What Does It Mean To Deny Oneself?

# 509 - Today's Du-votional comes from: Mr 8:34b “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” and Ro 6:4-6, “Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.

In the Mark passage we see that if we desire to be attached to Jesus, Jesus says there are three things that we must allow for. We must (1) deny ourselves, (2) take up our cross, and (3) follow Him. Let's look at what it means to “deny” oneself. In the Greek, the word means to “decline or withdraw from fellowship with anyone.” The “anyone” here, of course is our flesh, or the old man in us that comes with original sin.

This “self” must be done away with, and in the passage from Romans we see that he is done away with in baptism. Romans 6:6, speaks of this one time act whereby the old man is done away with or crucified with Christ “in order that the body of sin (the old self) might be brought to nothing.”

In baptism, we are buried with Christ into death in order that “we too may walk in newness of life.” (Rom 6:4) Baptism is something that God does for us, in it, He invites us to live daily in fellowship with the new Tenant in our body, the Holy Spirit, rather than fellowshipping with the old man.

This is an ongoing struggle as the two natures battle for our friendship, Ga 5:17 says, “For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.

But as we read in Rom 6:11 we must reckon ourselves dead to sin (the old nature) and alive to God (the new nature) in Christ Jesus,

“Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Father, let every day be a day of reckoning as we recall what You accomplished for us through baptism.