I must be careful not to let my service for Christ become an extension of myself. Do I enjoy preaching because I am the center of attention for an hour? Do I enjoy teaching because I hold the class in my power for a brief span? Do I enjoy winning souls because the results bolster my ego?
I can see how subtle the flesh really is. It does not mind being dressed in religious clothing as long as it does not have to die. The heart of the matter is: Who is on the cross and who is on the throne? The great historical switch has taken place: Christ was on the cross and is now on the throne; self was on the throne and must now be impaled upon the cross. If I ever switch the two and reverse history, I am in trouble!
Self’s great, eternal ambition is to escape its cross and sneak back on the throne. Often I have looked at the cross where self hung and said, “There, crucified once and for all!” Yet, a second look reveals an empty cross and an escaped self, very much alive and demanding recognition.
Crucifying self is not negation. Negation says, “You are dead.” But true Christian living says, “You are dead to self, but alive to Christ” (see Galatians 2:20). Even more, Christianity says that before I can become alive to Christ, not afterward, I must die. It is not the person who dies, only the tendency to deify the person. Jesus did not consider “equality with God a thing to be grasped” (Philippians 2:6). If Jesus, who was God, refused to grasp His deity, how much more must I, a sinner, refuse to deify myself? The answer is not a once-for-all crucifixion, but a daily thing. The sweetest song a disciple can sing is Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ; … but Christ lives in me.” After death comes life, and after crucifixion, victory.
“Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin” (Romans 6:6).
Daily with the King 