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Not I
Matthew 16:24: “Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.’”
The principle of depending on the grace of God for Christian living is the humbling reality of self-denial – the “not I” approach to Christian living. Self-denial is fundamental to genuine Christian living. It is not optional. It is absolutely compulsory. Jesus Christ states it forthrightly in the Scriptures. Jesus constantly mentions self-denial and taking up one's cross as two necessary requirements for any one to be His disciple.
Interestingly taking up one's cross is identical to self-denial. The Cross to Christ meant His crucifixion and death. To a believer in Christ, taking up one's cross means to personalize the Cross of Christ. It means entering into the crucifixion and death of Christ. And so, taking up one's cross, like self-denial, means death to self.
The Christian life begins at the crucifixion, death, or end of one's self. Paul writes in Galatians 2:2: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.”
Christianity to Paul was a life void of ego. His ego was terminated with the crucifixion of Christ. Personalizing the crucifixion of Christ, taking up his cross, Paul acknowledged the end of himself in the Cross of Christ. "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live." And, hence, the new life he then lived was not he who was living but Christ was living in him. This was not Paul's private brand of Christianity but the God-ordained universal form of genuine Christianity. It's the form of selfless living which anyone who wants to follow Christ must live, according to Jesus Christ.
God designed the Christian life to be lived in complete selflessness and in absolute dependence on Him. This is the theme of the Gospel. And it is contrary to human philosophy or psychology of living, which puts the emphasis on self. While Christian living rests on self-denial, human philosophy or psychology of life rests on self-confidence.
It is difficult in the logic of human reasoning to think of living and accomplishing anything in this world without one's own contribution and effort. But the basis of Christian living is “not I.” To the Christian who can grasp the wisdom of God in the importance of self-denial in Christian living, it is the exchange of the feeble and futile resources of self for the powerful and fruitful resources of the grace of God.
Indeed, to give up one’s self resources for the resources of the life of Christ is no loss or unfair deal for any sincere human being who admits to the frailty and inadequacy of himself in any attempt to live the Christian life. It brings such hope and relief to those of us who have known the miserable disappointments of trying to live the Christian life by putting out the best efforts we can of ourselves and still ending up failing God's standard.
In God's design for Christian living, He wants no contribution from self. We read in 2 Corinthians 3:4-6: “And we have such trust through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant.”
What an amazing exchange is the giving up of ourselves with its insufficiency for the sufficiency of God in Christ! God knowing the insufficiency of ourselves expects us to think of making absolutely no contribution of ourselves, but to depend entirely on Him who by His grace empowers us with His resources to be His sufficient or perfectly equipped ministers.
Paul after his salvation worked extremely hard to minister this glorious Gospel to the Gentiles. He testified that he "labored more abundantly than" all the other apostles. Paul made some amazing accomplishments that are well documented in the history of the Church in the book of Acts. Yet, in bringing us into the knowledge of the true cause of his accomplishment Paul startles us by revealing that he was not the one to be credited for these accomplishments. It was the grace of God in him. Paul declares in 1 Corinthians 15:10: “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.”
In fact, Paul was humble enough to let us into the privacy of his life to relate humbly to us his own nagging weakness and his constant dependence on the grace of God for his excellent performances. We read Paul’s account in 2 Corinthians 12:7-9: “And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”
And so, an important truth to note is, according to God's design for Christian living, human weakness does not have to lead to failure. By glorying in his human weaknesses Paul was not giving in to failure or glorying in failure. He found instead that by allowing Christ to live in him, the strength of God operated perfectly through him to produce his excellent accomplishments.
If you and I are humble enough to acknowledge our own weaknesses, and turn to God in faith to rely fully on the grace of God, we can experience the sufficiency of the grace of God in place of the insufficiency of ourselves.
The principle of depending on the grace of God for Christian living is the humbling reality of self-denial – the “not I” approach to Christian living. Self-denial is fundamental to genuine Christian living. It is not optional. It is absolutely compulsory. Jesus Christ states it forthrightly in the Scriptures. Jesus constantly mentions self-denial and taking up one's cross as two necessary requirements for any one to be His disciple.
Interestingly taking up one's cross is identical to self-denial. The Cross to Christ meant His crucifixion and death. To a believer in Christ, taking up one's cross means to personalize the Cross of Christ. It means entering into the crucifixion and death of Christ. And so, taking up one's cross, like self-denial, means death to self.
