The Duty of Self-Denial
To the Reader.
Christian Reader,
The weightiness of the argument treated here would justly merit a larger volume, but I have condensed it so that it might reach more hands. I must confess I know of no more necessary point in divinity. Self-denial is the first principle of Christianity; it is the lifeblood that must run through the whole body of religion. Self-denial is learned not from the topics of philosophy, but from the oracles of Scripture. I ask the reader to work through this manual with seriousness, knowing that the practice of self-denial touches closely on his salvation. May the Lord work with his word, and cause the dew of his blessing to fall with this manna. This is the prayer of your friend and servant in the Gospel, Tho. Watson.
Dowgate, 1675.
(Luke 9:23): "And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself."
"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine" (2 Tim 3:16). The Word is compared to a lamp for its illuminating quality (Ps 119:105), and to refined silver for its enriching quality (Ps 12:6). Among other parts of sacred Scripture, this text is not the least: "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself."
These words fell from the lips of Christ, the Oracle of Truth. In the preceding verse, our blessed Savior foretold his passion: "The Son of man must suffer many things." His suffering is described in two expressions.
1. He must be rejected. Thus he was "the stone which the builders refused" (Ps 118:22).
2. He must be slain. This diamond must be cut. He who gave life to others must himself die. As Augustine wrote, the blood of the physician was shed and became medicine for the madman. And as Christ abased himself for us, so we must deny ourselves for him: "And he said to them all, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself." Self-denial is the foundation of godliness, and if this is not well laid, all the building will fall. Let me explain the words.
1. "And he said to them all", Self-denial is of universal extent; it concerns all and applies to both ministers and people. Christ spoke it to his apostles as well as to the rest of his hearers.
2. "If any man will come after me", If he will follow me as a soldier follows his general; if he will arrive at that place of glory to which I am going.
3. "Let him deny himself", Beza and Erasmus render this as "let him lay aside" or "reject himself." Self-denial is a kind of self-annihilation. The words have two parts:
1.) A supposition: "If any man will come after me."
2.) An imposition: "Let him deny himself." This word let him deny is not merely a permission but an injunction; it carries the force of a command, as when a king says, "Let it be enacted."
The proposition I shall insist on is this: a good Christian must be a self-denier. "Let him deny himself."
Question 1: In what sense must a Christian not deny himself?
Answer 1: He must not deny his promise. A man's promise should be sacred; he is to keep it even at his own loss (Ps 15:1, 4). He who makes no account of his promise, God makes no account of his profession.
Answer 2: A Christian must not deny his grace. He must not disown the good work wrought in him. He ought not to say he is a dry tree when the dew of heaven lies upon his branches (Isa 56:3). As it is a sin for a man to make himself better than he is, so it is a sin to make himself worse. To claim grace when he has none is presumption; to deny grace when he has it is ingratitude, a bearing of false witness against the Spirit of God.
Question 2: In what sense must a Christian deny himself?
Answer: In general, he must deny that carnal part which is as close to him as himself, that which is as the apple of his eye. But more particularly:
1. A Christian must deny his reason. I say not renounce it, but deny it. Some worship the idol of reason, making it the rule and standard of faith. A Socinian declared that whatever is contrary to reason must be false. It is true that the existence of God and the obligation to worship him are truths written on the heart of man, and consonant with reason. But who God is and the right mode of worship are mysteries that reason can no more discover than the Philistines could solve Samson's riddle (2 Cor 2:14). "Canst thou by searching find out God?" (Job 11:7).
Reason must be denied in two areas: first, in what we are to believe; second, in what we are to do.
1.) In what we are to believe, that is, in the doctrines set before us for belief.
a) The doctrine of the Trinity. The well is deep, and who can fathom it with the plumb line of reason! The persons of the Trinity are distinguished but not divided; they are three subsistences but one essence. The Trinity of persons does not destroy the unity of essence. The Trinity is purely an object of faith. Some truths in religion are demonstrable by reason, such as that we should flee vice and do to others as we would have them do to us. But the Trinity of Persons in the Unity of Essence belongs to divine revelation and must be received by faith. As Bernard wrote, to scrutinize it is rashness; to believe it is piety. Those enlightened philosophers who could discourse on the magnitude and influence of the stars, the nature of plants and minerals, could not by their deepest inquiry discover the mystery of the Trinity. This is wholly supernatural and must be adored with humble believing.
b) The doctrine of the Incarnation: that Eternity should be born; that he who rules the stars should nurse at the breast; that a virgin should conceive; that the Branch should bear the Root; that in Christ there should be two natures yet only one person; that the divine nature should not be absorbed into the human, yet the human nature should be assumed into the person of the Son of God; that the human nature is not God, yet is one with God. Here reason must be denied.
c) The doctrine of the Resurrection: that the body interred, crumbled into a thousand fragments, its ashes scattered in the air, should rise again is beyond reason to conceive. The Epicureans and Stoics derided Paul when he preached the resurrection to them (Acts 17:32). Here reason must be taken captive. "Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming in which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth" (John 5:28; 1 Cor 15:42–43).
