Once we begin to deal with how to make Christianity work in our daily life, we are in the realm that theologians call “practical sanctincation”. God has given us complete salvation in Christ, but in one sense it is potential. It becomes actual as we apply it in faith. Justification is salvation past; sanctincation is salvation present; and glorification is salvation future. Our entering into the enjoyment of these is in every case related to eternal judgment.  

We began to experience new life in Christ because God made a legal decree as the result of His judgment of us in Christ on the Cross. Our progressive sanctification comes about as we agree by faith with God’s past judgments about us and make them ours now. We will receive glorification only as we first stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ. 

People are often confused about the practical aspects of eternal judgment because they fail to recognize the many terms used to describe it. The purpose for these many terms is to give us more slants or viewpoints and thereby to increase our understanding. But if we make these terms into religious jargon and fail to see them as really talking about the same thing in different ways, we end up with confusion instead. The more common terms used to talk about self-judgment are:  

 Taking up your cross

Means that we embrace self-denial. We deny ourselves when we choose to identify with Jesus in His death which, for us, means death to sin and to the world. We have the right to refuse to be the person we used to be. Jesus took up His Cross voluntarily; we must likewise exercise our wills in this matter of disciplining our desires. (Note: Afflictions due to circumstances are not “crosses”; they are usually “trials of faith”. They do often  offer opportunities for self-denial , especially in regards to our actions) 

And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me (Matthew 10:38).  

Then said Jesus unto his disciples. If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me (Matthew 16:24).  

 When we follow Jesus, He always leads us, sooner or later, down a path we would rather not go. At this point, we must exercise ourselves in self-denial to put His will ahead of our own. Being a disciple is more than being a learner; it is being a disciplined person.  

 Putting off the old man.

Since judgment has already broken sin’s hold upon us, we can walk away from it. We can put it off like an old garment to be discarded into the trash. We can put on Christ instead. When we decide who we will be on the basis of past judgment, we will live like the new creatures we are in Christ and make no provision for the flesh.  

Practically speaking, this means we deliberately line up our behavior with our true identity in the Lord. We choose to remember who we really are when we make our decisions about what we will do. Basically this “putting off-putting on” process is a discipline of our minds to accept the self-image God has given us in Christ.  

Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him (Colossians 3:9, 10).  

That ye put off concerning the former conversation [behavior or lifestyle] the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness (Ephesians 4:22-24).  

 Being: crucified with Christ is a choice of faith.

 Ascetics have misinterpreted this to mean all sorts of self-affliction in an effort to subdue natural desires. The Bible does not mean this at all. Because of past judgment, we are already dead to sin, the flesh, the world; all we must do is choose to rest in what Christ has already done. We identify ourselves with Him by faith. Then we are free to let the Holy Spirit live out Christ’s life through us. Our part is to present our bodies as a living sacrifice to God; His is to supply the power of a new lifestyle.  

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me (Galatians 2:20).  

 Living the “crucified life” is not a matter of effort, but of total dependence upon what Christ already did and what the indwelling Spirit will do in us now.