I know that when we share the gospel message with unbelieving friends or colleagues, many of them will bring up the examples of mutual Christian acquaintances who behave no differently from heathens. As a result, Christianity holds no interest for these friends, more so when they feel that their behaviour is pious enough. While admittedly this is a convenient excuse to divert the conversation to more comfortable topics, it is nevertheless an indictment of the poor testimony of many professing Christians in the world today.
The situation within the church unfortunately does not seem much different. Members continue to gossip and backbite. Others are hyper-sensitive and cold shoulder friends and members of long standing just because a particular word or incident has embarrassed them or hurt their fragile egos. No wonder Oswald Chambers says, “You often find people in the world are more desirable, easier to get on with, than people in the Kingdom. There is frequently a stubbornness, a self-opinionativeness, in Christians not exhibited by people in the world.” The reason for this sad state is that many Christians are not willing to humble themselves, give up their rights, subjugate their wills and accept Jesus as Lord. In short, they have not learned to deny themselves.
Jesus tells us, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.”(Lk 9:23) Denying yourself or giving up your right to yourself would go a long way towards resolving many of the ills that beset the church today. “Self denial”, according to Pastor Gardiner Spring, “consists in the voluntary renunciation of everything which is inconsistent with the glory of God and the highest good of our fellowmen.” It is diametrically opposite to supreme selfishness where a man’s own self is the centre and the beginning and end of all that he does. Inordinate self-love is the ruling passion of his heart and the governing principle of his life. Everything he does, whether for God, his fellowmen and himself, would be solely determined by whether or not these contribute to his own happiness. Consequently, his self interest will always stand between and hinder his service, whether to man or to God.
In contrast, a Christian who has denied self has learnt to make his own interest bend to the interest of God’s Kingdom. Once he denied Christ for himself, now he denies self for Christ. Once he lived to himself, now he lives to God. “For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s.”(Rom 14:8) No duty is so hard that he is not willing to perform it, no sin so sweet that he is not willing to forsake it, and no honour or possession so precious that he is not willing to relinquish it. In all this, he is merely emulating the example of the Lord Jesus Christ who is the personification of self denial par excellence. Jesus sought not His own glory when He came down to earth, but only the glory of the Father who sent Him that “though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.”(2 Cor 8:9)
Self denial is not the denying of our spiritual self and the well-being of our souls that we feel we cannot be saved once we fall into sin. Neither is it a denial of our natural self and the well-being of our bodies as the Gnostics and those who practise self-flagellation today believe. Even those residing in the monastery and cloister may not demonstrate self denial through their ascetic practices which impress the world greatly for their show of piousness and apparent humility but unfortunately have none of its spirit.
Rather self denial is only genuine when it is founded on the glory of God and the promotion of the welfare of our neighbour. It requires us to deny our sinful self and the old Adam. “It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him.”(2 Tim 2:11) Secondly, it is denying our natural and darkened intellect in understanding the things of God and accepting these by faith. Thirdly, it is the denying of our own will and our being dissatisfied, angry and vengeful when we do not get things done our way.
Fourthly, we must deny our natural inclinations to get what we want to satisfy our lusts and desires, whatever the costs. For example, the session of Calvary Pandan BP Church decided last month to practise total abstinence in drinking solely for the reason that “it is good neither to eat flesh, not to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak” (Rom 14: 21) and not because of any explicit Biblical prohibition. Fifthly, it is the denial of our own honour. There is no sin more common to man and more deeply rooted in the heart than a desire to be honoured. As Paul says, “let us not be desirous of vain glory”(Gal 5:26) and “let nothing be done through … vainglory.”(Phil 2:3)
Sixthly, it is denying our desire for possessions which is especially difficult in materialistic and prosperous Singapore. A person who denies himself is contented if he does not receive much; and if he prospers, he does not set his heart on it. As Paul testifies, “I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.”(Phil 4:12) Seventhly, we must be ready to deny our friends and even family members when they draw us away from Christ. Jesus tells us, “ If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.”(Lk 14:26) Eighthly, we must even deny our own lives if this is God’s will for us.
Self denial differentiates a disciple of Christ from those who are “saved”. Many are called but few are prepared to give up their rights, take up the cross and follow Christ. It is not that they do not want to do so; rather they are not prepared to accept Jesus as Lord and therefore back out. “From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.” (Jn 6:66) Will you also be like them and turn back from following Jesus?
If you wish to follow Christ, ask God for the strength to help you renounce your ease, your profit, your honour and everything else which come between the glory of God and the highest good of your neighbour. Only then can you make the cause of Christ your concern, the dishonour of Christ your affliction and the cross of Christ your glory.
A church filled with the disciples of Christ would be truly blessed as its members no longer have the desire to be honoured, revered and served. Their testimonies to all men everywhere would only glorify God. Any hurt or slur to their honour and character no longer moves them for they have died to self and their names and identities crucified with Christ. Initiating any legal action to rectify the hurt would be anathema as their own Lord was himself “despised and rejected of men.”(Isa 53:3) Instead they confidently leave the matter to God to judge. Pastor Spring adds, “The more you forget yourselves in a supreme regard for God’s glory, the more will you advance your own interest both in this world and that which is to come. But the more you seek a selfish, private, separate interest in opposition to the glory of God, the more are you seeking an interest which God has determined to destroy.” May God help you to make the right choice.