Exhortation

Jesus told Peter, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself.” Self-denial is a basic demand of discipleship. We can’t follow Jesus if we don’t do it.

Jesus is not talking about afflicting our bodies with fasting and flagellation, but about something more fundamental. Self-denial means giving up our will and submitting ourselves to the will of another. Self-denial means bending our plans, hopes, dreams, actions to Jesus and to His Father.

Practically, that often means submission to those who speak for Jesus. Jesus doesn’t talk to us directly, but exercises His authority through elders and pastors, through parents and professors, through our boss at work and through a husband at home. Submitting to Jesus means submitting to them.

In our culture, getting your own way and doing your own thing and following your dream are the only absolute imperatives. To us, self-denial looks pretty grim. This looks more like a way of death than a way of life.

Yet Jesus promises life: “whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake shall find it.” What does it profit if a man gains everything he desires but loses his own soul?

Self-denial is the way of life because it is the way of God’s life. Jesus, the Incarnate God, shows us how it’s done. He submits to His Father’s will, even to the point of excruciating death, and is transfigured to glorious life. Self-denial is the way to the life of God, because God’s own way is the way of self-denial.