Do you wish to follow Christ and become a member of his kingdom? Do you long for changing into his image, and becoming a child of God that the name of your Father may be hallowed in your behavior? Then your sins will be clarified in Christ’s presence. In these verses, the words self, and life appear four times, and the pronouns me, and my appear five times, which places us face to face before Christ. His holiness reveals your impurity, so confess your corruption openly, deny yourself, and hate your dissolution. Do not show appreciation of yourself, but keep away from it. Do not listen to the cry of the flesh, but overcome your selfish sensitivity, stab your self-pity, and consider yourself as nothing that Christ may become everything.
How do you deny yourself practically? Christ said, "Take up your cross", and not, "Take up my own cross." He means to prepare you to accept your death sentence because of your sins, for the cross signifies the most horrible death penalty, which is prepared for runaway slaves, and despised criminals. Christ suggests to you, slave of sin, and runaway from God’s expanses into the fellowship of the disobedient, that you should bow your head to the due rewards of death that the Spirit of God may condemn you without mercy. Then you will not like your corrupt self, but you will despise it. You will also know that you have unmistakably lost it, and that it has no more value, but is going into destructive death.
This self-denial does not take place for one time only, but is realized daily by following Christ. Your Lord did not say, "Deny yourself for one time only and you will be saved", but he wants you to practice your self-denial daily, to continue in judging yourself at all times, and to bear your death penalty constantly.
In fact, nobody can deny and deaden himself, and live at the same time, except those who follow Christ. In him we learn how to reject our sins, tread on our haughtiness, and hear at the same time his call to the true life that is filled with joy, happiness, and love.
The following of Christ is like a trip on the top of a series of mountains, where on the right and the left there are bottomless chasms. But in faith, we set our love on our Leader, and follow him step by step, neither quicker nor slower, neither before him nor behind him, but side by side with him, at the same speed, according to his will, looking unto him, not caring about ourselves, but focusing all our attention on him that we may forget ourselves and win him.
Christ stabs you further in your own self, saying to you, "If you wished to praise your manners and your continuous ease, and to make prominent your noble origin, you would soon fade away and become corrupt because of this selfishness, as all clever and rich nations disappeared through their boastfulness. But if you worshiped Christ, and became poor for the sake of his service, seeking not your self but him, then his power and Spirit would flow in you, and his life would compensate your losing self and give you an eternal being.
Unfortunately, people think that they are reforming the society with its schools, education, and morals. The are actually deceiving themselves. What we need, in fact, is to kill the ego, and not to boast of the customary morals, but to reject false humanity to win Christ alone. It is possible for a man, family, or people to prosper, and become so rich, clever, famous, and great that all the world may profit through him; but then he will come to the top of the slope and begin to fall down, for whoever turns to himself with the aim of winning the whole world, deviates from God, moves away from him, and loses everlasting life, for Christ said, "No one can serve two masters." Christ understood this crafty temptation of the devil from the beginning, and refused to possess the world choosing the cross. This is why today he possesses the world and the heavenly places, and lives forever (Also compare John 12:25; Luke 17:23; Matthew 10:33).
Do you love Christ? Come to him and ask him to heal your losing soul. He is the Savior of the world, and is prepared to care for you that you may become cured and follow him. See the absolute loss of your soul, and confess it before Christ, asking him for your salvation that he may change your falling into sublimity, and your corruption into holiness. Hurry up and save yourself, for Christ is your Savior.
Do you love Jesus? Then tell the others about your Savior, for the bridegroom who does not tell about his beloved bride or address her does not love her, and the Christian who does not read daily Christ’s messages and tell others of his reports does not love his Savior at all. Are you ashamed of bringing the word of your Lord before your friends? Who is greater, Christ or men? Do you love yourself or your Lord?
Christ will come in doubled glory, for he denied himself on the cross and won it, having been given by his Father all authority in heaven and on earth. The Son will come in the glory of the Lamb of God, in the full glory of the Father and of all the holy angels who will be attending him. Then the kingdom of God will appear openly and become realized practically. Did you deny yourself, and become worthy for the kingdom of God in Christ’s blood and Spirit?
Christ knows that no man is worthy of entering into the kingdom of God. But whoever participates in renewing the universe receives the power of eternal life in the midst of our abysmal age, and passes from death into everlasting life. Since the Day of Pentecost, millions of people have lived heavenly life, over whom death has no power, for they have denied and condemned themselves, bringing honor only to Christ, the beloved Redeemer, and looking forward to his coming prayerfully.