The Death of Self

The Bible only offers one prescription for the problems presented in the seven deadly sins of self and that prescription is the death of self!  The Apostle Paul presents the issue clearly in his letter to the Galatians:

For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.  (Gal 5:17)

Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.  (Gal 5:24-25)

And in his letter to the Romans, Paul wrote:

Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.  For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.  (Rom 6:4-7)

It is only by the death of self that the risen life of Christ may be revealed in us.  Only by the death of self may His Spirit fill us.  Jesus says we must take up our cross and follow Him.  Paul says we must crucify our flesh and die to sin.  The cross is the most powerful instrument of Christianity and crucifixion is a bloody business.   Most of the modern church has lost the view that the cross is an instrument of death.  Worse, most Christians have no idea how to use it for the purpose of learning obedience by faith.

The heart of real Christianity is found in the crucifixion of self and allowing the risen Christ to live through us.  That is the only ground upon which the Holy Spirit may trod and invade our spirit.  It is by the death of self that we are filled by the Spirit and the death of self only occurs when we bring the seven deadly sins of self to the cross of Christ for crucifixion.