The Christian Life Is One of Death to Self
The Christian life is a death path that requires surrender to God, dying to our old nature, and submitting to His will.
This sermon emphasizes the concept of surrendering to Christ, highlighting the necessity of dying to self in order to truly live in Christ's likeness. It delves into the struggle of letting go of possessions, desires, and personal will to fully submit to God's reign. The message challenges believers to embrace the path of death to self and carry their cross, acknowledging the difficulty and confrontation that comes with true discipleship.
Full Transcript
Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it. Whoever loses his life will keep it. Brethren, it's a place of death.
That's why it's hard. Because when you surrender to Christ, Christ is militant about turning you into His likeness. And there is so much in you that must die.
It is a place of death, and it's a place that's hard, and it's a place that's going to confront us. Listen to Tozer again. There is within the human heart a tough, fibrous root of fallen life whose nature is to possess, always to possess.
It covets things with a deep and fierce passion. The pronouns my and mine look innocent enough in print, but their constant and universal use is significant. They express the real nature of the old Adamic man better than a thousand volumes of theology could do.
They are verbal symptoms of our deep disease. The roots of our hearts have grown down into things, and we dare not pull up one rootlet lest we die. Brethren, you see the thing is that when God saves us, He means for all of us to be on the altar.
All of us. I don't say all of us numerically speaking. All of you.
All. All your plans, and all your desires, and all your life. God will not allow His reign to be challenged.
And brethren, you and I know it. Our wills are strong. And our desire to do what we want to do.
Brethren, it's strong. Christianity is simply, brethren, Christianity. It's not about simply getting our theology right.
We can get that idea, you know, I've got to believe right, and I've got all my doctrine down. Brethren, what Jesus tells us over and over again is if you're going to follow Me, I'm going to take you on a death path. There's a cross to carry.
And you know, we can look at it and say, well, not really. You know, not really. We don't literally have to carry a cross out there to Golgotha and actually be crucified.
But let me just ask you this. Would our Lord use the imagery? If what He really meant is the Christian life is easy? Or would He probably use that if really the Christian life was going to be that hard?
Sermon Outline
- I. The Christian Life Is One of Death to Self
- A. Surrender to Christ requires death to our old nature
- B. The old Adamic man is characterized by a desire to possess and control
- C. This desire must be surrendered to God
- II. The Difficulty of Surrender
- A. Our wills are strong and resistant to God's will
- B. Our desires and plans must be submitted to God
- C. This requires a willingness to die to ourselves
- III. The Christian Life Is a Death Path
- A. Jesus uses the imagery of a cross to describe the Christian life
- B. This imagery suggests a difficult and challenging path
- C. We must be willing to carry our cross and follow Jesus
Key Quotes
“Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it. Whoever loses his life will keep it.” — Tim Conway
“Our wills are strong. And our desire to do what we want to do.” — Tim Conway
“What Jesus tells us over and over again is if you're going to follow Me, I'm going to take you on a death path.” — Tim Conway
Application Points
- We must be willing to surrender to God and die to our old nature in order to follow Jesus.
- Our wills and desires must be submitted to God's will in order to live the Christian life.
- The Christian life is a challenging and difficult path that requires us to carry our cross and follow Jesus.