The Christian life begins at the crucifixion, death, or end of one's self. Paul writes in Galatians 2:2: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.”
Christianity to Paul was a life void of ego. His ego was terminated with the crucifixion of Christ. Personalizing the crucifixion of Christ, taking up his cross, Paul acknowledged the end of himself in the Cross of Christ. "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live." And, hence, the new life he then lived was not he who was living but Christ was living in him. This was not Paul's private brand of Christianity but the God-ordained universal form of genuine Christianity. It's the form of selfless living which anyone who wants to follow Christ must live, according to Jesus Christ.
God designed the Christian life to be lived in complete selflessness and in absolute dependence on Him. This is the theme of the Gospel. And it is contrary to human philosophy or psychology of living, which puts the emphasis on self. While Christian living rests on self-denial, human philosophy or psychology of life rests on self-confidence.
It is difficult in the logic of human reasoning to think of living and accomplishing anything in this world without one's own contribution and effort. But the basis of Christian living is “not I.” To the Christian who can grasp the wisdom of God in the importance of self-denial in Christian living, it is the exchange of the feeble and futile resources of self for the powerful and fruitful resources of the grace of God.
Indeed, to give up one’s self resources for the resources of the life of Christ is no loss or unfair deal for any sincere human being who admits to the frailty and inadequacy of himself in any attempt to live the Christian life. It brings such hope and relief to those of us who have known the miserable disappointments of trying to live the Christian life by putting out the best efforts we can of ourselves and still ending up failing God's standard.
In God's design for Christian living, He wants no contribution from self. We read in 2 Corinthians 3:4-6: “And we have such trust through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant.”
What an amazing exchange is the giving up of ourselves with its insufficiency for the sufficiency of God in Christ! God knowing the insufficiency of ourselves expects us to think of making absolutely no contribution of ourselves, but to depend entirely on Him who by His grace empowers us with His resources to be His sufficient or perfectly equipped ministers.
Paul after his salvation worked extremely hard to minister this glorious Gospel to the Gentiles. He testified that he "labored more abundantly than" all the other apostles. Paul made some amazing accomplishments that are well documented in the history of the Church in the book of Acts. Yet, in bringing us into the knowledge of the true cause of his accomplishment Paul startles us by revealing that he was not the one to be credited for these accomplishments. It was the grace of God in him. Paul declares in 1 Corinthians 15:10: “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.”
In fact, Paul was humble enough to let us into the privacy of his life to relate humbly to us his own nagging weakness and his constant dependence on the grace of God for his excellent performances. We read Paul’s account in 2 Corinthians 12:7-9: “And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”
And so, an important truth to note is, according to God's design for Christian living, human weakness does not have to lead to failure. By glorying in his human weaknesses Paul was not giving in to failure or glorying in failure. He found instead that by allowing Christ to live in him, the strength of God operated perfectly through him to produce his excellent accomplishments.
If you and I are humble enough to acknowledge our own weaknesses, and turn to God in faith to rely fully on the grace of God, we can experience the sufficiency of the grace of God in place of the insufficiency of ourselves.
Views: 61
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Margaret Wright on
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Praise God for this message for I think it has been correctly given.
Since every Christian fails and is many times conscious of human weaknesses and self asserting itself many times, and if we continue to look at these aspects we will not be conscious of the Grace of God in our lives. This will lead us to fear, insecurity and frustration in trying to live like a Christian and will lead us to live below God's provisions for us as His representatives! This will keep us sin conscious BUT since our sins have been put away by Jesus Christ and we have been cleansed by His precious blood, we have been accept by God to be His children by His Grace. God sees us from His point of view and when we translate the Grace of God by saying the same as He says, we will live for His glory doing the will of God.
When I began to accept what God says about me, my whole Christian life was revolutionized! I'm so thankful for the Grace of God in my life and love living and serving Him as His representative in this world.
Read the article I've posted - I AM WHAT GOD'S WORD SAYS I AM.
Margaret Wright -
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Praise God for this message for I think it has been correctly given.
Since every Christian fails and is many times conscious of human weaknesses and self asserting itself many times, and if we continue to look at these aspects we will not be conscious of the Grace of God in our lives. This will lead us to fear, insecurity and frustration in trying to live like a Christian and will lead us to live below God's provisions for us as His representatives! This will keep us sin conscious BUT since our sins have been put away by Jesus Christ and we have been cleansed by His precious blood, we have been accept by God to be His children by His Grace. God sees us from His point of view and when we translate the Grace of God by saying the same as He says, we will live for His glory doing the will of God.
