Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin (Romans 6:6-7, KJV).
There comes a time when a person must make a personal decision to be completely crucified with Christ if he or she is going to experience complete victory. A partial crucifixion is only a partial death, which means there is something still alive that should not be. Those things that are contrary to God’s very nature and His Word should no longer have part in us; much less be part of us. The things of the old nature are meant to be crucified along with the old man. Trying to keep those things alive is like trying to give mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to a dead rat. We must quit trying to give life to something that is not supposed to survive.
One decision we all must make is to allow Jesus to increase in us. This means that His very nature becomes ours. Along with it, it is the change of perspective. We can no longer look at things from fallen man’s point of view, and expect to be Christ-like. We must allow the transfiguration of our thought processes to take place in order for His thoughts to become our thoughts. Sit down and ask the Lord to show you attitudes that need to be changed. Time to be honest. How we think and what we think often determine the outcome of a given situation. It affects how we handle circumstances and how we relate to other people. It affects our attitudes, and attitude gives color to perspective. Yet perspective gives color to attitude –they reciprocate. Perspective also gives tint to our emotions. One feeds into the other. There is a huge difference between an emotional reaction and a spiritual response. A spiritual response requires a complete crucifixion!
