Luke 9:23 And He said to them Romans 7:5 For when we
all, If any man will come after were in the flesh, the
me, let him deny himself, and motions of sins, which
take up his cross daily, and were by the Law, did
follow Me. work in our members
to bring forth fruit unto
death.
Did you ever notice that when we were in the flesh, bringing forth fruit unto death, by way of the Law which brought about the motions of sins: at the same time we were not denying ourselves?
First let’s take a look at what is meant here by denying ourselves.
He is not talking about asceticism, but rather denying our will, willpower, strength, ability, capacity or anything else which we might somehow perceive as a means of making ourselves Righteous, Holy, Justified, or Sanctified(as a matter of fact, even after we are saved, if we do not deny our own ability and capacity to redeem ourselves in any fashion, we are then again going to be walking in the flesh).
The only means by which any man may attain or obtain these things is by way of what Christ did at the Cross of Calvary; thus, the next part of the verse says, “and take up his cross daily.”
The reason I believe that Jesus said his(our) Cross is because when we are saved, the Cross of Christ becomes ours also. For I am crucified with Christ (Gal. 2:20). I believe the purpose for Jesus saying this is his (or our) Cross is that we need to realize that when we were baptized into the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:13), we were immersed into His Crucifixion, His Burial, and raised also in newness of His life, with our past present and future now linked. This is the secret of victory and at this point, or after this point only are we really able to follow Christ.
Now let’s return to the point I was originally trying to make.
If we do not deny our own abilities, and capacities as viable methods for making any kind of headway toward our redemption then we will find ourselves in the flesh; with the Law causing motions of sin, which will bring about death.
Verse 6 of Romans 6 goes right along with the same thought of Luke 9:23, where Jesus said, “and take up his cross daily.”
For verse 6 says, “But now we are delivered from the Law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of Spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.”
We are actually delivered from the Law as we take up our Cross daily. For if we do not take up our Cross daily, we will inevitable find ourselves following after the Law as a means of Righteousness (even though Christ has already taken the curse of the Law upon Himself so that we may be set at Liberty). At this point, the motions of sin which are by the Law will start to take effect, and this sin will work in our members to bring forth death.
The last part of Luke 9:23 says, “and follow me.”
This following of Christ can only take place if we are first denying ourselves and taking up our Cross daily.
As a matter of fact, whatever works anyone does (and I do mean WHATEVER): if we are not first denying ourselves and taking up the Cross of Christ daily; then those works we are doing are only flesh. And it does not really matter what those works are or how good they may seem. If we are not denying ourselves and taking up the Cross daily, they are all of the flesh.
For a good example of this from the Word of God, read Luke 18:11-14. “The Pharisee that stood and prayed thus with himself,” thought that his great works and goodness was doing it for him (and by the way, he actually was doing very good things and was avoiding the bad things. He would have been a model citizen in most churches).
However, Jesus said that the Publican went down to his house justified rather than the Pharisee.
Why? Because the Publican realized that within himself (denial of self), he had nothing which could ever make it in the sight of God. He simply asked for mercy.
So, if we want to love our neighbor, help those who need it, and try our best to have the Lord direct our paths: I believe it can only be done outside of the flesh and sin (if you think people do not ever commit sin in their effort to love their neighbor; just watch them after their great efforts as they pat themselves on the back for all the good they have accomplished[1 Cor. 13:4, says, Love vaunts not itself, is not puffed up]), if we remember we must ever deny our own capacities and abilities as something which will bring us favor with God. And then we must continually, daily, always take up our Cross, remembering what Christ has done for us there by shedding His blood and giving His life, realizing we are IN HIM(in His death, in His burial, and in His resurrection).
Then the works we do for the Lord, will be in the Spirit and not in the flesh.
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