Will you please turn to Romans, chapter 6, verse 6.
Romans 6:6:
Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him,
that the body of sin might be done away,
that so we should no longer be in bondage to sin.
Then turn to the same book, Romans, chapter 7, verses 24 and 25.
O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?
I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Now turn to the Gospel according to Luke, chapter 9, verse 23.
And He said unto all, If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself,
and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.
Perhaps we should read verse 24 also.
For whosoever would save his life shall lose it;
but whosoever shall lose his life for My sake, the same shall save it.
Dear brothers and sisters, I have no intention to preach. I would like to have a talk with you.
I hope you will open your mind and your heart to the Lord, that we may really come together before the Lord, seek Him, and do His will.
Yesterday morning, we asked one question: Does our soul need to be saved?
We all know that when God created us—when He created man, male and female—He created us according to His own image. He created us with a spirit, a soul, and a body.
And thank God, when we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are saved. What do we mean by being saved?
According to the Word of God, that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. The spirit that God created in us was dead because of sin.
But now, that which is born of the Holy Spirit is the new human spirit. Why is it so important to have a new spirit? Because without that new spirit, we can have no communication with God, Who is Spirit.
So thank God, through believing in Him, He has given us a new spirit. Not only that, Christ Jesus comes into our new spirit and becomes its life.
At the same time, the Holy Spirit comes and dwells in our spirit. He is there to see to it that Christ will be glorified, that the life of Christ in us may grow into maturity, and that we may be transformed and conformed to the image of God’s Son, Jesus Christ.
This is the will of God for every one of us. That is why we are saved.
We know that we should, from now on, live differently. Formerly, we lived by that fallen self-life. But now we have a new life in us: a new spirit and the Holy Spirit. So we all know that from now on, we should live differently.
What does it mean? It means that we shall live by the spirit within us. We shall live by the life of Christ in us.
But unfortunately, when we try to do that, we discover there is resistance within us. Not only do we have resistance around us, because the world around us is under the wicked one, but we find that even within us there is a fifth columnist.
It seems as if within our soul there is an alliance with the evil one. Why is it so?
It is because when we are saved, Christ becomes the life of our spirit. Yet, unfortunately, the life in our soul is still that fallen Adamic life. Because of that, you find that it resists the will of God, and we have some conflict.
I believe that all who have believed in the Lord Jesus have such an experience. Why is it that we cannot just go on smoothly in the spiritual life? Why is it that there is conflict within us?
The problem is with the soul-life in us. That is the old Adamic life. That is the fallen life. This soul needs to be saved.
Not only has our spirit been saved, but the salvation of our souls is for today.
I want to ask another question: How do we know ourselves? By knowing ourselves, I simply mean: How do we know our soul?
Can we, by using our soul, recognize ourselves? We say that the soul is where our thinking is. The soul is where our feeling is. The soul is where our will is. The soul represents ourselves.
Now, can we, by exercising our soul, deliver our soul? Let me put it another way: Can you, by self-analysis, know yourself? Can you, by introspection, know who you really are?
Many people try to exercise their mind, their analysis, and their reasoning to know who they really are. By doing that, they try to improve themselves. They try to deliver themselves from their fallen situation.
But, dear brothers and sisters, I believe we know better. We can never know ourselves by our own reason. We will either estimate ourselves too highly, or we will estimate ourselves too lowly. We never make a right measurement.
How do we know ourselves? How do we know the condition of our soul? How are we sure that our soul needs to be saved? Many people do not feel that way. They do not feel that their soul needs to be saved.
Why should our soul be saved? In His light, we see light.
You remember Psalm 36:9:
For with Thee is the fountain of life:
In Thy light shall we see light.
The only way to know who we are—that is, to know our real condition—is in the light of God. When the light of God comes upon us, then we see light. Then we begin to realize our condition, and we see that our soul needs to be saved.
This morning, we are not going to repeat that. We want to ask the second question: How can our soul be saved?
