We who preach the gospel must not think of ourselves as public relations agents sent to establish good will between Christ and the world. We must not imagine ourselves commissioned to make Christ acceptable to big business, the press, the world of sports or modern education. We are not diplomats but prophets, and our message is not a compromise but an ultimatum. (A.W Tozer)
How is it that a man can be wise to all the goings-on in this world and all the while remain oblivious to the state of his own soul? His innate nature is the closest thing to him, for it makes him who he is. A blindness to one’s own nature is the plague of all plagues, for the man is unaware of his wretched condition much less that it’s incurable. His nature intends to ensure its death-grip in perpetuity and will succeed as long as the man knows not its path. All of his life is but a borrowed moment, a precious window of opportunity to escape his own deserved fate, yet he does not see it as such. This unseemly nature of man, all disregarded and unattended, can for a short time be endured in this life, even tamed in some fashion or degree, but soon it will erupt upon his eternal consciousness that the wages of this depravity of soul are his to bear. This is a ruin that cannot be borne, yet must be by the decree of divine justice.
The preaching of the cross is not a cure to man’s sin nature, rather, it aims to escort men to the annihilation of it. Ever since Adam, the nature of man has become infested with evil and no injection of self-righteousness can reverse its effects. His own nature must be eliminated altogether without regard to salvaging any part of it. And while the cross of Christ is preached, one must of his own accord nail himself (his nature) to that same cross and die. He must intersect the course of his sinful nature by bringing it to its end through identification in Christ’s crucifixion.
The ultimatum we preach is the choice between two deaths. Remain in your sins, oh wretched man, and at the end of your life, the death that reigns in your nature will prevail itself upon you without any recourse, and in dying you shall die. Or while your life still remains with you, relinquish your vile nature to His cross, lay down your life with Christ, and in dying you shall live.
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. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. (Rom. 6.6-8)
For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. (Col. 3.3)
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Gal. 2.20)
