"IT IS FINISHED."

George Cutting
The Old Nature

Who then shall condemn us? Nay, is THERE ANYTHING LEFT TO CONDEMN? Nothing. Does Satan bring our sins before us? We have neither to deny nor excuse them; faith can simply answer, "Christ died for them." Is it the sinfulness of our nature that he would harass us with? Faith can but add, "And I died too."

But now comes a practical difficulty with many. The writer once heard a believer pray most earnestly that "he might feel that he was dead with Christ." But does God ever speak about our feeling dead? Never. He says, "Likewise reckon yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 6:11). We are expected to believe that in Christ's death we died, simply because God says so, and not because we feel dead, or ever will. God Himself clearly states the fact for us, and says, "You are dead" (Col. 3:3), and He expects us as simply to believe it, as we do that Christ died for our sins. God reckons our Substitute's death as our death, and the reckonings of faith will always agree with His.

Thus our old standing, as children of fallen Adam, came to an end before God at the cross; or, as Scripture puts it, "Our old man has been crucified with Christ" (Rom. 6:6), and we are now connected in life with the last Adam—the risen Christ; or, as it is expressed in Romans 7:4, "Married to another, even to Him who is raised from the dead."

As believers, we have been brought into a new position altogether. He who took our condemnation, by being made sin for us upon the cross, is now risen out of death; and since God sees us "IN HIM," we are necessarily beyond the reach of condemnation.

"Death and judgment are behind us,
Grace and glory are before;
All the billows rolled o'er Jesus,
There they spent their utmost power.

Firstfruits of the resurrection,
He is risen from the tomb;
Now we stand in new creation,
'Free' because beyond our doom."

• The Believer's Two Natures - "IT IS FINISHED."
• The Believer's Two Natures - "SIN" in the flesh and "SINS"
• The Believer's Two Natures - "WHOSOEVER IS BORN OF GOD CANNOT SIN?"
• The Believer's Two Natures - GOD'S FACTS AND OUR EXPERIENCES
• The Believer's Two Natures - IS THE OLD NATURE IMPROVED BY THE NEW?
• The Believer's Two Natures - MUST THE PRESENCE OF INDWELLING SIN NECESSARILY INTERRUPT COMMUNION?
• The Believer's Two Natures - TWO DISTINCT NATURES IN ONE PERSON
• The Believer's Two Natures - WHAT IS THE SECRET OF OUR POWER?
• The Believer's Two Natures - WHICH NATURE SHALL I GRATIFY?