Now we have realized that within our soul there is still the self-life, and we need to be delivered from that. Maybe I have to add this: it does not mean that we will annihilate our soul. We are to be delivered from the soul-life—that is, from ourselves—that Christ may be all and in all.
So the question is: What is the way for the salvation of our soul? What is God’s way for us?
Again, we want to thank the Lord, because our Lord Jesus, on the cross, has already accomplished everything.
We remember that before our Lord passed away, He shouted, “It is finished.” In other words, salvation is done. So far as His work is concerned, it is all accomplished.
The Bible tells us in Romans 6:6:
Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him.
We all know that when our Lord Jesus was crucified on the cross, He bore our sins in His own body. He bore the sins of the whole world, and for that reason He died.
Because He is our Redeemer, He paid the cost in order that we might be saved. Our sins are all forgiven.
But our Lord Jesus did something more. He not only bore our sins in His body and paid for them. The Bible tells us that when He died on the cross, He took the old man to die in Him, with Him, on the cross.
He not only bore our sins—the sins that we have committed—but He also bore the sinner. He bore the old Adam with Him and crucified him on the cross.
Now, the old man here refers to Adam, because Adam is the federal head of the old creation.
In the sight of God, there are only two men on the earth. One is Adam; the other is Christ. Adam is the head of the old creation. Everyone who is born of Adam belongs to Adam.
No matter whether you are an American, Portuguese, or Chinese, you are all of Adam. Because we are all of Adam, we inherit Adam’s sin. Therefore, the life of Adam in us is a fallen life.
But when our Lord Jesus died on the cross, He took the old man with Him. The Bible tells us that our Lord Jesus is not only the second man, but He is also the last Adam.
So far as His body is concerned, He was born into this world. In the eyes of the world, He was born of Adam. But actually, He was not, because He was born of the Holy Spirit. Yet He is a man, and He is considered the last Adam in the sight of God.
As the last Adam, when He died, the race was terminated.
We often like to use an example. If you will excuse me, my ancestor, in a sense, is from Huangdi, the Yellow Emperor. According to our legend, one day the Yellow Emperor had a battle with Chiyou. At that time there was a heavy fog. How could he find his way in the fog?
Fortunately, the Yellow Emperor invented the compass, and by that he was able to defeat Chiyou. Now suppose the Yellow Emperor did not invent the compass, and in the confusion he was killed by Chiyou. I will ask, where would you be? Where would I be? All the Chinese would be gone, because the Yellow Emperor died.
Anyway, thank God, the Yellow Emperor succeeded. That is why you are here today.
Here you find that when our Lord Jesus died, He took the old man with Him. So our old man has been crucified with Christ, and on that basis, we have all died, because we are in Adam.
This is a truth that we must know.
Oftentimes, after we believe in the Lord Jesus, we only know that Jesus died for our sins. Now, if that is the case, then your sins may be forgiven, but you as a sinner still live, and then you will continue to sin. So the sin question is not solved.
But if the sinner is dead, then the problem of sin is solved. So many brothers and sisters do not know the full salvation of our Lord Jesus. We need to see this: our old man has been crucified with Christ.
The Bible says, “Knowing this.” But the knowing here is an objective knowing.
You know, in the Bible there are two words translated “knowing.” One is objective knowing. That is, you know the fact. You know it because you have heard it.
If you have never heard it, you hear it this morning. So now you know that not only have your sins been forgiven, but you, the sinner, died with Christ two thousand years ago. Before you were born, you were dead. Now, is that not wonderful?
That is the wonder of the gospel. This is a knowledge that we must have.
But if you only have that objective knowledge—that two thousand years ago, when Christ died, you died—in the sight of God it is truth. It is real, because with God there is no time factor. He already saw you. He put you in Adam and you died on the cross.
So mentally, you know it. But only knowing it with your mind is not enough, because you find that in your daily life it does not work.
I believe a number of Christians have such an experience.