Deny Yourself

Good morning and welcome to the Panhandle. Well are you ready to deny yourself and take up your cross? It sure doesn’t sound fun does it? So why would Christ Jesus ask us to do this? Come on in sit, a spell and let’s look at what God’s Word has to say about this.

And he said to them all, “If anyone wants to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross every day and follow me.” (Luke 9:23). The New Century Version says it this way: Jesus said to all of them, “If people want to follow me, they must give up the things they want. They must be willing to give up their lives daily to follow me.”

Can you imagine how some of the folks who were following Christ Jesus might have reacted to this general command? Think about how some would react today. “Yeah, I'm all in for Christ Jesus.” “Whoa, what was that? Give up everything to follow you? But I just got a big screen T.V. that fills my whole wall,” “Surly He doesn't mean everything, I must have heard Him wrong.” And so forth and so on. Let's face it in this age of entitlement thinking, people aren't willing to give up anything, as a matter of fact they want stuff given to them.

You know there is a great example of someone who was unwilling to give up all his stuff to follow Christ Jesus ~ Jesus said to him, "If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me."

But when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieving; for he was one who owned much property. (Matthew 19:21-22).

To be Christ Jesus’ disciple is to place our hopes and reputations on a glory that’s to come.¹ “come after me”—can only take place when we have made and implemented a radical decision to follow Christ Jesus and to “deny” ourselves. This verb functions as a polar opposite to the verb “confess,” which has the sense of acknowledging a thing or a person. We should therefore on the one hand “confess” Christ Jesus, that is acknowledge Him and identify ourselves with Him, but on the other hand we must “deny” ourselves.

This means that as Christians we must not set our desires and our will against those of Christ Jesus' for our lives. It does not mean we cultivate a weak, nonassertive personality or merely deny ourselves certain pleasures. As Christians we are not mindless drones, God made us unique individuals and we take that uniqueness and live for Christ Jesus, not for ourselves.

In the Roman world, the cross was a symbol of shame, guilt, suffering, and rejection. There could be no more despicable way to die. Crucifixion was not mentioned in polite conversation, and the people would no more think of wearing crosses on their person than we would think of wearing gold or silver electric chairs.

When we deny self, then we are to pick up our cross and follow Him. The cross He has for us should not be confused with the thorns of life, our common human inheritance. The cross is chosen willingly. We tend to say of those who are ill, bereaved, or suffering financial difficulties that they “have their cross to bear.” But those unfortunate happenings are not crosses. Those are the thorns we have not chosen and they are simply a part of life.

But bearing your cross is quite a different matter. Your cross is not like Christ Jesus’ cross. His cross was a literal one and He died on it to forgive our sins. He said to His disciples here and He says to us today to take up our cross daily. Our cross is that difficult thing we choose to do because we are God's people. We do the things we don’t have to do because we know it is God want's us to. Like Isaiah, we say,“Here am I. Send me.”²

What does the cross look like? It looked like Calcutta for Mother Teresa. It looked like Lambarene for Albert Schweitzer. It looked like Africa for David Livingstone, the leper colony at Molokai for Father Damien. It was the slums of Tokyo for a crazy little Japanese saint named Toyohiko Kagawa. Japanese evangelist and social movement leader. He once said, “he had nothing new or startling to say.” He wore great thick glasses because he lost his sight to a disease he contracted living in a packing crate in the slums of Japan. This man had picked up his cross, and his lack of orator skills seemed unimportant.”

John Gardner, founder and former head of Common Cause, spoke of the heroes of his life. Of one he said, “He is a cheerful old man, who, on meeting someone new, always asks, “What have you done that you believe in and are proud of?” That’s a good question. It’s far more relevant than asking someone what he or she does for a living. Our answer to this question is a good indication of whether or not we have picked up our cross and followed Christ Jesus. God’s grace is seen in His people, in the way we carry our thorns and survive, and are still able to praise God. But God wants to share His glory with us, and that happens when we pick up our cross.³

Keep in mind that Christ Jesus is talking about discipleship and not sonship. We are not saved from our sins because we take up a cross and follow Him, but because we trust Him as our Saviour who died on the cross for our sins. After we become children of God, then we become disciples. The closest contemporary word to “disciple” is probably “apprentice.” A disciple is more than a student who learns lessons by means of lectures and books. They are one who learns by living and working with their teacher in a daily “hands on” experience. Too many Christians are content to be listeners who gain a lot of knowledge but who have never put that knowledge into practice.

Christ Jesus laid down the stern requirements for discipleship. We must first say no to ourselves—not simply to pleasures or possessions, but to self—and then take up our cross and follow Christ Jesus daily. This means to be identified with Him in surrender, suffering, and sacrifice. You cannot crucify yourself; you can only yield yourself to Him. And then we let God do the rest.⁴

Thanks for dropping by. I pray that our Lord and Saviour, Christ Jesus bless you and yours richly.

Biblesurfer

1 Knowles, A. (2001). The Bible guide (1st Augsburg books ed., p. 481). Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg.

2 Larson, B., & Ogilvie, L. J. (1983). Luke (Vol. 26, pp. 175–176). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc.

3 Larson, B., & Ogilvie, L. J. (1983). Luke (Vol. 26, p. 176). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc.

4 Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 207). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.