Crucified by Neglect

*“‘ The world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” GAL. vi. 14.

THERE is a common interpretation of these words which, for lack of a certain proportion, leads to much serious misunderstanding. We are presented with the picture of a man who has been newly brought into life through Jesus Christ our Lord. In his new life he sets out with fierce aggression to fight the old life. More especially he must take a cross and go forth among his old interests and pleasures, and one by one he must nail them to the cross and crucify them. He must never go out without his cross. He must never be seen without it. At any moment some old enticement may meet him on the road, and he must immediately rear his cross and nail the thing to death. He never knows when some carnal appetite, some alien delight, may come to his door, and therefore his cross must be always ready, and he must be watching and listening, and without the loss of a second he must have the tempting thing writhing in the throes of crucifixion. This is the presentation, and there is, of course, a sense in which it is vitally true. Every evil inclination must surely be put to death, but it may be that God’s wisdom has appointed another sort of crucifixion, in which we are almost passive spectators, or, indeed, are scarcely conscious of the death scenes which are being enacted on the frontiers of our life.

The conception of a crucifixion, in which we carry a cross about, ready for any chance meeting with old pleasures, is not by any means a full portrayal of our new relation to the old fellowships in which we once found our delight. Let us look at the matter in another way. When we become alive in Christ Jesus we begin to obtain an entirely new class of interests. It would probably be more accurate to use the singular number, and to say that we become absorbed in an entirely new Interest. We pass into the magnetic constraint of a new gravitation, and our life moves toward the central sovereignty of a new world, Our interest is drawn to the new Interest, even to Him by Whom we were redeemed, and Who sits upon the throne. “I, if I be lifted up, will draw.’ We are seized by that mystic spell, and our powers are lured to new engagements. Our attention is caught. Our imagination snc tee neta ge ea eS Sec eee ee 102 Crucified by Neglect

is awakened. Our love is won. “Looking unto Jesus”; that is the attitude of the soul, and that is the trend of all our spiritual movements, Our minds and hearts are set on things above.

But now, when we have got as far as this, a certain law of life is given charge concerning us, and certain things are done without our having to trouble about them, It is a law of life that when interest is enticed in one direction it is withdrawn from another. If a child’s attention and interest are absorbed in some dangerous thing, say, a knife, the way to destroy the interest is by bringing a superior interest on to the field. The superior interest leads the little soul captive, and the dangerous interest dies. That is to say, in the new interest the old. interests are crucified. They are really strangled by neglect, They die by being forgotten. They are left, and they are left to die. The new interest crowds the old ones out. They are deprived of vital nourishment, and they pass away.

I might further illustrate this law by the life of a tree. I have been deeply impressed this winter by the tenacity with which old oak leaves have clung to the trees. But there was no need to worry about them or to set up any device for removing them from their place. The new sap is rising, and this positive internal power is exercising dominion, and these old associations are being pushed off their foothold and are quietly dropping into their graves. And it is even so with the new life in Christ. It rises like heavenly sap in the soul. It courses through every faculty and power. It effloresces in new interests, new discernments, new aptitudes, new passions, new modes and moods of service. And we need not trouble about old associations which may still seek to cling to our lives. They will be quietly crowded out by the new life. Old things pass away; behold, all things become new. The new life has no use for them, and they pass away.

And so it is when we become united to Christ. In the Christian life there are some things which are no longer wanted. There are old pleasures which no longer please. There are interests which no longer interest. There is no need to crucify them. In Christ they are crucified unto us, and we unto them. We simply do not want them. They have practically ceased to be. We have got a clean palate, and the food is no longer palatable, and, therefore, no longer sweet. The new taste has killed the old delights. God “satisfies our mouth with good things,” and the things of the old carnival days are forgotten.