Who am I?
The picture we see of the Children of Israel during these 40 years is exactly what we see in a person who is still standing between that rotten corpse of what they used to be and the promise of joy in Christ.
Israel began to think about how good they had it back in Egypt: there were onions and garlic, they had homes and food. Yes, they were slaves, and were beaten and driven by their oppressors, but they didn’t have the burden of being in this wilderness. You see, they still thought like slaves because they had never fully yielded themselves to the whole plan of God. They still thought like slaves even though they weren’t slaves any longer. When a Christian is having an identity crisis, it is because he is still thinking like a slave, he is still thinking like he did when he was identified with the corpse of sin. That is why Romans 6 said to reckon yourself dead to sin. The word reckon means to count it to be so. In other words, you have to change your mind about who you are. Just like the children of Israel, if you continue to think like a slave, you will never inhabit the promises of God.
Romans 12:1-2 says, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”
These verses speak directly to the heart of the matter. God says that first of all that you are to present your body to God. Quit trying to decide what is acceptable to do with your body and let God determine that for you. Quit saying it is my body and I will do what I want. Instead, present your body to God as a living sacrifice, allowing God to do whatever He wants with it. God says here that to do this is only reasonable. It is not unreasonable for God to ask you to do this, just like it was not unreasonable for God to ask Israel to cross over the Jordan River.
The second part of this passage deals not with the body, but the soul. It is these two areas that comprise the old man. The soul you remember is made up of the intellect, the will, and the emotions. When the Bible speaks of the mind in these verses, it is speaking not of just your thinking, but also of your will. We often say, “I have made up my mind”. That means that my will is determined.
God wants you to make one decision to follow Him, all decisions after that are only made in respect of the first to follow Christ. The problem is that many Christians have mistakenly believed that they can make a decision whether or not they want to follow Christ on each thing that comes up in life. God says we are to make only one decision: cross the river and don’t go back. Your confusion comes through trying to keep one foot in the wilderness and one in the Promised Land, but you can’t straddle the river of God’s will in your life. If you are going to live the victorious Christian life, there must come a point that you look at that rotting corpse that is the old nature and say, “It is time to bury you. I am not going to identify with you anymore.”
