Death to Self…. Alive to Christ
Dave Hess served as a missionary to the Middle East for thirty years. His calling as a missionary was clear…. God called him to build God’s church abroad. Recently God called him back to the United States to minister to former Muslims who have turned to Christ. They have been delivered by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, from the false the false teachings of Islam.
Is humility the greatest need in God’s kingdom? Some say love is the greatest need. Humility and love are closely related. To come to Jesus Christ requires a heart of humility and meekness. Jesus said, whoever wants to be my disciple must deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me. To live unto Christ we must die to self…. This is a cardinal tenet of our church fathers… theirs is a history of death to self to live for Christ.
The message of Brokenness and death to self is the message of the cross. All other biblical teaching springs from the foundation of the cross of Christ.
AB Simpson says True humility is not thinking merely of ourselves, it is not thinking of ourselves at all. This message flies in the face of the cult of people-worship. The message of hero worship is a toxic doctrine.
Some of the most popular books are the biographies of so-called great men. They may have been on fire with zeal and enthusiasm to follow God’s calling for one “brief and shining moment.” The problem with a charismatic leader is that if their appeal is based on the cult of personality, then their flame will quickly flame out.
Roy Hession wrote the book The Calvary Road. This book was required reading when David was training to be a missionary. The theme of this book is humility…. that we should die to self to live for Christ. When we feel the tinge of envy, criticism, irritability, covetousness, fear or any other earthly passion, triggered by our interaction with others —- then give it to Jesus and he will cleanse our heart. When we look around and are irritated by certain traits in another person, take this irritation and leave it the foot of the cross of Calvary. To do this, We must first be frozen in humility. That is, we must yield to God over the whole question, what did that person do or say that offended me? When we approach God’s throne of grace, he will reconcile our hearts with his heart through the power of the cross of Christ…. Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf reconciles our hearts with God’s heart. Then when our hearts are vertically aligned with God’s heart, he will change our hearts to love others horizontally. Then with loving compassion we can pray for them as Jesus prayed, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.
Jesus said, Judge not lest ye be not judged. He did not call us to judge… only God himself is the righteous judge. If we consider the sin of others and judge them with a heart of condemnation, then ours is the greater sin. Jesus said, “yank the plank”. The plank is the sin of thinking that we can look down on them from a position of superiority. To yank the plank means to confess our sin of judgementalism. Then we can see clearly to minister to others.
There are many verses on humility. Jesus said in Matthew 16:24-25, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
In some parts of the Middle East, when a Christian invites a Muslim to follow Christ, it literally means that they may lose their life. The message of salvation to Muslims is clear: in order to follow Chist, we must die to self…. Christianity is not an enhancement to build up yourself… instead Christianity is to die to self to live for Christ.
According toJohn 3:30, John the Baptist said, I must decrease that he might increase. John 15:5 says, apart from me you can do nothing. 1 Peter 5:5 says, clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
According to James 4, Humble yourselves before the Lord and He will exalt you.
Some false teachers emphasize “what’s in it for me?” The preferred pronouns for the false gospel of prosperity are me, myself, and I. They say, God’s purpose is that I would be self fulfilled, self actualized and self glorified. However, the pride of man goes before a fall. God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.
John the Baptist, whom Jesus said is the greatest man born of a woman, said, Jesus must become more important that I may become less important. According to the King James Version John said, “I must decrease that he may increase.”
In the vernacular of today’s social media culture, “Jesus must get more followers, likes, and partners on His greater social media platform, while I lose followers and donors as my reputation fades into obscurity.” We would not see John the Baptist’s website entitled “www.none is greater than me.com.”
