Deny yourself

Greetings to you all in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Today, I will continue with my series on the topic Following Jesus and the will be the third part of the sub-topic Conditions for following Jesus.

In my previous posts, I listed the conditions for following Jesus Christ as it is outlined in Luke 9:23, which are

1. Deny yourself
2. Take up your cross
3. Follow Him

Today, I'm going to discuss the first condition which is Deny yourself.

source

Self is the art of being human. It is the human nature. The Human nature is inherited from our ancestors. Different versions of the Bible use different words to describe the word SELF, words like the flesh, old man, carnal nature, sinful nature, lower nature, sinful mind, evil nature, old sinful life and so on.

1 Peter 1:18 (NIV)
For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors

Psalm 51:5 (KJV)
Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

As we can see, Self is the old sinful nature inherited from our ancestors and to follow Jesus Christ, we must deny this old sinful nature called self.
There are so many reasons why we need to deny self. Some of the reasons are listed below

Self is corrupt

Ephesians 4:22
You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires

Self cannot meet the requirements of God's righteousness

Romans 8:3-4
3 For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh,
4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Isaiah 64:6
6 All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.

Self is a dead nature

Romans 8:6
The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.

Self is hostile to God

Romans 8:7
The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so.

Self does not and cannot submit to God

Romans 8:7
The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so.

Self cannot please God

Romans 8:8
Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.

Self cannot understand or receive the things of the spirit

1 Corinthians 2:14
The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.

Self cannot inherit the kingdom of God

1 Corinthians 15:50
I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

Self is the greatest enemy of man which opens door for other enemies

James 1:13-16
13 When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone;
14 but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed.
15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
16 Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters.

These are just some of the reasons why we must deny self.
I will discuss another condition for following Jesus in another post.

Luke 9:23 (NIV)
23 Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.

To be continued

You can check the previous posts here:

https://steemit.com/steemchurch/@fatherfaith/following-jesus-reasons-why-some-people-follow-jesus-75ccaf8d56004

https://steemit.com/steemchurch/@fatherfaith/following-jesus-reasons-why-we-should-follow-jesus-dccfc46e45877

https://steemit.com/steemchurch/@fatherfaith/following-jesus-conditions-for-following-jesus-8dfdca4c35c95

https://steemit.com/steemchurch/@fatherfaith/following-jesus-conditions-for-following-jesus-ii-3728d34a7e0e

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