Holiness – Dying Matters

I have been crucified with Christ;

it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me;

and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God,

who loved me and gave himself for me.

Galatians 2:20

If our conversion calls us to new life and to being “born again,” our sanctification calls us to death—to the crucifixion of our self-sovereignty and self-centeredness. To become Jesus-centered, our self-centeredness must be put to death.

Some say we are sanctified entirely at death. I agree. But it is not at the point of physical death that entire sanctification happens—rather, it happens at the point of the death of self-sovereignty.

The biblical call to a holy life requires two deaths. The first is the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. Our justification and our sanctification are obtained through his sacrifice. Hal A. Cauthron writes, “Holiness is provided by God through the death of Christ. Holiness is appropriated by us through our faith identification with Christ’s death.”

The second death is of an individual’s self-centeredness—a dying to our former way of life so that we can live in “newness of life.” This is the kind of dying that Paul describes in Romans 6:6, where he writes, “We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the sinful body might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin.” He continues with the theme in 6:11 – “Count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”

Paul experiences an utter severing of his former way of life when he comes to know the grace of God in Christ. We must die in the same way to our sin-dominated way of life if we are to experience the holiness that God has graciously provided. When we die to our own self-sovereignty, we share in the crucifixion of Christ, placing our complete trust in Christ and his cross.

The sanctified life requires this self-abandoning surrender of one’s former way of life – whether the life of a religious rule-keeper (like Paul), the life of a pleasure-seeking Prodigal, or the life of a person converted by Christ, but not yet committed to the Lordship of Christ. 

The blessing of heart holiness means that the Holy Spirit brings us to a point of consecration, a yielding of self – or, as Paul would write of, a “death of self.” We acknowledge that even though our sins have been forgiven, there is within us a tendency to want our own way, instead of God’s will.

Self-surrender involves a change of lordship. We give up any notion of control of our own life and give complete control to God. The heart of the Christian faith isn't about satisfying yourself; it's about dying to yourself.

This death to self-sovereignty is what Paul has in mind when he invites us to present ourselves as living sacrifices (Romans 12:1). Sacrifices take place at an altar. (I’m glad we still use them in the Church of the Nazarene.) We present ourselves at an altar—living sacrifices—completely consecrated to God. The thing about a living sacrifice, though, is that it can crawl back off the altar. That is why, even after a moment-in-time complete consecration, there still remains the need for daily consecration.

Have you died to self?