The thought comes to our mind this morning that there is not one solitary Christian duty but what requires self-denial in some way. True, we might comply with the outward form of what may be called Christian duty, but instead of there being any denial of self in it; it may all have been done from purely selfish motives.

Man is a proud, haughty and selfish creature. His heart is not right towards the service of God. It is deceitful and desperately wicked above all things. Out of it proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, thefts, and evil eyes, murders, and a thousand other abominations. And no man ever yet hated and denied his own flesh, or his own self from any principle of self. Nature is nature, and as governed by natural laws it cannot act above and contrary to itself. Self-love, self-interest, self-honor, and self-pleasure, are great factors and promptings in all his religious services. If all his works are not done "to be seen of men" as the religious works of hypocrites are, they are nevertheless done with a view of merit in obtaining his salvation, or of being honored as an instrument of saving others, who without his influence and works might have sunk into the regions of eternal despair. The motives in all these things are selfish, and there is not one real Christian duty in anything done in this way. The words of Jesus come in appropriately here, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." (Luke 9:23), But the question comes up, as self cannot deny self, how is any man to deny himself and follow Jesus? He cannot do it from any principle in and of himself, but yet to deny self is the test by which he is regarded as a disciple of Christ. He does this by a given principle that is higher and more holy and pure than self. It is a principle of divine and spiritual life received as God's gift through the merits of Jesus Christ. It is the principle of the new covenant wherein our God saith, "Behold, I make all things new." (Rev.21:5). He gives to His chosen vessels of mercy a new heart, and puts a right spirit in them. He turns unto them a pure language, that they may call upon the name of the Lord in spirit and in truth. And they have this assurance given them by the word of the Lord, that whosoever thus calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

In the further work of this new covenant principle, the law of God is written in the heart and put in the mind, and whatever they are commanded, admonished, exhorted to do in the worship and service of God, is the very thing they already have, the inward principle from above. Self is crossed at every step by Christian duty.

Daily this cross must be carried as a heavy and loathsome clog to our Christian progress. If we worship God at all acceptably, it is done in the spirit that He gave us, rejoicing in Christ Jesus, and having no confidence in the flesh (Phil.3). If we believe in our heart and confess the Lord Jesus with our mouth, self-will and free agency are left out and laid aside. Deny thyself, thy whole self. -- From "Gospel Messenger." (Reprinted in the Christian Pathway, October 1997)