Self-denial as the will of God – Part One:  The Definition

 

And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. Luk 9:23 

 

We know the accent in the world is not on denying oneself but accepting oneself. But God’s insistence is on denying oneself or loving oneself less if one would be his true disciple. The topic however shouldn’t raise eye brows, because most of life’s disciplines actually demand it. Parents deny themselves daily. Only the young seem to want everything in life, but even them, reality soon catches up with them as it did with us when we grew up. People in love deny themselves all the time, and certainly no one can survive in a marriage without it. We save money for a rainy day and that too is self-denying. Even a spendthrift comes to appreciate sooner or later the value of self-denial. Only a miser’s self-denial is extreme.

 

A Christian life too is a disciplined life because it carries with it a purpose, method and goal. The purpose is to be changed or transformed, and the method is sanctification or God’s work in us through the Holy Spirit, and the goal is what John Piper calls future grace, but which can also be called future glory. However for purposes of this and future articles, in this piece I will dwell chiefly on the definitions… and later in part two I will branch out to various practices and benefits of self-denial.

 

So the following is a general review of persons and their given types of self-denials in life. I will begin with the life of a sportsman, because it is here where the practice is felt most poignantly if he has to win. He has to deny himself many pleasures, and he has to indulge himself rigorously in daily exercises. Even the food he eats (and rest and sleep) have all to be controlled. Next are the philosophers or searchers of truth. They too have their own forms of exercises to stick to assiduously – like reading. They are forever students in the literature of life – and they have to study it. The next group (and or related to these) are writers. They never lack a pen and a notebook wherever they go. And they have to wake up even past midnight if they are struck by a so called revelation. They have to put it down. An idea often comes only once, and if he misses it he may rue it for the rest of his life. They loath unnecessarily talk, because it interferes with their thinking. And they have a natural antipathy for parties. It’s why writers make poor conversationalists, poor speakers and sometimes even poor lovers. Their minds – and silences – are their best friends.

 

But in the Bible it was Paul the urbanite who borrowed heavily from the imagery of the race and sportsmen…The sportsman, says the apostle, enters in a race to win and not to lose…(1Co 9:24-27). And so is a Christian, he ‘beats’ his body (some unfortunately took this literally!) so he may win the race that is set before him. And so are we too who are called believers. We are in the world but we are not of the world. Ours is a high calling. And it is in this world that we are called to shine as a light so that the name of our God may be glorified. To do this we must be transformed, and in the process of transformation (or regeneration) we have to lose much that was our prized old nature of sin and self. But if he doesn’t ‘die’ he will impede us in our progress of perfection. Christian life is a joyous life, it is a new life, it is an exciting life and it is eternal. Much therefore lies at stake if we don’t daily grow in this grace and the knowledge of God (2Pet 3:18). It is our calling. It is our practice. It is our boast. So help us God to love it, to desire it, and to embrace it because it is only in you that we can begin to understand the meaning of this life – and the meaning of our own selves.