648 The Spiritual Man
the Holy Spirit to give life to their frames so that they can be healthy
and without infirmity. Would He give life and strength to men to
empower them to live for themselves? How utterly ridiculous! The
life God gives to our body is for the purpose that we may thereafter
live for Him. If the Holy Spirit were to grant health and strength to us
who have not offered ourselves wholeheartedly to God, would that
not bolster us to live more energetically for ourselves? Innumerable
Christians seeking the Holy Spirit as life for their mortal frames
should now see that they do not have this experience because they
have neglected this essential point.
We cannot ourselves control our body, but through the Holy Spirit
we can. He will empower us to put to death its many deeds. Believers
have all experienced their lack of strength to deal with the fleshly
lusts which provoke the members of the body to perform deeds
gratifying to the flesh. But by the Holy Spirit they are fit to cope with
the situation. This is very important to know. It is useless to try to
crucify one’s self. Today many grasp the truth of being crucified
with the Lord on the cross, yet few exhibit its reality. The truth of co-
crucifixion is but a teaching to many saints. This is essentially due to
a lack of clear understanding concerning the place of the Holy Spirit
in the scheme of salvation. They do not apprehend how the Spirit
moves together with the cross. We must realize that the cross without
God’s Spirit is absolutely ineffective. Only the Holy Spirit can take
what the cross has accomplished and make believers experience it. If
we hear the truth of the cross but do not allow Him to work this truth
into our lives, then we know nothing but a theory and an ideal.
A recognition “that our old self was crucified with him so that the
sinful body might be annulled” (Rom. 6.6 Darby ) is indeed good;
but we remain shackled by fleshly deeds if “by the Spirit” we have
not “put to death the deeds of the body.” We have seen too many
saints who understand most lucidly the truth of the cross and have
accepted it yet in whom it is not one whit effective. They begin to
wonder whether the reality of the practical salvation of the cross can