, all things in Christ Jesus—the things in the heavens and the things upon the earth. He centers all things upon His beloved Son.
Because of His love for His Son, He gave His Son a precious gift, and that gift is the church: that we, the redeemed, should become the bride of the Lamb.
So the eternal purpose of God is simply this: Christ and the church.
In order to arrive at this eternal purpose of God, there is only one way. Our brother has already mentioned that, except by the way of the cross, there is no other way to arrive at God’s eternal purpose.
The cross is God’s prescribed way unto His purpose, and we must go by that way, because this is the only way that will lead us back to God’s eternal purpose.
We know that the cross was originally a sign of shame, of curse, and of death. Why is it that today the cross becomes a sign of blessing, of glory, and of victory?
It is not because of the cross itself. It is because of Him crucified. It is our Lord Jesus who changes the cross from shame to glory, from death to victory.
So, as we fellowship on this matter of the cross, it is not the cross itself; it is Christ crucified. Therefore, we must keep our Lord Jesus Christ always before us.
The reason why we must go by the way of the cross is because it leads us to Christ. It leads us to the church. It leads us to God’s eternal purpose.
Now, this time our emphasis is more on what the cross means to us. Therefore, we emphasize the cross and the world: how the cross delivers us from the world.
We emphasize the cross and the law: how we are delivered by the cross from the law, that we may be married to another, our Lord Jesus Christ.
Then we will fellowship on the cross and the flesh, because unless the flesh is put to death, Christ will not be increased in us. My responsibility is on the cross and the flesh.
We would like to approach this from three areas:
Now, this morning, brothers and sisters, we will center upon the cross and the old man.
May we read Romans 6:6 again.
Knowing this, that our old man has been crucified with Him,
that the body of sin might be annulled,
that we should no longer serve sin.
We would like to approach this matter from the personal, experiential side. We know the book of Romans gives us a full account of the glad tidings of God.
Now, how do we approach the glad tidings of God from our personal standpoint? First of all, we realize that we have sinned. Not only does the Word of God tell us so; the Spirit of God will convict us.
All have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God.
There is no exception. What is sin? Sin is coming short of the glory of God—not being like God.
Because it is the will of God that we should be like Him. He created us according to His image, after His likeness, and He is willing to give His own life to us, that we may be transformed and conformed to the image of God’s Son.
This is the will of God for us, and anything that is short of that is sin in the sight of God.
So, as we are convicted by the Holy Spirit of our sins, how should that problem be solved? In the book of Romans, it tells us that it is the precious blood of our Lord Jesus that will cleanse us from all our sins.
It is by the blood of our Lord Jesus that we are justified before God. We can stand before God not because of what we have done, not because of our merit. It is because of the precious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Dear brothers and sisters, I believe all who are here this morning—hopefully there is no exception—that we have all experienced the precious blood of our Lord Jesus.
Thank God, He has forgiven us our sins. Thank God, He has given us a new life. Thank God, we have a living relationship with God today.
As a matter of fact, we are in favor before God. You find this at the beginning of Romans 5:1-11. Having been justified by the blood of our Lord Jesus, we now boast in hope of the glory of God.
Knowing that He died for us when we were yet sinners, how much more shall we live by Him? So we really boast in God, thinking that now everything is solved. We can go on and on until we reach glory.
But, dear brothers and sisters, to our surprise, when our first love begins to wane, we discover that we are not fully saved from sin.
Our sins, in a sense, may be forgiven, but we find that the power of sin is still upon us. Because of that, unfortunately, we find ourselves continuing to commit sin.
We do not know what is the reason for it, because we want to do the will of God, but what we want to do, we cannot do. What we do not want to do, we do it.
I believe, brothers and sisters, we have all gone through this period. Sometimes we begin to doubt whether we are saved or not.
But we do know that we believe in the Lord Jesus. We know we are saved. Yet the power of sin is still upon us. How can we be delivered from the power of sin?
This is something that we find in Romans from Romans 5:12 onward.
In order to understand the situation, there is a principle that we have to understand first. That is Romans 5:12-21, and it is the principle of one and many.
