CHAPTER ONE
DENYING THE SELF
Let us first consider the issue of denying the self. Of all the
creatures created, man is the only one created in the image of God. He
is created to be God’s representative in governing the world. He is meant
to reflect God’s image, His character and His ways of truth,
righteousness and goodness. But the Bible recorded that man sought
to be independent of God; he rebelled against God and became
disobedient to Him, seeking to establish his own identity and kingdom,
apart from God. In this rebellion, he was instigated by the evil one,
Satan himself. Satan was an angelic being who wanted to be like God
and he led a host of other spirit-beings in rebellion against the Almighty.
His objective is to destroy God’s kingdom and to cause man to follow
him in his rebellion and his quest to establish his own kingdom against
God.
God’s good and noble intentions for man were hindered by man’s
sin and disobedience, which led to judgment and death for mankind.
Physical death is the consequence that follows for all men. Spiritual
death, a separation from a relationship with God and a true knowledge
of Him, also follows.
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is
eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6: 23
The Bible reveals that God did not give up on man and in His
love for him, He sent His own Son, Jesus, to make it possible for man
to come back to Him.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one
and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish
but have eternal life.
John 3: 16
Jesus, the second person of God Himself, became man and
although He was sinless, He suffered on our behalf and paid the
penalty of our sin. He died, was buried but miraculously, He was
resurrected and He rose again on the third day, ascending to the right
hand of God the Father.
For what I received I passed on to you as of first
importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the
Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the
third day according to the Scriptures…
1 Corinthians 15: 3-4
The way back to God becomes possible for those who
acknowledge and repent of their sin and receive Jesus Christ as their
personal Savior and Lord. Repentance and acknowledgement of sin
require one to come to God with a contrite heart and a humble spirit.
This is contrary to the self. The self seeks to vaunt itself and to display
its own glory. It does not desire to confess its needs of a savior; it does
not wish to acknowledge that it requires help and deliverance. It is no
wonder that the Lord Jesus declared that if any man would come after
Him he must first deny himself – this is a prerequisite!
GOD’S SALVATION PLAN
God’s plan to save man from his sin and the penalty of sin is not
a self-improvement plan. Rather, it is a new birth, more specifically a
spiritual birth, a new creation made possible by the work of the Holy
Spirit of God.
In replying to Nicodemus, a Pharisee and a teacher of the law,
who enquired about the kingdom of God, Jesus said,
I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.
(John 3: 3)
The Apostle Paul echoed this truth in 2 Corinthians 5: 17:
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new
creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
For a new spiritual birth and creation to take place, the old must
pass away. The “old man” must die before the “new man” is born and
created. The old unrenewed self must be put off, put to death before the
new regenerate self can come forth. If we believe in Jesus Christ and
receive Him as our personal Savior and Lord, we are a new creation;
we are born again into the family of God, into God’s kingdom and we
are heirs of the inheritance in Christ. Our future is the new heaven and
new earth, not eternal damnation and judgment.
It is only God’s mercy and grace that can draw unregenerate
sinful man to come to a place of humble repentance and to cry out to
God for mercy, deliverance and salvation in Christ. Oftentimes,
it requires God to deal with the self-life of man before he can truly
recognize his actual needs and depravity. Man, in his pomp,
self-assurance and pride, feels that he does not need God and, in fact,
even ridicules the idea of the reality of God and sin.
Self improvement can never work out in man’s desire to be right
with God; it would only accentuate the wretchedness within although
it may appear respectable in appearance on the outside. Martin Luther,
the initiator of Protestantism and Reformation, was a monk who tried
so hard to be right with God. In his biography by Roland H Bainton,
we read :
Whatever good works a man might do to save Himself, these
Luther was resolved to perform. He fasted, sometimes three days on
end without a crumb. Luther shared, ‘I was a good monk and I kept the
rule of my order so strictly that I may say that if ever a monk got to
heaven by his monkery it was I. All my brothers in the monastery who
knew me will bear me out. If I had kept on any longer, I should have
killed myself with vigils, prayers, reading and other works’. All such
drastic methods gave no sense of inner tranquility. It was only when
Luther saw that a man can only be saved by faith, which means belief
that God was in Christ seeking to save, that Luther found himself
reborn and felt himself to have gone through open doors into
paradise.
But even for those born again as believers, the ways of the “old
man” still plague them. The ways of the “old man” are the ways and
desires of the old self and the self-life (the flesh). They are to be dealt
with by denying the self and putting these desires to death in the
process of mortification of the flesh. Denying self is not just required
for unregenerate man to come to the saving knowledge of God; it is
also necessary for believers to progress in the transformation process
to become like the Master, the Lord Jesus.
THE PROBLEM OF SELF-LIFE
Let us pause and consider: are not the problems facing society,
Christians and the Church essentially problems of the self? Jealousy,
envy, anger, pride, self-glory and the like – they are manifestations of
self-life and the flesh. When someone corrects us, for instance, even
out of love and concern, is not our first reaction a quick and prompt
defense of ourselves and a putting up a case of self-justification? Often,
when there are relationship problems in marriage, the family, the Church
and society, is it not self-life and the self which are at the centre and
root of the problems?
When the self or ego is hurt, the ugly manifestations of selfpity,
outbursts of anger and violence surface. It is a mistaken idea that
once we believe in Jesus, everything else will remain the same and that
there is no need to change anything. Once we are born again into the
family of God, God desires us to grow to be more like Him, to think
like Him, to love like Him and to act and respond like Him. This
process of transformation is not automatic. The soul must be
cultivated and nurtured like a garden and part of this process requires
the denying of the self and self-life.
