What, then, shall be done with this most stubborn foe? This most tyrannical sovereign? This bold usurper of God’s place? God has plainly declared what He has already done with him in His Word. He has but one place for “the old man,” and that is the cross, and but one plan for the termination of his despotic rule, and that is by his crucifixion with Christ.

Romans 6:6

 “Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away, so that we should no longer be in bondage to sin.”

Galatians 2:20

“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me: and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me.”

2 Corinthians 5:14-15

¹⁴ “For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that one died for all, therefore all died; ¹⁵ and he died for all, that they that live should no longer live unto themselves, but unto him who for their sakes died and rose again.”

Two things explicitly stated in these verses should be noted: first, that the crucifixion of “the old man” is an already accomplished fact, and second, that it is a co-crucifixion.

Notice the tenses: “was crucified”—past, and “have been crucified”— past perfect. The judicial crucifixion of “the old man” took place centuries ago. Whether or not a single soul ever accepted this glorious fact that the entire old creation in Adam was carried to the cross and there crucified with Christ, it is as gloriously true as the fact that Christ Himself was crucified.

“One died for all.”
     Substitution—the Savior on the cross for the sinner.

“Therefore all died.” 

     Identification—the sinner on the cross with the Savior.

It is part of the flawless provision of God’s grace for the believer that everything that pertains to the old nature should terminate its sinful course at the cross. Whether from “sins” or “self,” the cross is God’s only place of deliverance. But as surely as Christ Jesus “bore my sins in His own body on the tree,” just so surely was my “old man crucified with Him” there. If I accept and act upon one fact by faith, I must consistently accept and act upon the other fact by faith.

Deliverance from the old sphere “in the flesh” and entrance into the new sphere “in the spirit” demands the dethronement of self. It is very evident that a house divided against itself cannot stand. No house can entertain two masters without unceasing conflict. If the Lord Jesus is to take the throne and rule over the human personality, then “the old man” must abdicate. And that he will never do. So, God must deal drastically with him. He is a usurper whom God has condemned and sentenced to death. God carried out that sentence on Calvary’s cross in His infinite grace. And now God declares to every person who cries out for deliverance from the tyranny of self, “the old man was crucified with Christ.” Do you believe it and find it increasingly true?

I once led a series of meetings in a school in China and showed the way of deliverance from both the penalty and the power of sin through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. One message was mainly on the theme we are now considering. The most attentive listener in the audience was a man who had been the classical teacher in that school for eleven years. Although he had heard the Gospel in chapel daily and attended church, he had never become a Christian. But during those days, the Spirit of God worked mightily in his heart, convicting and convincing him and finally leading him to an open confession of Christ. In conversation with a missionary afterward, this teacher said that, although he believed the Gospel truth that Christ died for his sins, he had never accepted Him as Savior because this did not seem to meet his need fully. He said that he was under the dominion of sin and was governed by that old sinful nature and that not until he learned that God, in Christ’s cross, had dealt with that root, sin, out of which came the fruit, sins, did he believe it was a salvation sufficient to deliver him. But he found in this glorious truth of the crucifixion of “the old man” that God can save to the uttermost those that come to Him in Christ and accept the complete work of His cross.

The second fact these verses make clear is that this is a co-crucifixion. “Our old man” was crucified with Christ. This declares both the method and the time of this crucifixion. There is often confusion at this point.

Paul says, “I have been crucified with Christ.” He did not try to crucify himself, nor did his crucifixion take place at some point in his spiritual experience through some act on his part. With that death, Paul had no more to do than he had with the death of Christ Himself. The crucifixion of that old “I” was not self-crucifixion. Neither did it occur in Damascus, Arabia, or when Paul was “caught up to the third heaven.” But the death of the “I,” which was Saul, took place on the cross when Christ died there.

The truth becomes easy to apprehend if we remember that God sees everyone in Adam or Christ. He deals with the human race through these two representative men. When Adam died, the human race died in him. You died in Adam. So, did I. Through that spiritual death, “the old man” found birth and usurped God’s place on the throne of man’s life. Christ came as the last Adam to recover for God and for the race all that had been lost to them through the first Adam. God’s method of defeating death is through death, so Christ died, and the race of sinners died in Him. “One died for all: therefore all died.” When the last Adam died, “the old man” died with Him. The old “I” in you and me was judicially crucified with Christ. “Ye died,” and your death dates from the death of Christ. “The old man,” the old “self” in God’s reckoning, was taken to the cross with Christ and crucified and brought into the tomb with Christ and buried.

Romans 6:3-4

^3 “Or are ye ignorant that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴ We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.”

The perfection of God’s grace is marvelously manifested in this glorious fact of co-crucifixion-the sinner with the Savior on the cross. Only the perfection of man’s faith is needed to make it a glorious reality in his spiritual experience. Assurance of deliverance from the sphere of the “flesh” and the dethronement of “the old man” rests upon the apprehension and acceptance of this fact of co-crucifixion. 

Source: “Life on the Highest Plane” by Ruth Paxson

Lord, thank You that through our being crucified on the cross with You, the death sentence came also upon the cruel usurper who held us as his slave.