Life in Christ is based upon our death with Him on the cross and the application of His resurrection power to our lives. It is through the power of His blood that the sin which has corrupted every individual of Adam’s race may be destroyed. Each person must apply the blood of Christ to his own personal need. As Paul stated, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me” (Gal. 2:20). Through Christ we must crucify the old man and put to death the body of sin and reckon ourselves dead to sin, but alive unto God (Rom. 6:6,11).
If we live in Christ, the old man must die. If the old man lives, it will destroy us, and we will die spiritually. There is no common ground in the middle. God will either have all of us, or He will accept none of us. We can never compromise on the promise of life through Christ.
This truth of the necessity of undergoing death for eternal life can be illustrated by Caligula, a Roman emperor (37–41) considered by many of his contemporaries to be crazy. In four short years he brought the empire to the point of collapse. Had he continued to live, the empire would have died. He rapidly spent the entire large surplus in the state treasury accumulated by the previous emperor. He then used extortion to confiscate the estates of leading Roman citizens. He restored trials for treason and began killing anyone he wished or who might be a threat to his power. He engaged in a number of imprudent acts, such as building a bridge of boats to cross the Bay of Naples just to prove he could ride his horse across. He is accused of making his favorite horse a senator and a consul. He marched the army to the English Channel in preparation for an invasion of Britain, but then ordered the men to collect seashells as the spoils of war from conquering an ocean. While it is debated whether some of these insane acts actually occurred, the reality was that the empire was crashing. Either Caligula died, or the empire died. Because Caligula was assassinated, the empire survived. In just the same way, the inherited nature of sin must be put to death, or it will eventually destroy us.
Effective ministry also depends upon dying to self and being reborn through Christ. John 12:24 states, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” It is the power of God working through His people that God can effectively use. This is why Jesus emphasized that the disciples must tarry in Jerusalem until they were “endued with power from on high” (Lu. 24:49). After receiving the filling of the Holy Spirit, the Apostles then transformed their world. It is impossible for one to give out that which he has never received. Only after one has died to self and has new life in Christ can one effectively bring forth the fruit of new life in others.