Christian Living

The Cross, Part 4—Not Just Forgiving You But Getting Rid of You

by J.W. Phillips
03/16/25
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The Cross, Part 4—Not Just Forgiving You But Getting Rid of You

Our old nature had to be judged—in fact, judged so thoroughly the old nature was totally severed from us at the cross.

This outcome was imperative. Otherwise, the cross would have only dealt with the symptoms (sin) and not with the source (our old nature). Moreover, had the old nature been left in place, the new nature could never become ours, since it was impossible for the two natures to coexist.

Therefore, as the British evangelist Roy Hession put it, “Jesus didn’t just die for us; he died as us,”¹ thus terminating the old nature.

In his biography of Joshua, F.B. Meyer explained this truth:

It cannot be too often or too clearly emphasized that the basic thought of the New Testament philosophy of deliverance from the power of sin consists in the intelligent apprehension of this divine fact—that the whole Church was identified with Jesus in his death, and resurrection, and ascension; that all died with him; all lay in the grave; all rose with him on the Easter morning; all passed with him, in the divine intention, to the throne. It was no lonely figure that, as the light of morning broke on the temple dome, climbed the steeps of the sky, drawn by an invisible attraction; he was accompanied by a multitude which no man could have numbered; in him you and I and all believers trod down the principalities and powers of darkness and took our place above them all.²

When Jesus walked out of that grave, he walked out, quite literally, a new man—the head of a new race, of which we were his offspring, his brethren, partakers indeed of the divine nature. Based on this fact, Romans 6:11 says “… reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God.”

When Jesus died on the cross, our old nature died with him (Romans 6:6); and when he arose from the dead, our new nature, this new life in Jesus, was born. The New Testament says that Christ is our life (Colossians 3:4).

According to A.B. Simpson, “Jesus is the one man that contains in himself all that man ought to be, all that man needs to have.” The great secret to life, now revealed in Scripture, is “Christ in you, the hope of glory!” (Colossians 1:27).

Dale Yocum wrote, “In regeneration the divine nature is imparted ….”³ At that precise moment in time we were born again, the risen life of Jesus entered us and became us.

All the perfections of the Lord’s life constitute our new nature. Are you getting this? It is that nature, the divine nature, which will not and cannot sin.

Indeed, pride can no more take root in the new nature than sunflowers can on a glacier. To make this fact more a reality to us, A.B. Simpson said, “We are to reckon ourselves dead indeed unto sin just as much as though we were no longer the same person, and the old heart was no longer that true self.”⁴

A very wonderful and radical change has taken place in us which we must accept first and then seek to understand.

The Bible doesn’t say you are a new nature plus something else. You are simply and singularly a new creation, period (II Corinthians 5:17). There is nothing hyphenated or bifurcated about this, for nowhere does the Bible say that you have a hybrid humanity. It totally defies Scripture and logic to say that a Christian is both unregenerate and regenerate. You are one or the other; you are not both. 

The real you, the only you, resides in your born-again spirit. And within your born-again spirit there is a resident victory over sin. F.B. Meyer observed, “The power of refusing to harbor or consider the unholy promptings of the flesh is a very blessed one. But it is not of man, nor to be built up by holy resolution or endeavor. It is the power of God in man, the life of the risen Jesus ….”⁵

Like many other accomplishments of the cross, you may not have understood this one. Yet it is true: Within every believer there’s a life created in true righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4:24). And it is this life that constitutes the essence of our new nature.

Justifiably, then, James S. Stewart exuded triumph when he wrote:

You do not need to wait “until the daybreak and the shadows flee away” before beginning to live eternally. In union with Christ, that glorious privilege is yours here and now. Risen with him, you have passed out of relation to sin, out of the hampering limitations of this present order, out of the domain of the world and the flesh, into the realm of the Spirit, and into life that is life indeed.⁶

Once the new nature is embraced and the self-life is rejected, ego and pride will exert no more power over the believer than a flea does over a tiger. The cross expels; the re-created spirit impels. 

And what a contribution this makes to the sanctifying of the saint!

