The Body of Sin

Many of God’s children have the understanding that when they have received the Spirit of God, they are completely done with the body of sin. They say that all temptation comes from without, that the tempter seeks to sow bad seeds into the heart from without, since everything within them is pure. On one hand, they have died with Christ, and on the other, they are raised with him.

Others explain that we carry this body of sin with us as long as we are present in the body, but that sin shall not have dominion over us; instead we shall have dominion over it, and in this way, the body of sin is gradually destroyed.

Still others believe that we should say as little as possible about these things, because for them, simplicity is the ultimate good.

Since I personally believe that it is vital for us to thoroughly examine what the Word of God is actually saying to us, I also believe that it would be very beneficial to examine whether a person can actually be done with the body of sin completely, once and for all, or whether we have to carry it with us as long as we are present in this earthly body. Paul tells us in Rom. 6:6, “Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.”

It wasn’t the body of sin that was crucified, it was the old man. The cross has not even reached the body of sin in us. It has only reached the old man; that is to say, we are crucified in every area where we are fully conscious of evil. However, there can be things we feel free to do today that we will not feel free to do a year from now, because then we will have understood that it was not right. In other words, we become more crucified, and the body of sin is done away to a greater extent.

This destruction of the body of sin is very closely tied to Phil. 3:10: “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death . . . .”

Every time something is destroyed, it causes suffering and death. This fellowship of His sufferings is a necessary requirement for our sanctification, because here, too, Christ is the way. And if we suffer with Him, we will also be glorified with Him.

Naturally, the easiest way for us would be if we could, once and for all, be liberated from the body of sin. But God hasn’t made it that way.

The enemies of the cross of Christ wage a stubborn battle precisely in this area, because they want everything to be left to Christ so they themselves can be free. Certainly everything should be cast upon Him and everything must be cast upon Him, but the point now is that we must be found in Him, and then we will inevitably partake with Him both in suffering and in joy.

Another kind of enemy of the cross of Christ hides behind the attitude that it’s so good to be naive and childlike. In this way, they think they can avoid coming to the understanding that they must suffer with Christ and consequently will be able to spare themselves and their life in this world, hiding innocently behind a screen of naivety and childishness. Really, this is a childishness which is reminiscent of a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Christ brought the body of sin into death on His own behalf when He became sin for us, but what took place in Christ must, necessarily, also take place in us. Even if we don’t manage to attain as much as Christ attained, we ought at least to be able to say with Paul: “One thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

Horten, July 30, 1909