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{The Application
Application for the Godly
Directions for Carrying On a Constant Holy Course of Life
“Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me’” (Matthew 16:24 NASB). Remember your covenant: you have given yourselves to the Lord, and are now no longer your own. You are not debtors to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. You owe nothing to your flesh; you have already paid it more than its due. Let him who lives, live for the Lord. Let those for whom Christ died live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.
Christ and self are contrary. You cannot serve both of these two masters. If you will not deny yourselves, you necessarily deny your Lord. And if you can deny yourselves in all possible things, you will deny Christ in nothing. If you can heartily say, “Not my will,” you can easily add, “but yours be done.”
But what is this self we must deny? My answer is similar to what Christ said to the woman of Samaria, “The one whom you now have is not your husband” (John 4:18 NASB). That which you think is your self not your self. You call and consider it your self, and you love and cherish it as your self, but it is not your self. That which is here called your self is elsewhere in Scripture called your flesh, your corrupt or carnal part.320 This corruption has invaded your understanding and sticks there, giving you evil counsel. This corruption has invaded your will and sticks there, swaying you to choose your hurt in all things. This corruption has invaded your appetite and makes you lust after all things that are subtly harmful to you. It makes you resist all that would do you good. This is your self to be denied: the corruption of your nature that has insinuated itself into all of your parts and powers and that governs you in all your actions. This corruption is that which carries you away from God, keeps you from Christ, resists the Word of Life, leads you out of the way of life, and leads you around to pursue your pleasures, sports and companions. It holds you down to this earth and is dragging you to Hell.
This corruption makes sinners say concerning the Word of Life, “As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord, we will not listen to you! But we will certainly do whatever has gone out of our own mouth” (Jeremiah 44:16–17 NKJV). This corruption makes them say about Christ, “We will not have this man to reign over us” (Luke 19:14). Let the world reign if it wishes. Let the devil reign if he wishes. Let pride, envy, and malice reign if they want. But whoever reigns, this Man will not reign over me. It is this corruption that lays so many stumbling blocks and creates so many difficulties in the way of holiness. It makes this way seem too difficult and narrow, the duties of it impossible, and the troubles of it intolerable. Were it not for this, the way of Christ would be easy and His burden light.321 This is that self that must be denied if you want to follow Christ.
If you ask what it is to deny self, in short, it is to shake off its government, resist its reasoning, disobey its commands, refuse to follow its inclinations, or satisfy its lusts.
Brethren, whatever Christ counsels you or commands, then as I told you earlier, this self will be reasoning against it and countermanding it. When Christ says to be humble, watchful, circumspect, and perfect, and to labor, run, strive, and suffer, your flesh will contradict it. This is a hard master. These are hard sayings. All this is both needless and intolerable. Shake off your heavy yoke and take your liberty. Turn out of this difficult way and go your own way. Pity yourself and spare yourself. Do not put yourself to such hard service when you may be free. Or at least you may abate some of this strictness. You want to be holy, but why put so much care and labor into it? Allow yourself some liberty, ease, and pleasure. And if you yield a little, then it will counsel you to take a little more, and a little more, and never give up until it has persuaded you out of all Christianity and commanded you into very brutes or devils.
But what will we do? And how will we deal with this self when it is so set against us?
Why, return the same answer to it as Christ did to Peter when he gave Him similar counsel to pity Himself: “Get behind me, Satan!” (Matthew 16:23). Hold your peace, devil. Speak no more of this to me. Say to this flesh like the men of Sodom said to Lot, “Stand back! This one came in to stay here, and he wants to be a judge or ruler” (Genesis 19:9).322 You have stolen in, I know not how. You have stolen into my head, stolen in, I know not how. You have stolen into my heart, and now you think you will be a counselor or ruler. Stand back, flesh, and hold your peace, for I may not listen to you. Say to it like what the king of Israel said concerning the prophet, “I hate him, for he never speaks good to me, but evil” (1 Kings 22:8). Say to this wicked flesh like what the wicked ones said against the Lord, “I will not do the word you have spoken to me” (Jeremiah 44:16–17). You will not have the liberty you demand or the pleasure and ease you crave. I will not allow you. My Lord, against whom you counsel me, He will be my Lord; Him I will love, obey, and follow in all that He will say to me. I will not pamper this flesh, but pinch it more. I will not humor this fleshly mind, but thwart it the more. I will not feed this fleshly appetite, but confine it more against its cravings and lust. I will not pray or fast less, and I will not hear fewer sermons just because this flesh is against it. But I will pray and fast more, beat down this body, and bring it into greater subjection with more care and diligence. I will starve this proud beggar and weary it out of its imperious demands. If I am able, it will get nothing by all this commotion it makes except greater confinement. I will deny myself in what I allow myself, because I will not feed or foster such an enemy.
Oh, Christians! What an exact life we might live and with what ease we might go on in our holy way of life if this enemy were finally put out of action. What an unlimited dominion our Lord would have over us if this self were pulled down from sitting with Him on His throne? And how much may the flesh be destroyed by our constant denial of it? Keep the flesh low, and by degrees you will kill it.
