◄ Administration Of The Cross ►

 For ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3, ASV).

It is futile for us to attempt to curb our sins while we ignore their source, the indwelling principle of sin. In trimming the branches (sins), we strengthen the root (self). Rather, as we count upon the finished work of Calvary, the Holy Spirit will apply the Cross to the old life. And as that death cuts deeper and deeper into the root, the branches will wither and fall away.

“The Lord Jesus has been waiting for us to come to the end of our own efforts. He sends the call, ‘Come back to the Cross.’ At last we can see we have been standing and working on the wrong ground, and we hear Him say, ‘It is you who are in My way. I can do My work myself. I simply need empty vessels. You parted with your sins, but you kept yourself. Come now, part with yourself, take your place where I put you. When I died you were in Me on that Cross.’ ‘Now I see! What next, Lord?’ ‘Now you pass to another sphere where you become aware that you are joined to Me as your life.’” “Our identification with Christ in His death was a death unto Sin-the principle of Sin as a master and a tyrant-Sin, not sins.

The Holy Spirit is ready to apply that finished work of death to the depth of our self-life, until Sin loses its mastery at point after point. It goes deeper than the cutting off of visible and external things. The Cross deals with the cause, not symptoms.”

“Christ, who is our life” (Col. 3:4).