DID JESUS TEACH MEN TO LOVE THEMSELVES? Part 6<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
God is calling those who will be His to the Christ of the Bible and Biblical Christianity and to forsake all deceivers who lead us from His holy truth that preserves us to the end. Any writer or leader in any medium who does not teach the original Gospel given us - including self-crucifixion - is a false teacher, "accursed", and to be rejected and marked (Gal. 1:6-9; Rom. 16:17-18). Because of the end-time deceptions which were to come, Paul cries with tears for 3 years and warns God's people:
"And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified." Acts <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />20:32
When Paul was warned by many in the church that when he went to Jerusalem (which is where he was headed), that "bonds and afflictions" awaited him. Did he change his course? No. What was his response to this great harm that lay ahead of him? Here is what he declared:
"But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God." Acts 20:24
If we are to "finish" the "course" of final salvation and fruitfulness in His kingdom, we must like Paul, count or consider not our lives dear unto ourselves. The Holy Spirit simply never led any writer of the Scriptures to instruct men to love themselves. He had 66 books to do so and simply didn't. Did the Almighty forget to tell us something we needed to know? Did He lie to us by telling us that everything and all things that pertain to life and godliness are in His Word (2 Pet. 2:3-4)? Not only did the Apostle Paul nor any other writer of the Bible teach Christians to love themselves, but he, in his own life said "neither count I my life dear unto myself."
"For he that is dead is freed from sin." Romans 6:7
If we still hold out a vestige of hope for preserving ourselves (self-love) in this life, we are not truly dead to self and released to the LORD.
"The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour." John 12:24-26
Could the words of our LORD be any clearer? The self-life must be lost in order for that person to be found in Christ. This happens when we begin to love our Savior more than ourselves and freely and volitionally ask Him to increase as we decrease (Jn. 3:30). There can be no hold out. There can be no self-preservation. Without a clear and outright death to self and commending our spirit into the hands of the Almighty who loves us, there can be no resurrection to the life of Jesus.
"We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death worketh in us, but life in you." 2 Corinthians 4:8-12
(continued….)
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