Deny Self and Preach Jesus

[Christsfreeservant]

“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:5-8 ESV)​

Jesus Christ is not only the only begotten Son of God, but he is God – the second person of our triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And all things were made through him, so he was and is our creator God, too. And he was with God in the beginning, so he did not just come into being when he was born as a baby to a human mother, for he always existed with God (John 1:1-36). But it was God’s will that he should come to the earth and be born of a woman, yet conceived of the Holy Spirit, and not of man.

So Jesus Christ, who is God, left his throne in heaven, came to earth, was born of woman, conceived of the Holy Spirit, and he lived among the people of the earth for about 33 years before his death. And while he walked the earth he was fully God and fully human. But since he was not born of man, he was not born in the image of Adam like we are, with a sin nature. And although he was tempted to sin, for he lived in a flesh body, he never once sinned in all that he did and said when he lived on the earth.

And even though all of us humans were born with sin natures, in the image of Adam, and so we were born into sin, Jesus Christ came to the earth ultimately to be crucified on a cross to take away the sins of the world. For in his death, he who knew no sin became sin for us so that when he died and was buried, our sins died with him, and they were buried with him. And then he triumphed over them and hell and Satan and death via his resurrection from the dead on the third day, as he said would take place.

And because Jesus put our sins to death with him on that cross, we can now be delivered out of our slavery to sin and walk in freedom from bondage to sin, in the power of God, in walks of obedience to our Lord and to his commands in holy living, for the praise and glory of God. And all this is by faith in Jesus Christ, which is gifted to us by God, and which is persuaded of God as to his righteousness and holiness, and of our sinfulness, and of our need to turn from our sins to follow our Lord in obedience to his commands.

[Isaiah 53:1-12; Matt 7:21-23; Matt 26:26-29; Lu 9:23-26; Lu 17:25; Jn 1:1-36; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 8:24,58; Jn 10:27-33; Jn 20:28-29; Rom 5:8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 9:5; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 11:23-32; 1 Co 15:1-8; 2 Co 5:15,21; Eph 4:17-24; Php 2:5-11; Col 2:9; Tit 2:11-14; Heb 1:8-9; Heb 2:14-15; Heb 4:15; 1 Pet 2:24; 2 Pet 1:1; 1 John 3:4-10]

So, we who believe in Jesus with this God-gifted faith in him, whereby we are crucified with him in death to sin, and raised with him to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin, but as slaves to God and to his righteousness (Romans 6:1-23), we are to pattern our lives after Jesus’ example. And we are to humble ourselves before God in submission to his will and willingly lay our lives down to see others come to know Jesus Christ as Lord and as Savior of their lives before our Lord returns and it is too late for them.

And we do this by surrendering our lives over to Jesus Christ to do his will, and by being his servants and messengers in taking the truth of the gospel of our salvation to the people of this world via the internet, radio, TV, in person, in letters, or via any other ways and means of getting out the truth of the gospel to people we know, even to those professing faith in Christ, and to people we don’t know, but who need to know Jesus. And so we need to pray for courage to speak the truth of the gospel boldly to other people.

But we first of all must deny self, die daily with Christ to sin, and then follow our Lord in obedience to his commands (Luke 9:23-26). For Jesus died so we would die to sin. And we should not preach to others what we are not living ourselves, in practice. For we lead first of all by example, and not just by words only, though not necessarily in absolute perfection. But we must speak the truth of the gospel of Christ to the people so that they will hear the truth and so that they will believe the truth and thus be saved.

Jesus, Lead Me

An Original Work / July 22, 2011

Jesus, lead me all the way.
Be my hope and be my stay.
Gently lead me where I should go,
So Your Spirit, I want to know.
Open up my heart to You.
Fill me with Your love and truth.
Make my heart want to obey.
Be my Lord today. Gently lead always.

Jesus, lover of my soul,
Cleanse my heart, and make me whole;
Be transformed in my heart today,
As I turn from my sin and pray.
Make Your will known to my heart.
May I not from You depart.
How I long to hear You now,
As I humbly bow. Jesus, hear me now.