Denying oneself

1 Corinthians 1:18

“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” NIV

Another major message that we get from the cross of Jesus Christ is the message of SELF DENIAL or SELF SACRIFICE.

“Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” Matthew 16:24 KJV

The believer who wants to experience the fullness of the life in Christ must be willing to deny himself or be willing to sacrifice his life. To get a true picture of what this is all about, let us look at the above text in other translations:

“Then Jesus said to His disciples, If anyone desires to be My disciple, let him deny himself [disregard, lose sight of, and forget himself and his own interests] and take up his cross and follow Me [cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying, also]. For whoever is bent on saving his [temporal] life [his comfort and security here] shall lose it [eternal life]; and whoever loses his life [his comfort and security here] for My sake shall find it [life everlasting].” Matthew 16:’24-25 AMP

“Then Jesus went to work on his disciples. "Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You're not in the driver's seat; I am. Don't run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I'll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self.” THE MESSAGE

From the above translations, we can deduce that to deny oneself means to disregard yourself. Forget yourself and your interests get off the driver’s seat of your life and embrace suffering. Another translation says to say no to things you want. Listen if your walk with God has never brought to the place where you say no to things you like then it is still a babyish Christianity.

“By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter.  He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.” NIV