There seem to be few Christians who realize that the death of Christ on the cross in the shedding of His blood has a double meaning, a double deliverance. Every born-again Christian realizes the first meaning of the cross, that of deliverance from the guilt of sin, but few realize and actually live upon the second meaning of the cross, that of deliverance from the power of sin upon one's life.

The double deliverance of the cross does not make me sinless, but gives to me a moment by moment joyous and abiding-through-conflict victory over sin, Satan and his hosts. Understanding and appropriating the facts of the cross proves to be one of the most difficult and trying of all phases for the growing believer. The believer's understanding of the two aspects of Calvary gives the key to both spiritual growth and life-giving service.

Calvary is the secret of it all. It is what He did there that counts, and what He did becomes a force in the life of a Christian when it is appropriated by faith. This is the starting point from which all godly living must take its rise. We shall never know the experience of Christ's victory in our lives until we are prepared to count (reckon) upon His victory at the cross as the secret of our personal victory today. The beginning of the life of holiness is a faith in the crucified Saviour which sees more than His substitutionary work. It is a faith which sees myself identified with Christ in His death and resurrection.

Faith gives the Holy Spirit freedom to bring that finished work into our daily lives. We stood on the fact of His dying for our sins, and this act of faith allowed the Holy Spirit to give us our freedom from the penalty of sin—justification. Now, once we come to see the fact of the further aspect, we are urged in the Word to stand on the liberating truth of our dying with Christ in His death to sin, which allows the Holy Spirit to bring into our lives freedom from the power, the enslavement, of sin—progressive sanctification.

As our Substitute He went to the cross alone, without us, to pay the penalty of our sins. As our Representative, He took us with Him to the Cross, and there, in the sight of God, we all died together with Christ. We may be forgiven because He died in our stead; we may be delivered because we died with Him.

Through the crucifixion of the old man with Christ, the believer has been made dead unto sin, he has been completely freed from sin's power, he has been taken beyond sin's grip, the claim of sin upon him has been nullified. This is the flawless provision of God's grace but this accomplished fact can only become an actual reality in the believer's experience as faith lays hold upon it and enables him moment by moment, day by day, though temptation assail him, to "reckon" it true (Romans 6). As he reckons, the Holy Spirit makes real. Sin need have no more power over the believer than he grants it through unbelief. If he is alive unto sin it will be due largely to the fact that he has failed to reckon himself dead unto sin.

What is lacking amongst believers to this day is the proper emphasis on growth—not just to be saved, and heaven by and by. What sort of salvation would we have if our Father simply saved us from the penalty of our sins and then left us on our own to deal with the power of sin in our Christian life and walk? But many believers feel this is about as far as He went and are struggling to get on the best they can, with His help. We must be brought back to the two basics: freed from the penalty of sin by His finished work; freed from the power of sin by His finished work.

We are not left to deal with the old life ourselves; it has been dealt with by Christ on the cross. This is the fact which must be known, since on that fact is built the New Testament principle and doctrine of holiness. In other words, Calvary is as much the foundation of sanctification as of justification.

Now, as long as the believer does not know this dual aspect of his salvation, the best he can do is seek to handle his sins via confession (1 John 1:9)—that is, after the damage has been done! This takes care of the penalty of the product but not the source. Is it not time we allowed the Holy Spirit to get at the source and cut off this stream of sins before they are committed? Is this not infinitely better than the wreckage caused by sin, even though confessed? When believers get sick and tired of spinning round and round in a spiritual squirrel cage—sinning, confessing, but then sinning again—they will be ready for God's answer to the source of sin, which is death to self, brought forth from the completed work of the cross.

When God's light first shines into our heart our one cry is for forgiveness, for we realize that we have committed sins before Him; but once we have known forgiveness of sins, we make a new discovery—the discovery of sin, and we realize that we have the nature of a sinner. There is an inward inclination to sin. There is a power within that draws us to sin, and when that power breaks out we commit sins. We may seek and receive forgiveness, but then we sin again; and life goes on in a vicious circle—sinning and being forgiven, but then sinning again. We appreciate God's forgiveness, but we want something more than that, we want deliverance. We need forgiveness for what we have done, but we need deliverance from what we are.

I must recognize that the enemy within—the flesh, the old nature, self, I, the old Adam, is a usurper. By faith I must reckon him to be in the place that God put him—crucified with Christ.

—Adapted from Principles of Spiritual Growth by Miles J. Stanford, published by Back to the Bible, Lincoln, NE 68501, and available for purchase from Moments With The Book, P.O. Box 322, Bedford, PA 15522.