24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? 27 For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. 28 Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”
So we see that being a disciple of Christ requires us to deny ourselves. This denial is seen in 3 different spheres: life, profit, and comfort. Now we’ll look at the proper motivation for denial. Many have made religious duty a motivation for denying these very things, but denial is not an object to be sought for its own sake...it shouldn’t be our motivation but rather an experience born from a different motivation.
If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations-- "Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch" (referring to things that all perish as they are used)--according to human precepts and teachings? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. (Col 2:20-23 ESV)
Those who have a focus, a motivation, that comes from the elemental regulations – deny yourself this and deny yourself that – show that they follow a self-made religion rather than the religion of Christ. We’re not meant to focus on denying ourselves things which God created for good. When we put our focus on a list of things to deny ourselves we take our focus off of Christ. Any practice that takes our focus off of Christ is to be cut out of our life, not embraced as some kind of religious practice. The proper motivation for us in denying ourselves is rather the constant focus on Christ. As we focus on Christ more and more, we focus on worldly things less and less. And as our focus shifts from the world to Christ we are less prone to want to take pleasure in the world.
This focusing on things to deny ourselves is on one end of the spectrum. But there’s a danger on the other end of the spectrum as well, when we focus on acquiring the elemental things of this world. Both ends of the spectrum come from a place where our focus is on worldly things rather than on Christ. Paul tells the Philippians…
…I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. (Php 4:11-13 ESV)
That’s the key...Paul was content with every situation because of Christ...that’s where he received his strength. Paul’s focus wasn’t on denying himself things nor was it on gaining an abundance of things...rather his focus was on Christ come whatever may.
So it is with us, the motivation for denying ourselves doesn’t come from those things being denied, but rather from our focus on Christ. And we focus on Him in 3 ways:
- As our example
- As the blessedness of our soul
- As our eternal profit
Christ as our example didn’t seek out things to be gained or things to deny Himself. Jesus Himself says that He was called, “A glutton and a drunkard… (Mat 11:19 ESV)” because He didn’t deny Himself in the same way that John the Baptist did. And yet we also know that Christ spent 40 days in the desert fasting before the Devil tempted Him.
Christ as our example sought His Heavenly Father and His kingdom without a care for how the elemental things of this world would fall out. Christ teaches us to do the very same when He says to…
…seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. "Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. (Mat 6:33-34 ESV)
Our focus is to be on the kingdom of God and His righteousness. We are not to focus, worry, or be anxious about those things that fall outside of it...but rather to trust that God knows what we need, and as we seek Him, He will provide for us.
Christ as our example didn’t set His focus even on the most needful things, but trusted His Father for them. The general consensus is that “shelter, food, and clothing” are the needs that people face. Let’s look at how Christ addresses these needs:
He didn’t have a home to lay down in when He was tired...
And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." (Mat 8:20 ESV)
He didn’t eat food when He was hungry...
But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you do not know about." (Joh 4:32 ESV)
Regarding clothing He teaches us with the following Scripture...
And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. (Mat 6:28-29 ESV)
Besides having Christ as our example, we also have Him as the blessedness of our soul. When we get our joy from Christ, when we are filled with love for Him...our focus rests on Him rather than those things that don’t give us that same joy and love. My wife knows that I love her, in part because my focus is on her. Some men focus on other women, some focus on pornography. In both cases these men show their wives how little they love them by focusing on something other than their wives.
It’s the same way with Christ. If we truly love Him our focus will be on Him. We won’t stray after other gods, we won’t love the same worldly system that hung Him on a tree in a most agonizing and bloody death.
Is Christ the blessedness of our soul? Do we long to be with Him and to set our focus on His things, or are we consumed with worldly things and focus on ourselves? Does Christ come in at the center of our life, or does He come in wherever we can fit Him because our lives are so crowded with junk? We are indeed in a good place if we can say with Paul...
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
(Eph 1:3-14 ESV)
Christ is clearly the focus of that wonderful passage! So little in the passage deals with “I,” and so much deals with “Christ.” If our lives are focused on Christ in the same way then we can be assured that we’re on the right track. Paul’s boast is not in himself, but in Christ. Look at how he puts it in Gal 6...
But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. (Gal 6:14 ESV)
Christ, as the blessedness of our soul keeps us humble about ourselves while boasting in Christ and His work in us.
Not only is Christ our example and the blessedness of our soul, but He’s also our eternal profit. You see, we don’t go through struggles and problems to no avail, but rather we are promised Christ as our prize when we reach the finish line of this life.
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. (1Co 9:24-27 ESV)
We aren’t running the race set before us with no goal in sight. We have a prize that we press on towards, and that prize is Christ Himself. As any good athlete we must be well disciplined in our run for the prize. We must exercise self-control, we must direct ourselves toward the prize before we begin running, and we must discipline our bodies to keep them under our control.
Christ is our eternal profit when all that we do is geared towards Him rather than ourselves. Our goal is Christ, the one who gives us the ability to run the race is Christ, and the one who promises that He will finish the very thing that He started in us is Christ.
The athlete runs for a prize that will perish. All that this world offers will perish; none of it has any eternal weight. But as Christians we run for the prize of Christ, a prize that doesn’t perish, but rather is weighed by the glory of God Himself that we would run hard after Him casting every hindrance aside...knowing that nothing is better than to receive Christ as our prize.
Athletes are motivated by the prize promised to them for finishing the race. So too, as Christians, we are motivated by the prize promised to us. Not only that, but we have a greater promise because ours is not only for the winner of the race, but for all who finish it in faith. We have a greater promise because we already taste the prize as we have the Holy Spirit as our deposit, giving us a foretaste of the glory and communion with God that awaits us.
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