Death to Self

 

This week, Michael writes: Is humility the greatest need in God’s kingdom? Some say love is the greatest need. Humility and love are closely related. To come to Jesus Christ requires a heart of humility and meekness. Jesus said, “whoever wants to be my disciple must deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me.” To live unto Christ we must die to self. This is a cardinal tenet of our church fathers … theirs is a history of death to self in order to live for Christ.

The message of brokenness because of sin and death to self is the message of the Cross. All other biblical teaching springs from the foundation of the Cross of Christ. True humility is not thinking of ourselves at all. This message flies in the face of the cult of people-worship. The message of human hero worship is a toxic doctrine. Some of the most popular books are the biographies of so-called great men and women. They may have been on fire with zeal and enthusiasm to follow God’s calling for one “brief and shining moment” in history. The problem with a charismatic leader is that if their appeal is based on the emptiness of personality, then their flame will quickly flame out. 

Author Roy Hession wrote the book “The Calvary Road”. The theme of this book is humility… that we should die to self in order to live for Christ. When we feel the tinge of envy, criticism, irritability, covetousness, fear or any other earthly passion, triggered by our interaction with others, then give it to Jesus and he will cleanse our heart. When we look around and are irritated by certain traits in another person, take this irritation and leave it the foot of the Cross of Calvary. To do this, We must first be frozen in humility. That is, we must yield to God over the whole question, what did that person do or say that offended me? When we approach God’s throne of grace, He will reconcile our hearts with His heart through the power of the cross of Christ. Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf reconciles our hearts with God’s heart. Then, when our hearts are vertically aligned with God’s heart, He will change our hearts to love others horizontally. Then with loving compassion we can pray for them as Jesus prayed, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.

Jesus said, “Judge not lest ye be not judged”, meaning do not be continuously judging and judgmental. We are to judge “right” from “wrong”, but if we consider the sin of others and judge them with a heart of condemnation, then ours is the greater sin. Jesus said, “yank the plank”. The plank is the sin of thinking that we can look down on them from a position of superiority. To yank the plank means to confess our sin of judgementalism, then we can see clearly to minister to others. In Matthew 7:16-20 the Lord Jesus tells us, “You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them.” Be a spiritual fruit inspector. 

There are many Bible verses on humility. Jesus said in Matthew 16:24-25, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.” In some parts of the Middle East, when a Christian invites a Muslim to follow Christ, it literally means that they may lose their life at the hands of other Muslims. The message of salvation to Muslims is clear: in order to follow Christ, we must die to self. Christianity is not an enhancement to build up yourself, instead Christianity is to die to self in order to live for Christ.

According to John 3:30, John the Baptist said, “I must decrease that He might increase.” John 15:5 says, “apart from Me you can do nothing”. 1 Peter 5:5 says, clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another for God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. According to James 4:10, “Humble yourselves before the Lord and He will exalt you”. Some false teachers emphasize “what’s in it for me?” The preferred pronouns for the false “gospel of prosperity” are me, myself, and I. They say, God’s purpose is that I would be self-fulfilled, self-actualized and self-glorified. However, the pride of man goes before a fall. God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

John the Baptist, whom Jesus said is the greatest man born of a woman, said, “Jesus must become more important that I may become less important.” According to the King James Version, the Apostle John said, “I must decrease that he may increase.” In the vernacular of today’s secular social media culture, “Jesus must get more followers, likes, and partners on His greater social media platform, while I lose followers as my reputation fades into obscurity.” We would not see John the Baptist’s website entitled “www.noneisgreaterthanme.com.” Die to self in order to live for Christ. our King and the Lord of lords.

 

Your brother in Christ, Michael