The chemist can extract one metal from a mixture of many, separating silver from gold, and reduce every metal to its own kind. In the same way, when the bodies of men are mingled with other substances, the wise God can make a sudden separation and clothe every soul with its own body. As Cyprian observed, if the same body did not rise, it would be a creation rather than a resurrection. "Why should it be thought incredible that God should raise the dead?" (Acts 26:8). God can do it because of his power (Matt 22:29), and he cannot but do it because of his truth.
The doctrines of faith do not oppose reason; they transcend it. As the saying goes, if the resurrection falls, the whole of religion falls with it.
2.) Reason must be denied in what we are to do, that is, in the duties we are commanded to practice. There are many duties in religion that carnal reason quarrels with. God says, "It is the glory of a man to pass by an offence" (Prov 19:11). But carnal reason says, that is cowardice. The heathens thought it noble to avenge injuries. God says the paths of holiness are strewn with roses: "Her ways are ways of pleasantness" (Prov 3:17). But reason says they are severe and cynical, that to follow them I must crucify my pleasures and drown my mirth in tears.
God says religion is profitable: "Godliness is great gain" (1 Tim 6:6). It brings contentment arising from the favor of God, and it brings temporal blessings: "In her left hand riches and honor" (Prov 3:16). The way to be prosperous is to be pious. But reason says, if I pursue the trade of religion, I shall go bankrupt. "What shall I do for the hundred talents?" (2 Chr 25:9). In such cases carnal reason must be denied and opposed. He who will go no further than reason will fall many leagues short of heaven.
2. A Christian must deny his will. As Brugensis glosses the text, "to deny oneself is to deny one's own will." The will is the primum mobile, the great wheel in the soul that moves all the affections.
The will in innocency was regular; it echoed God's will.
But since the fall, though it retains its freedom in moral actions, in spiritual matters it is depraved. Bernard said, "If the will could cease from sinning, there would be no hell." The greatest wound from the fall has been inflicted on the will. When a mariner's compass is struck by lightning, the needle points wrong. So too, man's corrupted nature causes the will to point wrong, inclining toward evil.
In the will there is not only weakness but obstinacy: "Ye have always resisted the Holy Ghost" (Acts 7:51). We must therefore deny our will and bring it into conformity with God's will. If a crooked stick is laid on level ground, we do not lower the ground to match the stick; we straighten the stick to match the ground. So God's will is not to be brought down to ours; our crooked will must be brought up to his. We pray, "Thy will be done." The way to have our will satisfied is to deny it.
3. A Christian must deny his own righteousness: his civility, his duties, his good works. "That I may be found in him, not having mine own righteousness" (Phil 3:9). The spider weaves a web from her own bowels; a hypocrite would spin a web of salvation from his own righteousness. But Paul, like the bee, drew salvation from the flower of Christ's righteousness. "Our righteousnesses are as filthy rags" (Isa 64:6). Our best duties are tainted with sin. Put gold in the fire and dross comes out. Our most golden services are mixed with unbelief. The angel pouring sweet odors into the prayers of the saints Revelation 8:3 shows that those prayers are in themselves unsavory, needing Christ's sweet fragrance to perfume them.
Use duty, but trust to Christ's righteousness for salvation. Noah's dove used her wings to fly, but trusted to the ark for safety.
And if we must deny our holy things in the matter of justification, how much more must we deny our mere civilities. A stake may be finely painted and yet have no root. A man may be painted over with civility and yet have no root of grace. A moral person is washed, not changed. The life may be civil while the heart is wicked, just as the sea may be calm while its water is salt.
