However,
as you may guess from the fact I am addressing the issue, I believe it is both
unhelpful, and even hurtful, to treat this as a conflict between two choices,
rather than making sure both parts are in their proper place. In other words,
the gospel does not call us to self-denial instead of self-fulfillment, but it
calls us to deny ourselves in order to experience the fulfillment of all our
in-the-image-of-God-self is designed to be.
Don’t forget, Genesis one begins with, “In the beginning God…”[2] and ends with, “so
God created man in his own image and likeness.”[3] By Genesis
3 we had fallen into sin and ruined everything. However, the gospel is a return
to God’s initial intention, that sinful man can now see the transcendent glory
of God, and we can experience our own glory as the only in-the-image-of-God
creature God ever made. One day we will be glorified in God’s presence.[4] At the moment, God’s children are “being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to
another”.[5]
The
reason it is both unhelpful, and hurtful, to force a choice between self-denial
and self-fulfillment, is that the church is filled with broken people who have
already been told that they don’t matter. People have been taught through both
words and experiences that their true self, with thoughts, feelings, interests,
and desires, does not matter to others because everyone else is more important.
And now, someone is telling them that their true self doesn’t matter to God
because, after all, Jesus told us to deny ourselves.
My
contention is that, what Jesus meant by “deny
yourself” is not in conflict with the true fulfillment of the self, but is
the vehicle by which we enter into the work of Christ and find ourselves in the
fullest, most fulfilling kind of way.
The gospel is about finding ourselves in Christ. Jesus said,
“Whoever finds
his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find
it”.[6] There
is a way to find ourselves that means we lose ourselves and all we were
designed to be; and there is a way to lose ourselves, or deny ourselves, that
is finding our very lives, becoming fully ourselves the way Jesus originally
created us in his image and likeness.
Paul
elaborated on this when he spoke of taking off the old self, being made new in
the “spirit of our minds,” and
putting on this new self that is “created
to be like God in true righteousness and holiness”.[7]
This shows that we deny self in the sense of taking off the flesh, the old
self, but this is so that we can “find” our lives, our real selves, the new
self restored to us in salvation.
The self God created us to be in Jesus Christ must end up
being fulfilled, otherwise God's plan to make man in his own image and likeness
is defeated, and Satan’s work to thwart God’s plan is wickedly successful.
Since God cannot be defeated, he must bring us to feel fully alive, fully
ourselves in Christ, fully like beloved children who are being conformed to the
image of our Creator/Savior[8] from one degree of glory to another.[9]
The point is that we cannot get back to ourselves (creatures
in the image and likeness of Jesus) through any form of self-dependence. We
must deny everything that is the self, or the flesh, or the sark, seeking to
make its own way. We must take up the cross of Jesus Christ as the only way we
can ever return to the image and likeness of God. And, we must follow our
Savior as our firstborn brother[10] who has made it possible for us to walk with him
even while we are still becoming like him. One day it will be finished, no
thanks to our selves, but with our new selves fully satisfied in our Lord Jesus
Christ.
Instead of telling people that the gospel requires us to
choose between self-denial and self-fulfillment, let’s stick to Jesus own
words. We deny ourselves in one way in order to find ourselves in his way.
It is kind of like saying that all our efforts to find
ourselves have failed, so why not give in to the good Shepherd who has been out
looking for us. When he finds us in our lost condition, he rejoices over us
with great singing, because what was lost has been found,[11] and now he can make us everything he intended when
he first gathered dirt together and breathed into it the breath of life.[12]
© 2014 Monte Vigh ~
Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise
noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible,
English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway
Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)
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