Last week we looked primarily at the meaning of “Self” and its characteristics. Today, we want to look at SELF-DENIAL. To make it to Heaven in the life to come, you MUST first of all deny “Self” in this present world.
This means that every Christian should choose to no longer live for him- or herself but to live solely for God.
How often should one deny himself and take up his cross? You must deny “Self” daily if you must walk in holiness in this world (Lk. 9:23).
Here is the truth: The true Gospel is not a call to self-fulfillment, or self-promotion but a call to “self-denial.”
Self-denial may be painful for a moment, but very profitable at the end. For instance, people get fat because they choose pleasure over self-denial. People fall into immorality because they choose pleasure over self-denial. People go to hell because they choose worldly pleasures over obedience to God.
What is denial? Denial is the sacrifice of your own wants or needs. Denial is saying no to you and yes to God.
What then is Self-denial? 1. Self-denial is denying yourself of luxury and personal convenience in order to supply the necessity of others in need. Self-denial is denying yourself of physical comforts so as to minister the spiritual to others.
For instance, Robert Arthington of Leeds, England, a graduate of Cambridge, lived in a single room and cooked his own meal. He gave 1, 000,000 Pounds to foreign missions. He said, “Gladly would I make the floor my bed, a box my chair, and another box my table, rather than men should perish for lack of knowledge of Christ.” What a self-denial!
2. To deny self means to consciously deny yourself of what you really wanted.
3. Self-denial is a conscious sacrifice (forfeiting) of your own desires.
4. Self-denial means my life becomes all about Jesus, and not about me any longer.
5. Self-denial is an act or instance of restraining your own desires. For instance, to reduce your weight, you have to practice self-denial at the dinner table by cutting down on your carbohydrate intake.
6. To deny yourself means to refrain from satisfying your own desires or needs. “To refrain” means to abstain from an impulse to say or do something.
7. To deny self means to forget yourself, say no to yourself and your own interests, lose sight of yourself and your own interests, “give up” self for the sake of Christ.
8. To deny self means to leave self behind, renounce yourself, “give up” all rights to yourself, disregard self, put aside and ignore self.
Remember that whatsoever you can’t give up for the sake of Christ is an idol to you, and God hates idolatry with passion.
9. To deny self means to end your relationship with “your own desires.”
How would you know that you have given up “Self?” When you have given up self, blackmail, criticisms or the praises of men will no longer affect you because you have said “no” to yourself.
10. To deny self is also rendered “let him forget himself.”
What does it mean to forget yourself? a) It means that you “cannot remember anymore.” That is to say that you can no longer remember what you are, your personality, your accomplishments or your importance.
b) To forget yourself means to lose sight of what you think you are, or what you used to be actually.
If you really forget yourself, it means that whatever anybody does to you no longer matters. This is so because you have forgotten what you thought of yourself.
To forget is not to suppress something that you still remember. Rather it means that you have forgotten completely who you are: your certificate, your personality, your achievements, and your position in life.
To forget means to wipe off from your memory. Whipping off who you think you are from your memory will help you to carry out any assignment in the Kingdom no matter how humbling it is. You can wash the toilets even if you are the VC of a University or the president of this nation.
With this mindset, you can obey anybody and you can be placed under anybody. When you have forgotten yourself, you will forget your age, your accomplishments and your position in life.
A typical example is Jesus Christ Himself. Even though He is God He washed the feet of His disciples (Jn.13:4-10). To do this, Jesus must have forgotten Himself. He laid aside, and put behind Him the fact that He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords, the Alpha and the Omega. This is contrary to the world system where self-consciousness is the order of the day.
c) To forget yourself in this world is to allow yourself to be cheated. Self-defense is born when you remember yourself, your place in the society, and your position in life. Yet Jesus said, “If anyone wishes to be My follower, he MUST forget himself…”
When you have forgotten “Self,” even if they abuse you, you will not be annoyed. You can submit to anybody.
Naturally, “Self” is not submissive to authority. It selects the caliber of people it will submit to, people who he thinks are better than himself, not people whom he thinks he is better than. But when you have forgotten “Self,” you can submit to anybody.
“Self” does not want to learn under anybody. “Self” is not teachable! But when you lose sight of yourself, you forget about your educational or spiritual status.
You MUST learn to forget yourself. Whosoever you think you are, whatsoever you think you’ve achieved in life, you MUST lose sight of it, if you want to follow Jesus.
Here is the relevance: as long as you continue to remember your achievements in life, your position in life, you’ll never be able to walk in humility.
What does it really mean to forget self? It is not that you will just try or pretend not to remember, but that it has passed away. Even when you want to remember, you cannot. That is what it means to forget.
When you forget yourself, even if you greet somebody and he does not respond, you’ll not be offended. You will still gladly greet that person next time.
For you to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, you MUST give up all your rights. You MUST stop claiming your rights.
You know that you only quarrel with somebody when you think he has cheated you. You get offended with him because what he has done is not right. So you think it is your right to get offended with him. God is telling you today to “give up” all your rights.
What does it mean to “give up” all your rights? It means to disown your position and your possessions and totally disassociate yourself from them. It means to give up all your entitlements. “Give up” things that are yours, things that you think should be accorded to you.
A man that has denied “Self” does not defend himself or criticize another person and judge him wrong or right. He leaves everything to God.
What is Jesus really saying by asking us to deny ourselves? When Jesus is asking you to deny yourself, He is actually asking you to lose your all – to lose your name, your personality, your identity, your right, your possessions, your honour, even your life also.
A typical example of what happens when you refuse to deny “Self” is the rich young ruler (Lk. 18:18-26). This leader sought reassurance, some way of knowing for sure that he had eternal life.
He wanted Jesus to measure and grade his qualifications, or to give him some task he could do to assure his own immortality. So Jesus gave him a task - the one thing the rich man knew he could not do. “Then who in the world can be saved?” the bystanders asked. “No one can, by his or her own achievements,” Jesus’ answer implied. “What is impossible from a human perspective is possible with God.” Salvation cannot be earned - it is God’s gift (Eph. 2:8-10).
Conclusion: Remember that without SELF-DENIAL, you can never become holy, and without holiness you will not see the LORD (Heb. 12:14).
- Your friend, I. I. MADUBUNYI (Senior Pastor, HOG)
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