3-12. Not Pruning, But Death
“For the death which He died He became, once for all, dead in relation to sin; but by the life which He now lives He is alive in relation to God” (Rom. 6:10, Wey.).
When we seek to suppress self in one area, it will express itself in another. If we attempt to prune the branches of the old life, we find that its root has thereby been strengthened. The one answer to this enemy, both God’s and ours, is the daily crucifixion of the Cross.
“Romans Six is one of the most blessed portions of the New Testament, teaching us that our ‘old man,’ our old nature that is in us, was actually crucified with Him, so that now we need no longer be in bondage to sin. But remember it is only as the Holy Spirit makes Christ’s death a reality within us, that we shall know, not by force of argument or conviction, but in the reality of the power of an endless life, that we are in very deed dead to sin.” -A.M.
“Not by a stringent ‘cutting off’ of exterior things, nor by seeking a mental apprehension of ‘death with Christ’ in the conscious life, but by a simple reckoning upon His death as yours—shall you experience in the inner depths of your life, servant of God, the divine spiritual reality that ‘Christ in you’ is in truth your very life, displacing the old life of nature and continually ‘making to die’ its inclinations and habits”
“In the same way you also must regard yourselves as dead in relation to sin, but as alive in relation to God, because you are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 6:11, Wey.).