The juxtaposition of the self-life with the new nature is vivid and dramatic. The portrait of one is much worse than we ever imagined. The portrait of the other is much better than we ever imagined.

So what do we do? In the end, we reject both portraits! We simply don’t believe that the self we have grown up with is as bad as Scripture says it is or that the life the new nature offers can be experienced on earth. 

Self is as bad as Scripture says it is! And not to believe that, or not to believe that the new nature is as good as Scripture says it is, leaves one in that crowd who saw Jesus die but didn’t understand what they saw.

The only way confusion will go and clarity will come is by allowing God’s revelation to trump our reasoning. We must cast down everything that rivals or elevates itself above the Word of God (II Corinthians 10:5).

You don’t think your self-life is really so bad? The Bible says it is; so cast your thought down.

You don’t think you have a nature that is altogether righteous and holy and will not sin? God says you do, so cast your thought down.

You don’t think a sustained victory over sin is possible. God says it is, so cast your thought down. 

Not to believe that your self-life is extensively evil is to tolerate it all the way to the grave. And not to believe that God has provided an alternative to the self-life, that new nature now resident in your born-again spirit, is to lose all hope in the battle against sin.

John Laidlaw—in his book, The Bible Doctrine of Man—framed the issue well.

What comfort could be imparted to Christians by telling them, that since Christ has died and risen, they also are dead to sin and done with it, when they feel every day that this is anything but true? They should be overwhelmed in despair were there nothing more in the saying than a moral appeal [which implies] … they owe it to so loving a Savior to live a life of freedom from sin. No! … the death of Christ, besides being an expiatory death for canceling guilt and bringing in everlasting righteousness, was implicitly the destruction of the principle of sin in those that are his. It is therefore a most important part of the apostolic doctrine of Christ’s redeeming death, that it secures moral renovation as well as justifying grace.⁷

To be forgiven is a fact marvelous beyond words, but to be told to “go and sin no more” immediately robs us of rising joy—unless we have a new nature that is able to do this. To have the penalty of sin lifted but the power of sin left intact is half a gospel.

The Bible brings both these dynamics into focus in a single verse when it declares in Romans 6:11 that we are to reckon ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin. That’s the old self, which God says was so bad he had to terminate it, amputate it, eradicate it, get rid of it, because it was too polluted to polish and too impoverished to improve. 

The life you’re trying to improve, God decided to remove. In its place, he gave you a new nature, and only that is alive to God.

For most who are thoughtful believers, perplexity surfaces here. Why? Because they don’t know much about the new nature. And why don’t they? Because it hasn’t been taught.

Of all the biblical teachings describing the life of a believer, none is more important—and none is less understood—than the doctrine of the new nature. The quintessential significance of the new nature is acknowledged across a wide theological spectrum. Virtually every major doctrine converges on this one, and apart from new nature truth diminishes considerably in value and meaning. 

A major contribution from these reflections on the cross is the decision to put this deficit on your agenda: look for resources that will inform you about the new nature.⁸

Notes:

1. Roy Hession, Not I, But Christ, (Fort Washington, PA., Christian Literature Crusade, 1967), p.80.

2. F.B. Meyer, Joshua, (Fort Washington, PA., Christian Literature Crusade, 1977), pp.48, 49.

3. Dale Yokum, Conformed to Christ, (Salem, Ohio, Schmul Publishing Company, 1986), p.70.

4. A.B. Simpson, The Fourfold Gospel, (Alchua, FL., Bridge-Logos, 2007), p.126.

5. F.B. Meyer, Trial by Fire, (Fort Washington, PA., CLC Publications, 2001), p.141.

6. James S. Stewart, A Man in Christ, (Vancouver, Regent College Publishing, 2002), p.194.

7. John Laidlaw, The Bible Doctrine of Man, (Edinburgh, T. & T. Clark, 1895), p.293.

8. J.W. Phillips authored the book, Pursuing Divine Life: A Study of the New Nature, about which professor and author David C. Needham wrote: “A major contribution, a remarkable book… a great job of research!”