Losing And Saving

by J. Miller | Category: General | Sept 1963

The words of the Lord in Luke 9.23, 24 are truly exemplified in the life of the apostle Paul.

"And He said unto all, If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whosoever would save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for My sake, the same shall save it."

What do the words of the Lord mean, "Let him deny himself?" The word "deny" means the same as in the denial of the Lord by Peter, who on the night of the Lord's betrayal denied the Lord thrice before the cock crew, when charged by the maid, "Thou also wast with Jesus the Galilean. But he denied before them all, saying, I know not what thou sayest." Another said of him, "This man also

was with Jesus the Nazarene. And again lie denied with an oath, I know not the Man." After a little while they came and said to Peter, "Of a truth thou also art one of them; for thy speech betrayeth Thee. Then began lie to curse and to swear, I know not the Man. And straightway the cock crew" (Matthew 26. 69-74). The Greek word for "deny" in the Luke scripture quoted above, Arneomai is of frequent usage in the New Testament and it has the same meaning throughout, being rendered "deny" "denied" and "denieth," except in Acts 7.85 and Hebrews 11.24 where it is rendered "refused," though it can equally be rendered "denied" in those two scriptures, as is done by one Greek scholar at least. The Greek word is sometimes strengthened by the proposition Apo, Aporneomai, and means to deny utterly. Believers may deny the Lord, as Peter did (Matthew 10.83; 2 Timothy 2.12; 2 Peter 2.1 ; 1 John 2.22, 28; Jude 4); they may deny the Faith (1 Timothy 5.8; Revelation 2.18), and the Lord's name (Revelation 3. 8). The Lord said, "Whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I also deny before My Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 10.38), and "in the presence of the angels of God" (Luke 12.9). It will be an experience of unspeakable sadness to he denied before God the Father and before the angels of God. Let us each by life and lip bear witness to the Lord while we are here, that this sadness does not overtake us.

To deny self is simply that now as renewed by God's grace we do not know our old natural, sinful self, and are dead to its desire for pride, prominence and pleasure. Though these are characteristics in self, some seem to have inherited, and are plagued with, an overdose of self, and they seem never so well pleased as when they occupy the centre-piece of the picture in any story or incident. They may be persons of considerable gifts and qualities, but the excellence of these is sadly dimmed by self, causing an eclipse of the brightness of these gifts and qualities.

Paul in 2 Corinthians 11 and 12 adopts an attitude of foolishness, for to speak of what one has attained to, wrought or suffered is folly. The words of the wise are -

"Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; A stranger. and not thine own lips" (Proverbs 27.2).

Paul writes, "I am become foolish: ye compelled me ; for I ought to have been commended of you: for in nothing was I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I am nothing" (2 Corinthians 12. 11). He was what he was by the grace of God (1 Corinthians 15. 9, 10). Paul in commencing his account of what he was and what he suffered, in 2 Corinthians 11.16-88, says, "I speak not after the Lord, but as in foolishness." Why did he take that course in writing to the Corinthians? It was to wean them and win them away from men who were doing the same in Corinth as Satan did in Eden when he beguiled Eve, from such men who were false apostles, deceitful workers, who were fashioning themselves into apostles of Christ, but they were only such in outward fashion and appearance.

As we said in the beginning of this contribution that the word of the Lord about denying oneself, taking up one's cross, and following the Lord, is exemplified in the apostle Paul. This is clearly seen in his address to the elders of the church of God in Ephesus, who were called to meet him at Miletus on his journey to Jerusalem with the bounty contributed by the churches of Achaia and Macedonia (Acts 20.17-38). After telling them that he was going bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, and that the Holy Spirit testified to him in every city that bonds and afflictions awaited him there, his following words showed how truly he lived a life of denying himself. He said,

"But I hold not my life of any account, as dear unto myself, so that I may accomplish my course, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God" (verse 24).

Paul had undoubtedly outstanding gifts, both natural and spiritual, the latter sanctifying the former, but these in themselves would never have effected the results which flowed from the life and work of Paul. It was the life of complete abandonment of self, and his devotedness to the Lord, so as to fulfil the course in which he must run and the ministry he had received from the Lord Jesus that made Paul what he was. He was a crucified man to the world around him and the world was crucified to him; its plans and pleasures found no response in his heart. Saul the Pharisee, the young impetuous zealot, was dead, but Paul the apostle had arisen from the dead and in that resurrection life to suffer, to die, and to rise again, as he said, "I die daily," and a daily dying implies a daily rising from the dead.

The Lord in Luke 9.28 speaks of taking up one's cross daily. The Lord had lived His life in the spirit of His action in Gabbatha, "He went out, bearing the cross for Himself, unto the place called The place of a skull ... Golgotha" (John 19.17). Taking up our cross does not signify bearing a small cross around one's neck, nor on one's breast, nor at the end of a rosary, nor a cross on a religious building or on a weather vane on a steeple. If we have a cross it is for the purpose that we shall die by its means. Shall we say that too many crosses of believers are quite unused? They have never been taken up, and consequently they are not following the Lord as His disciples, not learning of Him and practising what they are taught. What we are trying to say is summed up in that declaration of Paul, in Galatians 2.20: "I have been crucified with Christ; yet I live ; and yet no longer I, but Christ liveth in me: and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself up for me."

Who does not love these words, even if we feel that the experience of them is like a mountain towering above us that we cannot scale? They are like that other statement of Paul, "For to me to live [is] Christ, and to die [is] gain" (Philippians 1.21). It will be seen from the Authorised Version that there is no "is" before "Christ" and "gain" in the Greek. No doubt the English requires "is", but this rendering may not give the fineness of meaning as if the words are rendered literally, "to live Christ," which will be the result and consequence of the words in Galatians quoted above, "Yet I live; and yet no longer I, but Christ liveth in me;" Christ is in each believer in the sense of Colossians 1.27:

"The riches of the glory of this mystery (of the Church, the Body of Christ) among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the Hope of glory."

But for Christ to be living in us is something more, I judge; it is "to live Christ".

J. Miller | Sept 1963
General