Self-Discipline

[A response to an email]  

Question: “Are you saying that self-discipline is needed for eternal life?”

Response: No, that’s definitely not how I would state it. Using that language leaves a lot of doors wide open for wrong conclusions and misunderstandings—as though eternal life could be purchased, acquired or produced by self-discipline. That is certainly not true. However, THERE IS a measure of truth here that we shouldn’t ignore, because choosing, loving, and complying with the life of self is exactly how man resists and rejects eternal life.

I think you could have asked this same question to Jesus when He said, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.” I mean, couldn’t you have asked Him, “Are you saying that if I do not deny myself, I can’t follow you?”

Or what about when Paul said, “Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.” Couldn’t you have asked Paul, “Are you saying that if I don’t discipline my body, I could be disqualified?”

Let me be very clear. Eternal life is offered to man as a gift from God. It is not a work of man. It is not something that man can ever produce or merit or buy. It is a gift of grace that works in man by the light, life and power of God, in order to bring about two things primarily: 1) a death, removal, circumcision or crucifixion of the old man, first birth, or nature of fallen flesh, and 2) the planting, cultivating, increase and reign of a heavenly life, Word, or seed, which is “Christ in us, the hope of glory.” 

Now the great confusion (and deception) about this point lies in what it means to RECEIVE and EXPERIENCE this gift of eternal life. Almost all Christians agree that it is a God-given gift, but how does it actually become my possession and experience? Is it just a matter of “saying the sinner’s prayer” and BOOM!, I got it? Do I just need to believe the correct doctrines, or the historical account of Christ’s death and resurrection? Is there a particular group or church that I need to belong to? Are there some religious activities that I need to commit to? How do I get it?

Well, I think you know that the only way to experience any sort of LIFE is by a BIRTH. Everything that is alive got its life by some sort of birth. You can’t just grant life to a piece of lumber and make it a living tree. Trees must be born from a seed. You can’t just bestow life upon the chicken in your refrigerator. Chickens must be born from an egg. Life comes only through birth, and the same is true of eternal life. God doesn’t just bestow His spiritual and eternal life upon the fallen, dead flesh of man (which is why Adam was separated from the tree of life in the beginning). No, man must be born again. The life of God must enter the soul of man as a grain of mustard seed, or a pinch of heavenly leaven, and there it must find an environment (good soil) that allows it to bring forth a birth and growth of itself. This is why James exhorts us to “receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls;” and why Jesus says, “But the seeds that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience.”

Jesus has told us, “That which is born of flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” And, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing.” Christians are usually very familiar with these words, but they are often unaware or unmindful of the fact that these are two very different natures, with very different and contrary wills. Salvation is not a wave of God’s magic wand that somehow makes flesh to be spiritual. No, salvation is a work of God in the soul of man that saves us from the nature and dominion of flesh through a death, and gives new life in the Spirit through a birth. Salvation involves an experience of both death and life. And these two realities (which are two sides of the same coin) are what is shown to us in innumerable Old Testament pictures of animals being sacrificed, blood being poured out, judgment coming upon the uncircumcised, etc., as well as all of the pictures of increase, harvest, glory, peace, and victory that result from judgment.

Now both Jesus and His apostles are very clear in saying that if we continue living in the flesh (that is, in the fallen first birth or natural man), then we will necessarily continue in our sins, and therefore will not see or experience His life. For example, Jesus says, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Or “I am going away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin. Where I go you cannot come.” or  “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.” Paul says, “For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” It is therefore of the utmost importance that, though we must live for a time in these bodies, we DO NOT continue living in the flesh, according to the flesh, and for the flesh, but rather are made truly free from the flesh (“putting to death the deeds of the body,” “putting to death your members which are on the earth,” etc.) and experience true life in His Spirit. Peter says, “For this reason the gospel was preached also to those who are [spiritually] dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.” (1 Pet. 4:6) The entire New Testament, in so many ways, tells us and shows us that practical Christianity is primarily concerned with the reality of “no longer walking according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.”

So again, the flesh is a contrary nature to the Spirit, and if it has its way, it always “lusts against the Spirit”, “grieves the Spirit,” “resists the Spirit,” and “quenches the Spirit.” It’s like the Philistines and the Israelites in the land of Canaan; where one increases, the other is oppressed and put down. And it is for this reason that we are told so many times, and in so many ways, that part of our receiving and experiencing the heavenly gift involves denying the life of self, or taking up the cross to our own fallen, fleshly nature. I repeat, it is not our efforts in this regard that PRODUCE or MERIT eternal life. Man can produce and merit nothing that is spiritual. But, on the other hand, if we continue living in the flesh, giving liberty to that nature, following its deceitful desires, and “making provision for the flesh,” then we will most certainly RESIST the gift of God—by taking our talent and burying it in the earth, or allowing our ground to fill with rocks, weeds, thorns, and pesky birds. 

Self-denial is not the means of salvation. Nevertheless, the experience of salvation will teach you that you must deny (and not feed!) the desires of the flesh. Self-denial isn’t a way to get something from God. Its only value is in protecting His work, His seed, cooperating with (and not hindering) that “grace which brings salvation.” Because, it is an undeniable truth that, if you are not denying self, then you are feeding self, loving self, and being increasingly governed by it. Wherever self is increasing (that is, wherever man is living in and for the nature and will of the flesh) there he is grieving, quenching, and resisting his own salvation by clinging to the nature that God is seeking to save him from.

Resisting eternal life is not something that man has to TRY to do. People are prone to think, “Well, I may not be perfect, but I’ve never stood against God.” But, my friend, standing against God, or standing in enmity with God, is simply what the flesh IS. “The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” The flesh always lusts against the Spirit, never understands the Spirit, and “every intent of the thoughts of his heart is only evil continually.” The only thing you have to do to resist the Spirit, and miss eternal life, is to continue living your own.  And this is why Jesus tells us that we must deny ourselves, and take up our cross daily.

Allow me to say one more thing: I have frequently noticed that, when someone begins to talk about the need to “take up your cross,” “deny yourself,” “walk circumspectly,” “flee from youthful lusts,” “resist the devil,” etc. many in the church are quick to call this a religion of “works”, or “legalism”. “Are you trying to earn your salvation?” “Do you think you can help God out?” But hopefully you can see that this is a great mistake, not only because to assert such a thing is to contradict hundreds of explicit Scriptures, but also because these scriptural admonitions have nothing to do with trying to earn divine approval, or please God with works of the flesh. Works religion or legalism has to do with attempting to please God with works of the flesh, or to satisfy His righteousness by obeying certain rules. But can you see that denying self is the furthest thing from offering to God the works of self? Being watchful, careful, and prayerful not to “make provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts,” has nothing to do with satisfying God by the works of our hands, but (very much to the contrary) has everything to do with being careful that the works of our hands don’t hinder or obstruct the true work of God.