Search
Scripture Reading: Matt. 16:15-16, 21-25
In the previous chapter we saw that a person who has God’s life and who allows God’s life to operate in him will be delivered from unrighteousness, unholiness, and the self. God saves us in order to deliver us from unrighteousness, unholiness, and the self. Objectively speaking, God has saved us. From our past to our future, God’s salvation has been determined and confirmed already. Nevertheless, we still need to emphasize the subjective aspect of God’s salvation in this chapter.
Because God’s life has come into us and is operating within us, He desires to save us even more. Day by day He wants to gradually cause us to match His intention and even Himself so that we may live because of Him (John 6:57), stand in Him (Phil. 4:1), and be mingled and filled with Him (Eph. 3:17-19). He desires to spread from our spirit to our soul so that we may match Him in our mind, emotion, and will. If we cooperate with His inward operation, our mind, emotion, and will gradually will gain more of His element and likeness.
It is not too difficult for God to bring us out of unrighteousness. Bringing us out of unholiness, although somewhat harder, is not so difficult either. The most difficult and stubborn matter that God must deal with is our self. Our self is one hundred percent an enemy of God’s life. For example, our weak will is an enemy of God’s life, but even a strong will that is according to the self is an enemy of God’s life. Similarly, our narrow disposition is an enemy of God’s life, but even a broad disposition that is according to the self is no less of an enemy to God. Our cleverness may be an enemy of God’s life, but becoming simple will not make our self any less of an enemy of God’s life. In other words, no matter how we change outwardly, the self will always be the enemy of God’s life. It is very frightening for someone to live in his self, because the self resists God absolutely.
A person’s self is fallen not only in his bad points and shortcomings but also in his good points and merits. Although selfishness is of the self, unselfishness can be of the self as well. Although stinginess is of the self, generosity can be of the self as well. And although pride is of the self, humility can be of the self as well. The self is difficult to detect because it can be hidden within every expression of merit.
God’s intention and purpose for man are to mingle with him, yet man fell to such an extent that he fell into the self. The self is the last stronghold that resists God’s coming in, and it is the greatest hindrance to God’s work. To crush this stronghold is a very difficult matter.
Just as a person’s quickness is of the self, his slowness is also of the self. If he changes from being quick to being slow, this does not necessarily mean that he has been delivered from the self. Even receiving light from the Scriptures can cause a person to fall further into the self. Hence, when the Lord spoke to the disciples about the way to follow Him, He specifically brought up the matter of denying the self (Matt. 16:24).
The Lord’s speaking related to denying the self involved Peter, who loved the Lord and was loved by the Lord. Peter was the first to recognize that the Lord was the Christ. When the Lord brought the disciples to the parts of Caesarea Philippi, He asked, “Who do you say that I am?” (v. 15). Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (v. 16). Then the Lord said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in the heavens. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of the heavens, and whatever you bind on the earth shall have been bound in the heavens, and whatever you loose on the earth shall have been loosed in the heavens” (vv. 17-19). This instance of the Lord’s approval and favorable recognition of His disciple is a great record in the Bible. It seemed as if Peter was doing very well on the pathway of following the Lord.
However, not long after receiving this approving word, Peter heard the Lord’s prophecy concerning being killed in Jerusalem, and he immediately pulled the Lord aside and rebuked Him, saying, “God be merciful to You, Lord! This shall by no means happen to You!” (v. 22). The Lord responded immediately to Peter, saying, “Get behind Me, Satan!” (v. 23). Although the Lord had just approved of Peter’s receiving revelation from the Father and had even given him the keys of the kingdom of the heavens, He immediately rebuked Peter as being “Satan.” Actually, it was not that Peter became Satan but that Peter’s self expressed Satan. The Lord continued speaking, saying, “You are a stumbling block to Me, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of men” (v. 23). This word indicates that Peter’s self was a stumbling block on the Lord’s pathway and that he was not setting his mind on the things of God but on the things of men. Then the Lord said that anyone who wanted to follow Him had to “deny himself” (v. 24). This shows the importance of denying the self. Although Peter had some understanding and revelation of the Lord, his self was a great enemy to his following the Lord.
The strongest and most stubborn enemy, as far as the kingdom of God is concerned, is our self. We may be delivered from unrighteousness after exercising for three or five months and delivered from unholiness after a year or two. However, completely denying the self requires many more years, even all the time that we have until we meet the Lord.