The Pharisee could say he was "no adulterer" (Luke 18:11). But could he say he was not proud? The civil person may harbor a secret antipathy against goodness; he may hate grace as much as vice. Civility is a cracked title to heaven. A piece of brass may shine, but lacking the king's image it will not pass as currency. A man may shine with moral virtues, but lacking the image of God consisting in holiness, he will not pass at the day of judgment. Morality is good, but God will say, "Yet lackest thou one thing" (Mark 10:21). Civility is a good walking staff for moving among men, but a poor ladder for climbing up to heaven.
4. A Christian must deny all self-confidence. How confident Pendleton was in himself! "This fat of mine," he said, "shall melt in the fire for Christ." But instead, his courage melted. (See Foxe, Acts and Monuments.) The same Hebrew word signifies both "confidence" and "folly." Self-confidence betrays folly. Peter presumed too much on his own strength: "Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee" (Matt 26:35). But how quickly his confidence was shaken, blown down by the breath of a servant girl! "He denied with an oath, saying, I know not the man" (Matt 26:71–72).
Peter's denying of Christ was the result of not denying himself. Wariness about oneself is good. "Be not high-minded, but fear" (Rom 11:20). The trembling reed often stands when the confident cedar falls. Those who know the fierceness of a trial, or the falseness of their own heart, will fear.
How many professors have shone as stars in the church's sky, yet proved to be falling stars: Porphyry, Julian, Cardinal Pole, Gardiner, Judas. Some of the early fathers called the apostles the eyes of the world, the feet of Christ, the breasts of the church. Judas was one of them, yet a traitor. Even some of the saints, through God's withdrawing the influence of his Spirit, have for a time relapsed, as Cranmer did, and as Origen did, whose heart fainted in the seventh persecution and who offered incense to an idol. Deny self-confidence. "Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall" (1 Cor 10:12). It is just with God that the one who trusts to himself should be left to himself. The vine, being weak, twists around the elm for support. A good Christian, conscious of his own weakness, twists by faith around Christ. "I can do all things through Christ strengthening me" (Phil 4:13). Samson's strength lay in his hair; ours lies in our head, Christ.
5. A Christian must deny self-conceit. "Vain man would be wise" (Job 11:12); in the Hebrew, it is "empty man." Man is prone to think highly of himself. The peacock spreads its feathers. "There was a certain man named Simon, giving out that himself was some great one" (Acts 8:9). Sapor the Persian king styled himself "Brother of the Sun and Moon." The Emperor Commodus called himself "The Golden Hercules." The Persian kings demanded that their images be worshiped by all who entered Babylon. Those who view themselves in the flattering mirror of self-love appear larger than they are. They think their spark a sun and their drop a sea. They think highly of their own sharpness of mind and are ready to despise others (Luke 18:9). The Chinese used to say that Europe has one eye, they have two, and all the rest of the world is blind.
Deny self-conceit. "The doubly foolish are those who think themselves wise." "I say to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think" (Rom 12:3). "Cease from thine own wisdom" (Prov 23:4): not cease from being wise, but from fancying yourself wise (Prov 3:7; Phil 2:3). To help you deny all such proud and supercilious thoughts of yourselves, consider the following.
1.) Self-conceit is no small sin. Chrysostom calls it the mother of hell. It is a kind of idolatry, a self-worshiping.
2.) Whatever noble endowment you have, it is borrowed. As the man said of the axe that fell in the water, "Alas, master, for it was borrowed" (2 Kgs 6:5). All a man's gifts, his quickness of mind and ripeness of understanding, are borrowed from heaven. What wise man would be proud of a jewel that is merely lent to him? "What hast thou that thou didst not receive?" (1 Cor 4:7). The moon has no cause to be conceited of a light she owes to the sun. As Bernard says, "Pride in gifts given as gifts is the greatest pride of all."
3.) Whatever sharpness of wit or soundness of judgment you possess, consider how far short you fall.
a) How far short you fall of the knowledge Adam had in innocency. He was an oracle of wisdom; he could unlock nature's dark cabinet and discover secrets that baffle us. Adam had full insight into the causes of things. He was, in a sense, an earthly angel.
But how far short you come of him! Your knowledge is shot through with ignorance. There are many hard knots in nature that cannot easily be untied. Why does the lodestone, leaving gold and pearl alone, draw iron? Why does the Nile overflow in summer, when waters are usually at their lowest? "What way is the light parted?" (Job 38:24). Why is the sea higher than the land, yet does not drown it? "How the bones grow in the womb" (Eccl 11:5): no one can fully explain it. What accounts for all occult qualities in nature? Even the clearest-sighted person has a mist before his eyes. By eating from the tree of knowledge, we lost the key of knowledge.