When I began to accept what God says about me, my whole Christian life was revolutionized! I'm so thankful for the Grace of God in my life and love living and serving Him as His representative in this world.
Read the article I've posted - I AM WHAT GOD'S WORD SAYS I AM.
Margaret Wright -
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Permalink Reply by Pastor Bob B on
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You wrote, "Christianity to Paul was a life void of ego. His ego was terminated with the crucifixion of Christ."
When we live our lives for our selves and not embrace a crucified life, then we are Edging God Out.
It is no easy task to turn the control of your self over to God. It is only by coming to know him that we become willing to let him become the driver of our lives. There is a song that came out a while back called, "Jesus Take The Wheel." Some of the lyrics say; Jesus take the wheel, Take it from my hands, Cause I can't do this on my own, I'm letting go, So give me one more chance, To save me from this road I'm on.
The last thing that we want is to do is edge God out of our lives with our ego. -
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Permalink Reply by Sunshine on
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That was the song that Carrie Underwood sang to made her get a golden platter. She was the country girl who came to American idol a coupleof years ago. That song is real good.
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Permalink Reply by PoiemaDei on
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To edge God out is death as far as any Christian living or spiritual life is concerned. Isn't it? Like Jesus said,
"It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing" (John 6:63). "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5).
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I agree all what you say here. So many born-again Christians are still trying to do things to have pardon with Christ . It has been done. We are a new person in Christ Jesus. Christ lives in me. The more you put on Christ this new person. Faith comes and the devil will flee. I am seeing more and more people talk about the devil. I do not believe we should let him enter our conversation the devil but speak sweet of our Lord. He is the beginning and the end. We were saved by grace. To depend on him. We just have to believe it and how many believe it.We read it but do we apply it with out doubting?
This is great this topic. We need to go on with the meat of the word like this. Thank you
PoeimaDei to bring this forth. I find alot of Ministers will not preach this as they dont want to lose the flock. God does not look at numbers. He looks at the senerity of man heart towards him. To be obedient. My brother you are obedient. You listen to what the spirit is speaking. We are blesed to have you as a teacher in this site. We need to grow. -
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Margaret, Ian, Bob, and Sunshine, I appreciate your contribution. Those of you who comment in the group are a great blessing to us all. Many of our dear group members may not comment but they write to me and mention how blessed they are by the discussions and comments. I read Margaret's article in a blog on AAG and it describes by the powerful living word of God who we are according to the Scriptures.
As all these comments have highlighted the challenge that confronts us today is to take God at His word, if we are to experience the glories of our salvation in Christ. We have to believe God's word, to agree with God and accept what He says He has done for us and made us to be by His grace. The fact that this is a contention today (and it has always been) is obviously due to the devil, the adversary who opposes God in every way and seeks to lead us this way to deceive us into disagreeing with the word of God to cheat us of the benefits God has given to us by His grace in this great salvation.
Jude's admonition is a timely one for us today. "Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 1:3).
Bob, I may have to 'ordain' you minister of the gospel of graphics! You always seem to produce just the appropriate graphical representation for the message at the right time.
This graphic Bob shared is indeed sharp and powerful. EGO - Edging God Out! It is that tendency of the former or old sinful nature to edge God out that has had to be crucified with Christ to bring forth the true Christian life or Christ life in us. Now It is NOT I that live the Christian life, but Christ who lives in me. That's what God says. Let us not edge God out. Amen. God bless you. -
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Amen! Thanks, Ian, for challenging us to move into deep waters. I am so blessed to see the Gospel being wrested from the shallowness and tid-bits which many have diluted it into in order to entertain and upkeep crowds with itching ears. The pure milk and meat of the word are meants to bring offspring of God born of the incorruptible seed of His living into mature sons of God. It's not a far-fetched goal. And sons of God are being brought forth not merely to walk on the "golden streets of heaven" but to walk in God's will, lead by the Spirit of God, and bringing deliverance to the dusty highways and byways of this oppressed creation.
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Permalink Reply by DEE Lighted on
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PoemiaDei is so right.... I am one of those that don't often comment, but I read every single word and am always blessed. Thank you all.
Dee -
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