Life is Not About You - Part II

In the first part of this series, I introduced an often misunderstood saying of Christ found in Matthew 16:24-25,

"If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it."

What does this mean, exactly? Is Jesus saying we must deny ourselves in order to be saved? Do I somehow have to earn salvation by bearing this heavy burden?
My friend, if we could, even for a moment, comprehend the full weight of our condition before God, such questions would die in infancy within our minds, for we would understand the impossibility of saving ourselves or earning anything with God. Even if by some miracle our hearts yearned for God, our spirits thirsted for true life in Him, no amount of yearning and no amount of seeking would avail. We would end in utter despair, still trapped within the prisonous pit, staring in hopelessness at the claw marks of our own desperate efforts upon those slimy walls. In anguish would we slide down and there lose ourselves in defeat. There would be no way out, and no amount of sincerity, or good will, or effort, or desperation, or tears, would change our reality. Apart from Christ, there is only hopelessness, and any hope found in the world apart from Christ is illusion. Any and all other hope in this world is a lie. Do you see? Christ is the source of all hope, and any legitimate hope - any and all! - finds its root in Christ and Christ alone. Why do you think He came to earth? Why do you think He died on the cross? Why do you think He rose again? Paul tells us in Phil. 2,

"For he, who had always been God by nature, did not cling to his prerogatives as God's equal, but stripped himself of all privilege by consenting to be a slave by nature and being born as mortal man. And, having become man, he humbled himself by living a life of utter obedience, even to the extent of dying, and the death he died was the death of a common criminal." (JB Phillips translation)

Why? Why did He do this? Paul tells us in Romans 5:6,8,

"For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly... But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

And, of course, the famous words of Christ in John 3:16-18,

"For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that every one who believes in him shall not be lost, but should have eternal life. You must understand that God has not sent his Son into the world to pass sentence upon it, but to save it - through him. Any man who believes in him is not judged at all. It is the one who will not believe who stands already condemned, because he will not believe in the character of God's only Son."

God loved us so much that He made a way to save us, and that way is Jesus Christ Himself. But we Christians often get stuck at this point. Salvation is the end for many Christians. They just want heaven, they don't want hell. They want to know they are right with God. They want to know they are saved, and once they have that assurance, they are satisfied. But the Bible makes it very clear that salvation is not the end, but the opening of the door to the true beginning. A beginning to what? To a restored relationship with God the Father Himself. In our fallen state, it is hard to imagine the reality that we are created to find all of our fulfillment and satisfaction in a real and living relationship with God. This is because all of our desires and affections have been corrupted and turned to anything other than God. We can easily imagine how money will make us happy, but we cannot understand how a relationship with God will satisfy. Let me borrow from a previous blog entry (the sermon), and bring in a passage from Psalms. The Psalmist does an excellent job describing this sentiment in Psalm 73,

"Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth. My flesh and my heart may fail, But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For, behold, those who are far from You will perish; You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to You. But as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, That I may tell of all Your works."

The psalmist found his highest desire in God. Did not Jesus describe eternal life itself as knowing God?

"This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." (John 17:3)

Life is found in knowing God and His Son, but, as I've already said, because of our sin it is utterly impossible for us to find our life in God or to know Him apart from Christ and what He accomplished,

"Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.'" (John 14:6)

God is our life, but He is inaccessible to us apart from Christ. Without Christ, we could only gaze at the tree of life from the other side of a flaming sword - a sword that was an insurmountable barrier between us and God - but in Christ, we can freely taste and see that our God is good, and drink from the fountains of living water.
With this foundation laid down, we are now ready to directly tackle Matthew 16:24-25, the verse with which this blog entry opened, and really understand what Jesus is saying. Think on these things and join me again in the near future when I continue on this topic.