The principle of one and many: because of the offense of one man, all were condemned. But thank God, because of one Man’s righteousness, all will be justified.
Brothers and sisters, in the sight of God there are only two men. The whole world, through the ages—in God’s sight, there are only two men.
The first man is Adam, and the second Man is Christ.
All those who were born into this world are in Adam, and all who are reborn in Christ are in the second Man. Now, this is God’s way.
We find that, even though there are countless people in this world, in the sight of God there is only one man, and that is Adam, our father. Every one of us is in him.
Because Adam sinned, we have all sinned. We know that Adam became a sinner because he committed sin. But we, the sons and daughters of Adam, when we were born, were sinners. Because we were sinners, therefore we sinned.
So, brothers and sisters, even if our sinful acts are washed away and cleansed by the precious blood of our Lord Jesus, we as sinners are still there. That is the reason why we continue to sin.
The problem now is not with sin; the problem now is with the sinner. How can we sinners be delivered?
You find in Romans 5:18:
So then as through one trespass the judgment came unto all men to condemnation,
even so through one act of righteousness the free gift came unto all men to justification of life.
That is what happened when we believed in the Lord Jesus. We were justified.
Then, in Romans 5:19:
For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners,
even so through the obedience of the One shall the many be made righteous.
Verse 19 tells us how we became sinners: not because we sinned, but because of Adam. Because of one man, that is Adam, the many have been constituted sinners.
So the problem today is the old man. Who is this old man?
A dear brother said, “The unregenerated sons of Adam—that is the old man.”
The old man has another definition, and I think that is a very, very simple one. He said, “The old man is a man of old.”
So who is the old man? Of course, it is Adam, and then all who are in Adam. Adam is more than just an individual; he is a corporate man. He is the head of a federation.
So we who were born into this world were all in Adam. Because Adam sinned, sin came into the life of Adam, and sin ruled over that life.
We who were born to Adam were born with sin in our soul, and it rules over us. Unless we are delivered from Adam—unless we are delivered from the old man—there is no way to overcome sin, because we are under its power.
So, dear brothers and sisters, when we come to this matter of how we can be delivered from the power of sin, we have to be delivered from the old man, from Adam.
How do we get into Adam? We get into Adam by birth. How can we be out of Adam? There is only one way: through death.
Dear brothers and sisters, here you find the gospel, the salvation that God has provided for us. When we come to this practical matter of how we can be delivered from the power of sin, we have to go back to the old man. We have to go back to Adam.
Now we can see the marvelous work of God. In the Word of God, if you read 1 Corinthians 15, you can see that the first man is Adam and the second Man is Christ. But the second Man is also the last Adam.
When our Lord Jesus came into this world, the Word became flesh and tabernacled among men, full of grace and truth. God became man.
As He came to become a man, He became the last Adam. Being the last Adam, and at the same time the second Man, we find that salvation is centered upon Him.
We ourselves have no way to wash away our sins. In like manner, we ourselves have no way to be delivered from the power of sin. We can try, but we cannot.
The only way that we can find deliverance from the power of sin is through Christ Jesus, because He came into this world as the last Adam and also the second Man.
In other words, He is the One who concludes the first man, and He is the One who introduces the second Man.
That is one reason why we find our Lord Jesus had to be crucified. On the cross, He not only bore our sins in His body, and because of His shed blood judgment came upon Him, and we are saved.
But at the same time, He, as the last Adam, died on the cross. The Adamic race came to an end in Him.
I believe, brothers and sisters, if you have read The Normal Christian Life, our brother used an illustration. I think it is very evident, especially to the Chinese, because we always trace our beginning to the Yellow Emperor.
The Chinese race came from the Yellow Emperor. You remember that, in legend, there was a battle, a war, between the Yellow Emperor and Chiyou.
During that battle, there was heavy fog around. How can you fight in heavy fog? But fortunately, the Yellow Emperor invented the compass, and because he had the compass, he was able to fight to victory. Chiyou was killed.
Now suppose during that battle the Yellow Emperor did not have the compass, and unfortunately he was killed by Chiyou. Then, brothers and sisters of the Chinese race, where would you be?
