I am astounded at the great lengths God has gone to - to purge us of the self-life. The reason being is that He has a new life, infinitely superior, for us. Now for Him to do this means that there are things about the self-life that are incompatible with our new life in Christ.

I am afraid, though that there are few Christians who view the self-life as something bad or negative. The emphasis of many Evangelicals, leaders and otherwise, the past few years has been in opposition to what the Church has taught for years – that is, the spiritual bankruptcy of the self-life.

The Evangelical leaders of the past century were right on target when they preached and taught that the greatest enemy of a victorious Christian walk was the self. Were they wrong, and now a new generation right? I don’t think so.

The Bible tells us that God is essentially spirit. Man was created essentially spirit, housed, as it were in a body and finding expression through the soul. The Fall brought about a drastic transformation in man’s disposition - instead of being essentially spirit he became essentially flesh.

What brought about this internal revolution in man was the presence of indwelling sin. Sin transformed the soul and body into what the Bible calls flesh, and because of the presence of the alien power, the flesh is unalterably opposed to God.

I would say that the flesh is the vehicle through which indwelling sin expresses itself. And the flesh expresses itself through what we call the self-life. Self is the outward expression of the inward working of the flesh. This is why self is always looked on negatively. It is the great enemy within.

But in one great magnanimous outburst culminating at the cross, God brought this insidious enemy to bay. He chose not to restore or rehabilitate the flesh – He chose to crucify it. Why? Because the flesh is a malignant cancer eating away at our new life in Christ.

As long as we give ground to the flesh, placate and pamper the self we will deny ourselves of victory in our Christian walk. This is why God went to such great lengths – that we might be totally and completely victorious over the flesh.

Stand on the fact that your are crucified with Christ. (Gal. 2:20) Exercise your prerogative in putting to death the deeds of the flesh. (Rom. 6:13) Claim your right as conqueror. (Rom. 8:37) Rest in the Lord. (Psalm 7:37)