In Matthew 19, a wealthy young man asked Jesus, “What good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?” Jesus tells him he must keep the commandments, and the man says he has kept them. But he knows he is still lacking something! Jesus gets right to the heart of the matter by then saying, “If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me” (Matthew 19:16-26). The young man is heartbroken and goes away grieving, because he owned much property. A shallow reading of this statement may leave the impression that Jesus wants His followers to own nothing and live a life of poverty and destitution. But that conclusion would miss the point.
The problem for the wealthy young man was Self-rule. He proved this when he proudly told Jesus of his good Self-performance in keeping the commandments. But yet he knew he was still lacking what was necessary to gain heaven. Achievement, wealth, status, performance, accumulation of things, power, and status are all Self-driven pursuits. They are pitiful and futile efforts to atone for the treasonous sinner and reconcile him to God.
So, Jesus plunged right into the heart of the prideful Self-rule beast by declaring the young man must give away all his wealth, that he must empty himself and become dependent upon Jesus in following Him. A return to the posture of humility is pivotal for making the decision to deny Self and take up your cross daily to follow Jesus. Jesus is the only way, the narrow way to the Father, and He requires the return of the creature to humility, the denial of Self. This place of entire dependence on God is essential to restoring the right and natural relationship between the creature and the Creator. Self does not die quickly, and it does not go quietly into the night. The narrow way is described as a way of suffering. Paul told of his path of suffering the loss of all things, in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus,
But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3:7-11)
A life of self-denial also goes hand-in-hand with the willingness to suffer various trials which test the genuineness of our faith (1 Peter 1:6-7), and persecutions because we live a godly life (2 Timothy 3:10-12). Yes, you should certainly count the cost of following Jesus! But you must also count the cost of not following Him. We began this study of denying Self with Jesus’ words in Luke 9:23. We must return there and continue reading verses 24 and 25, “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it. For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits himself?”
The cost of “saving” our lives, of grasping onto Self-rule, and the trappings of Self-achievement, possessions, and status, is losing our lives for eternity. By holding onto Self, we remain unreconciled with our Creator – and that is the highest cost!