The problem is that we love ourselves too much. We struggle to
project a good front; think too highly of ourselves; have a wrong
assessment of ourselves and others, and always think more highly of
ourselves and less of others.
We do not know how weak and wretched we are until God
exposes our real selves and our real needs. The self tends to consider
God to be less than He truly is and to consider the self to be more than
it actually is. In other words, we have an inflated opinion of ourselves
and we honor ourselves the most – this is indeed what causes the most
problems in our lives and relationships. When believers displace God’s
rightful place in their lives and think more highly of themselves than
anybody else, including God, then pride and the flesh take hold of their
lives and they are on the road to spiritual death and destruction.
The Holy Spirit of God will not fill a man or a woman who
refuses to give over to Him the full control of his or her entire life; to do
this requires denying the self and to hand over to God the full reign of
our lives, trusting Him and knowing that He always has our best
interests in mind and at heart. In other words, we must allow God to be
Himself. He is the almighty awesome God of the universe and the one
who created the heavens and the earth and everything that is, including
you and me. We cannot put God in a box, limiting Him and expecting
Him to be what we think He ought to be.
MINISTERS ALSO MAY BE AFFECTED
Even for believers who are serving God and ministering to others,
the self can subtly rear its head without being noticed. Under the guise
of serving God and His interests, we may subtly serve our own interests.
We may claim to do various things for Jesus’ sake, but in fact, it is
for self-ambition and self-glory. There is a very fine line
between seeking the glory of God and the glory of self and oftentimes,
it may not be so obvious to others and even to ourselves. We may even
genuinely desire to give the glory to God but at the same time, we
would like to have a little remnant of the glory for ourselves. In other
words, we can actually be seeking our own self-interest even in the
midst of pursuing spiritual interests and serving God’s people and
His kingdom. Spiritual service may be used to promote our personal
interests and desires knowingly or sometimes unknowingly.
This may be seen in what appears to be defense of the truth which
subtly shifts into self-defense and the preservation of one’s career and
reputation. The best interests of the people being served become
identified with the personal interests of the ministers concerned.
Spiritual service slowly degenerates into the pursuit of self-promotion
and the approval of the crowd rather than the spiritual well-being of
those being served. Success in Christian ministry is not measured by
numerical growth or financial prosperity but rather by faithfulness to
God and an undistracted devotion to Christ, even in the midst of
persecution, trials and pain. What is finally important is that the
ministry is carried out in humility, in dependence on the Holy Spirit
and in accordance with the truth revealed by Scriptures.
God is the only one worthy of all worship, honor and glory. We
cannot claim any of God’s glory, not even a fraction of it. The essence
of sin is rebellion against God and a proclamation of being God of our
lives. At the centre of it all is the projection of self and self-life as well
as a declaration of self-glory. We see therefore how crucial it is for us to deal with self-life and to deny the self. Believers, including leaders,
are particularly susceptible to deceit that combines the language of faith
and spirituality with the content of self-interest and flattery. In the midst
of claims of serving God, we like to be told how special we are, how
gifted we are and how much of a blessing we have been to so many. We
beam at the feedback on how successful we have been in our ministry
and we secretly cherish the request of others to share our know-how
and approach in being so successful in building up such a wonderful
and thriving ministry. Self-life begins to take hold of our hearts subtly.
Our union with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection is the
basis of our salvation when we believe, but in daily outworking,
denying the self is an expression of our union with Him in His death
and burial. When we do this consistently, in dependence on God’s Spirit,
we will experience His resurrection life and spiritual victory as a result,
and we will joyfully credit God with the glory.
DEALING WITH SELF-LIFE
Self-denial, however, is not attained by focusing on ourselves
but rather, it is effected by God-centredness. The objective of selfdenial
is not just self-forgetfulness but Christ-centredness. As we
reflect on God and spend time in His presence, it produces the kind of
self-forgetfulness that blossoms into the beauty of Christian character,
into Christ-centredness and this transformation is effected by the
ministry of the Holy Spirit.
So when the Lord Jesus instructs us to deny ourselves, it is to
save us from ourselves. For self-glory only ends up destroying us, our
potential to become His children, bear His image, and to enjoy true
happiness and pleasures which only God can give. Self and self-life
lead us on the road that seems to promise life but the end of it is only
death and destruction.
Do not love the world or anything in the world. If
anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in
him. For everything in the world – the cravings of sinful
man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has
and does – comes not from the Father but from the world.
The world and its desires pass away, but the man who
does the will of God lives forever.
1 John 2: 15-17
The ‘world’ here refers not to the physical world or the people of
the world but rather to the spirit of the world seen in its desires. Satan
has been described as the prince of the world in the Bible and indeed
underlying the desires of the world are the manipulations of the evil
one himself and his purpose is to fan the cravings of sinful man in
order to cause him to be in bondage and to be under his control. Is it not
true that the self expresses its cravings in wanting what the eyes can
see and lust for, in terms of the pursuit of material possessions
and comfort, the satisfaction of sinful pleasures and the desire of
wanting more and more? It boasts of what it has and does; these have
to do with the relentless chase after pleasure, self-gratification,
status and reputation as well as the adoration of peers and society. The
world and its desires pass away. They are fleeting, temporary, passing
pleasures which the world and Satan dangle before man but they are
illusions, like the mirage in the desert. Only God can provide eternal
joy, eternal pleasure and happiness in offering man eternal life in
His kingdom. Only by denying the self and the cravings of self-life can
we take hold of that which are truly valuable and that which last forever.
So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what
is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen
is eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:18You have made known to me the path of life; you
will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures
at your right hand.
Psalm 16:11