At church last Sunday, it was raining outside, plus there were
forecasts of an ice-storm. I stayed home and watched John MacArthur’s
service, then I watched the service of the church that I usually
attend. I hope I don’t get too comfortable with this way of doing
“church”! As an introvert, I love it, but I do think it is good for me
to push myself into situations that involve being with people.
MacArthur was continuing his series on the church, and he was commenting on Jesus’ statement in Matthew 16:24: “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me” (KJV).
What does it mean to deny oneself? Does it mean that we are never
allowed to do what we want to do, to please ourselves? Can we never
have our own way?
MacArthur offered explanations. For him, one way that we deny
ourselves is by being humble about our need for God’s forgiveness.
According to MacArthur, we should come to church, wanting nothing from
God but God’s forgiveness. As we grow in the faith, MacArthur said, we
become more and more aware of how unworthy we are of what God has given
us.
How is this self-denial? It may be self-denial in the sense that it
entails that we deny our natural tendency to exalt ourselves, by
humbling ourselves before God.
MacArthur offered other ideas, as well. He referred to a Puritan
poem about a person losing everything, yet still having Jesus and the
riches of God’s grace. MacArthur also mentioned attitudes that
correspond with self-denial. Such attitudes include being content with
anonymity, accepting rebuke from people we consider our social inferiors
(or at least taking that rebuke seriously), not fighting back when we
are criticized, and being happy for someone when something good happens
in that person’s life, even if we are still struggling. Again,
self-denial contends against our desire for self-exaltation.
The pastor at the church that I normally attend touched on
self-denial. He has done so in past sermons, too. For him, self-denial
is resisting our old, sinful self, which wants to go the opposite
direction from God’s way. We have to say “no” to that.
How do I process all of this? Sure, I would love to be content with
anonymity! Some days, like today, I actually am. But, like a lot of
people, Christians included, I would like to be noticed. And, in my
opinion, part of Christian love is recognizing other people’s desire to
be noticed and actually noticing them! There are plenty of New
Testament passages about encouraging people, which entails noticing
them.
What is self-denial? I could say that it related to the persecution
that Christians endured back then, and even endure today in certain
countries, but that seems like too convenient of an explanation, for me
and other Christians in the United States. In my opinion, and I’m sure
there are people who will disagree with me on this, being a Christian in
the United States does not entail a lot of counting the cost.
Christians are not put to death in the United States for being
Christians. I could say that self-denial means being a Christian
despite persecution, and, since I am not persecuted, that command does
not apply to me. But that sounds like the easy way out.
Maybe MacArthur goes to an extreme in his characterization of
self-denial, but then, on the other hand, maybe there is somewhere in
there something helpful and constructive: being so secure in our
identity in God that we can actually take second place.