There would be no you, nor me, because he is our federal head. So when he died, we all died, because we were all in him. But fortunately, he lived, and that is how you and I are here.
I think this is a good illustration to show us that we do have a federal head.
There is another illustration we can use. You know, in China today, when a person passes away, you find on the tombstone his name. Above it is his surname, and following it is his own name.
If a person passes away, you will find on the tombstone that the surname is black and his own name is red. Why? Because he has died, but his family still has some people living to bear that surname.
Now suppose you are the last of that family. When that person dies, you find that even the surname will be in red, because that family is finished.
So, brothers and sisters, I believe people know about such things: you are not just yourself. We all belong to that root.
God used a marvelous way to deliver us from the power of sin. When our Lord Jesus was crucified on the cross, oftentimes we only know a part of what He has done for us.
We only know that part: how He bore our sins in His body and died for us. In other words, He is our substitute.
But we oftentimes neglect the other part, and that is: He died as the last Adam.
So when He died, the whole Adamic race was terminated in Him. So far as God is concerned, this Adamic race is finished.
We who were in Adam died in Christ and with Christ. Put it another way: when Christ went to the cross, He took all of us with Him. So when He died, we too died.
He died not only as our substitute; He died as our representative. He died not only for us; He died as us. So when He died, we died too. The Adamic race is finished.
When He was raised from the dead as the second Man, then we all were raised together with Him.
In Romans 6, we find that we are identified with Him in His death and identified with Him in His resurrection.
Now you read Romans 6:6. It says, “Knowing this.” This is a spiritual knowledge that we must have. Knowing that something has been done concerns what we call objective truth.
What is objective truth? Objective truth is what God has done in Christ Jesus. All that our Lord Jesus has done on Calvary’s cross is objective truth.
It is not in any way affected by circumstances or by you and me. What Christ has done on the cross is once for all, because in the sight of God it is finished. You cannot take away from it, and you cannot add anything to it.
It is true through all ages. It will not be affected by time or space.
When Christ died two thousand years ago, in the sight of God all the sins of the world had been redeemed. Now, whether you experience forgiveness of sins or not, in your personal experience you have to believe; but in the sight of God, it is all prepared.
The same thing is true concerning sin. When Christ died on the cross, He died not only as an individual person; He died as a corporate Man. So when He died, all the Adamic race died. In the sight of God, the Adamic race is finished.
But, of course, in our experience, you have to know and believe. First of all, we need to know this eternal truth. This eternal truth is very simple: when Christ died, you died in Him.
Brothers and sisters, again, if you have read The Normal Christian Life, our brother Watchman Nee gave his personal experience.
He was saved, and for seven years after he was saved, he struggled over this matter. He knew that his sins were forgiven, but he discovered that after he had believed in the Lord Jesus, he continued to sin.
He did not want to, but he could not help it. So he struggled over this matter for seven years. He fasted, he prayed, and he asked for people’s help.
Whenever he asked for help, he was told, “You must reckon yourself dead to sin.”
So he said he tried to reckon himself as dead to sin. But the more he reckoned, the more lively became the power of sin. He struggled over this matter for a long time.
He even came to the point that, if he could not be freed from sin, he should not preach anymore.
But one day he was in his room, and he was reading the Word of God. Suddenly, a light came to him.
He saw that God had put him in Christ. So when Christ died, he too died. It was not a matter of how he would die; it was a matter that two thousand years ago, he was already dead.
When he saw that, he realized that to reckon himself dead to sin was reckoning upon a fact, not reckoning upon a feeling. He was so emancipated.
He walked downstairs and met the brother who worked in the kitchen. He laid hold on him and said, “Brother, do you know that I died?”
That brother looked at him and could not understand what he meant. He said he wanted to go through all the streets of Shanghai and shout that he had died.
This is knowing this. We need to know this.
This knowing is not just a mental understanding. If you only understand this mentally and try to reckon yourself as dead, you will find that you are more alive.
But if you know this in your spirit, if the Lord opens your understanding, and in your spirit you see the cross, you see Christ crucified, and you see yourself—your old self—then when He died, you died.