To deny the self means to reject the self, cut off the self, and cast out the self. This is not an easy matter. For example, generosity is a universally recognized virtue. However, one day we will realize that our natural generosity needs to be denied because it is of the self. Additionally, our self-confidence, as an accumulation of experiences of inborn cautiousness, may be praised by others. Nevertheless, one day we will realize that it also needs to be denied because it is of the self. It is hard for us to recognize and admit that this is a big problem. The most difficult obstacle to overcome is the self.
There was a brother who took the matter of being delivered from unrighteousness and unholiness very seriously, yet he could never admit to being wrong. He often defended himself using phrases with the words but and however. His self was the source of his trouble. He could not deny his self; therefore, he was always defending himself. It is very hard to deny the self and to be delivered from it.
After rebuking Peter, the Lord told the disciples, “If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me” (v. 24; Mark 8:34). Denying the self and bearing the cross go together; only those who bear the cross can deny the self. A person who loves God and is used by Him will experience the cross. Romans 8 says that those whom God has called to become heirs of God must suffer with Christ in order to be glorified with Him (v. 17). Hence, God will arrange our environment in order to deal with our self in certain matters. The difficulties we encounter are the cross that God has arranged for us; every work of God’s hand upon us involves the cross. Those in the world consider difficult situations to be a matter of bad luck; however, the saints who love the Lord should view them as the cross, and even though there is weakness on our part in bearing these situations, the Holy Spirit Himself will intercede for us with groanings which cannot be uttered and will join in to help us in our weakness (v. 26).
Many people think that the cross means suffering or enduring hardship. Actually, the significance of the cross is death; the emphasis is not on suffering. The cross is not a matter related to suffering but a matter related to death. The significance of the cross is death, that is, termination. The cross puts us to death; that is, it puts the self to death so that it will lose its function and activity. Such a work of termination speaks of the effectiveness of the cross; this is what God is doing in us.
If we like to be neat and clean, God will deal with us in the matter of being neat and clean. If we are prone to using our wisdom, God will allow us to be dealt with in the matter of our wisdom. Everything that a Christian encounters is a cross arranged by God to put the self to death. God never makes mistakes. Romans 8:28 says, “All things work together for good to those who love God.”
When we first begin to bear the cross, we may consider it to be painful. However, when the Holy Spirit shines on us so that we see the cup that the Father has given us, it will no longer be painful. When the Lord was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, His soul was exceedingly sorrowful, even to death (Matt. 26:36-38). He prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will” (v. 39). This did not mean that the Lord was afraid to die or that He did not have His own will; rather, it meant that His death was not dependent upon Himself and that He did not want to follow His own will. Instead, He followed the Father’s will. The Lord prayed a second time, saying, “My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Your will be done” (v. 42). After praying a third time (v. 44), He was clear that the cup was the cross and that it was the Father’s will; thus, He submitted without any hesitation. He returned to the disciples and said to them, “Behold, the hour has drawn near, and the Son of Man is being delivered up into the hands of sinners. Arise, let us be going” (vv. 45-46).
From the day that God’s life enters into us and we consecrate ourselves, we will receive God’s shining and have spiritual sight. This spiritual experience will enable us to progress in life. Step by step God will arrange our circumstances so that there will be crosses in our environment. We may feel that this process is painful, difficult to endure, and beyond our capacity, yet once we recognize that it is the cross, we will no longer have a sense of pain. The cross is the salvation that the Lord has accomplished in order to deliver us from the self, and our experience of the cross will turn from being bitter to being sweet, becoming our rest, and causing us to praise God from the depths of our being.
As we follow the Lord, God’s hand will arrange everything in our environment in order to remove the self as a stumbling block to the Lord and to crush this stronghold that hinders Him. Wherever there is a trace of the self, God’s arranging hand will be present. The degree to which we encounter the self is the degree to which we will encounter the arrangement of God’s hand. This is the way of the cross. We must learn to take this pathway until we meet the Lord.
Being delivered from the self involves the greatest and most thorough aspect of salvation that God bestows on us. May the Lord have mercy on us so that we may see this matter. All spiritual work, whether it is preaching the gospel or reviving churches, must flow spontaneously out of God’s life, or it will be of no lasting value.