This is eternal fact. It is done. You do not need to do anything. You just reckon it true, and that becomes very easy.
When you reckon yourself as dead to sin and alive unto God, do not forget: it is in Christ.
Whenever you turn to yourself, it is not true, because the truth is not there. The truth is in Christ Jesus. You only reckon it in Christ Jesus, and you find that it is true.
So Romans 6:6 says:
Knowing this, that our old man has been crucified with Him,
that the body of sin might be annulled,
that we should no longer serve sin.
I was saved among the holiness people. Among the holiness people, there was a teaching that we need a second blessing.
The first blessing is when you confess your sins, believe in the Lord Jesus, and have your sins forgiven. But you need a second blessing.
The second blessing is when the root of sin in you is eradicated. When that root of sin is eradicated, then you sin no more.
I was saved among these people, but unfortunately, even in that very conference, the founder of that organization lost her temper among the crowd.
But they had a kind of reasoning: “This is not sin; this is weakness.” I just could not accept it.
The way to be delivered from sin is not by eradication. Sin as a power will be in us until we die. As long as we still live on this earth, it is there.
What is God’s way of deliverance? God’s way of deliverance is not eradication. God’s way of deliverance is isolation.
As you read Romans 6:6, knowing that our old man was crucified with Christ, the body of sin might be annulled, that we should no longer serve sin.
Sin here is a power. We know that after our forefather Adam sinned, sin as a power came into his life, and sin became the master of his being.
This sin dwells in our soul; it dwells in our old man. Our old man is like a steward, and sin is the master.
Sin gives its command to the old man, and the old man relays that command to this body of sin, because this body is now a body of sin. To sin is the work of this body.
What is the way of deliverance? It is not to root out sin from us. It is still there. But the way of deliverance is to put the old man to death.
In other words, when sin gives its command, nobody receives that command. Because nobody receives that command, the body of sin is annulled.
“Annulled” does not mean annihilated. It means unemployed. This body was employed by sin, and now this body is unemployed. That is the way that we no longer serve sin.
So, brothers and sisters, we thank God for His marvelous way of deliverance. He uses a way of isolation. He allows sin still to be there. I think He has a good reason for it: we have to be careful, we have to be watchful.
Yet sin is so isolated that it cannot work anymore, and our body of sin is unemployed.
As you read the book of Romans, after you have known, the first step is Romans 6:11:
Even so reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin,
but alive unto God in Christ Jesus.
The old man was dead, and then you reckon it as dead in Christ Jesus. Also reckon yourself as alive unto God.
This is faith. Faith is based upon fact, not upon feeling. Whenever you begin to look into feeling, you will find your old man is very much alive, because you have gotten out of Christ.
But whenever you look at Christ, you find the old man was dead and you are alive in Christ Jesus. This is the first step.
Then the second step: how about this body? This body is now unemployed. Now it needs to be re-employed.
So in Romans 6:13, it says:
Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin;
but yield yourselves unto God, as alive from the dead,
and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
Since this body of sin has been unemployed, there is no reason why you should still yield to unrighteousness.
Now what do you do? You seek new employment. So you yield yourselves to God as alive from among the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
What will be the result?
For sin shall not have dominion over you:
for ye are not under law, but under grace.
So, dear brothers and sisters, we do thank the Lord for His perfect salvation. He not only forgives all our sins, but He opens a way for us to be delivered from the power of sin.
He will accept us to serve Him. Even in our daily life, we can live righteousness unto holiness. This is the salvation of the Lord.
This is the foundation upon which we can talk about the cross and the flesh, and the cross and the self-life.
So may the Lord help us.
Dear Lord, we want to thank Thee for Thy perfect salvation. Thou hast not only borne our sins in Thy body, and by the shedding of Thy precious blood our sins are forgiven.
Thou hast also made provision for us to overcome even the power of sin, that we may live a life holy and righteous unto Thyself.
We do pray that these will not be just a mental understanding to us. We pray that Thou wilt reveal Thy cross so vividly to each and every one of us that we may be drawn into all the goodness of it.
We want to glory in the cross of Jesus Christ. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.