But woe to us! What friends we are to this enemy. How gently do we deal with this old man. What provision we make for this flesh. What we have a mind to get, we must have. What we have a mind to do, we will do. To where we have a mind to go, to there we will go. And we seldom give our intellects or consciences liberty to say to us, “What are you doing?” We seldom let them judge whether something is good, fit, or safe for us or not. We are just like some fond parents, who, when their child cries, even if it is for a knife or handful of filth, will give it to them to quiet them. A wise parent would rather give his child the rod than than something that will hurt it. He knows that a child that always has what it wants will come to greater harm. Oh! Check and whip this brat, the flesh, and do not let your soul spare it on account of its crying. It is better for the child to cry than the parent, and better that flesh cry than the soul and conscience.
But, oh, what a sad wonder it is to observe how strangely indulgent too many Christians are in this way. They allow their flesh to lead them into almost anything. In their self-seeking, flesh-pleasing life, they have equaled or even exceeded many in the carnal world! What great liberty many who seem to be Christians have taken in the days of their prosperity, even some of the most prominent. Some are seeking great things for themselves (Jeremiah 45:5), driving so hard after estates, honor, high places, and so on, as though they meant to return and take their portion with the men of this world. Others, living in pleasure like Solomon (1 Timothy 5:6; James 5:5; Ecclesiastes 2:10), do not keep from themselves anything their eyes desire or withhold from themselves any joy. It is as if they hoped to charm the flesh out of its enmity or kill it by kindness. Or it is as if the flesh were this kind of enemy: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; If he is thirsty, give him a drink; For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head” (Romans 12:20 NKJV). They will never say no, whenever it craves. Oh, what liberty we have seen taken by many such Christians in excessive feasting, costly attire, vain fashions, and frothy, light, and carnal merriment. Yes, some even despise and condemn the stricter and more self-denying way. They despise the more disciplined and mortified Christians as if their virtues came out of an affectation of voluntary humility or an ignorance of their Christian liberty.
But is this indeed the way to crucify the flesh? Or have you gotten it so much under command already that you can now securely trust it with anything it would want without fear of it getting an advantage or making war against Christ or your souls again?
Look at yourselves, Christians. Look back and consider whether your souls have not suffered while your flesh has been thus gorged. Consider whether there have not been some things withdrawn from Christ for every allowance made to the flesh.323 Consider whether God has not been provoked while self has been pleased. Think sadly whether this abuse of our liberty is not something that the Lord is pleading with us about and scourging us for. We have even given the Lord reason to cast us into the house of mourning in order to repair the breaches that have been made in our souls in our houses of feasting. And our Lord Jesus puts us more severely to our second lesson, “Take up your cross,”324 because we did not better learn our first lesson, “Deny yourselves.”
320This definition of self as the flesh, as used in the present context, is not found in Scripture. Alleine does well to teach that aspect of self-denial that consists in the rejection of all that is carnal and sinful in our lives. In that context, he gives much helpful advice and instruction. It is also true that Scripture condemns self-centeredness and selfishness. However, self-denial also involves sacrificing and spending ourselves and what we possess when it is necessary in order to do Christ’s will. This self-sacrifice includes not only that which is sinful, but it will often include that which is harmless and even that which is good and useful. In such a long and comprehensive work, Alleine would have done well to include a section on the distinct topic of personal sacrifice. However, it cannot be doubted that Alleine understood the need for personal sacrifice; this teaching is implied throughout the book and actual examples are given at times. To sum all up, denying ourselves means obeying and loving Christ at all personal costs, knowing that both we and all that God has put into our care are not our own property but God’s. We are stewards and bondslaves of Christ, wholly subject to a will, God’s will, other than our own.
321Christ’s burden is heavy when we refuse to deny ourselves due to the burden of resistance against Him. When we struggle against His yoke, it is a hard yoke. But once we have denied ourselves and unconditionally surrendered to Him, His burden is light and His yoke easy, just as Christ told us (Matthew 11:28–30).
322The actual Scripture text does not have “or ruler.”
323In this sentence, “Consider whether there have not been some things withdrawn from Christ for every allowance made to the flesh,” Alleine sums up the issue nicely. In similar fashion, the editor wishes to suggest to the modern reader that he or she should consider the role of entertainment, recreation, social activities, and hobbies in his or her life. For example, statistics on internet and broadcast entertainment consumption strongly suggest that the waste of otherwise potentially productive time is massive. It seems to be the case that all people need some amount of recreation. And similarly to nutritional needs, no same amount or type of recreation can be prescribed for all people. But, just as food consumption must meet the needs of stewardship of strength of body without gluttony, so recreation consumption should do the same for the mind and spirit, strengthening them for Christ’s service.
324There are many who believe that our cross(es) are merely sufferings. While Alleine’s literary device here is not to be despised, the reader will do well to realize that there is more to our cross than suffering. Christ did not go to the Cross merely to suffer. He went to the Cross to save, redeem, and greatly bless His chosen people. In order to do so, He had to suffer as the perfect and acceptable sacrifice. In other words, the emphasis of the Cross is on Christ’s work, mission, and atoning self-sacrifice, not on the sufferings that attended them as a necessary consequence. Christ most certainly did take the punishment and just wrath of God upon Himself in the place of His redeemed sinners. But there is a difference between a goal or purpose of something and what it takes to accomplish it. The goal was saving sinners, and to accomplish that, Christ had to suffer horribly. Thus, to “take up our cross” is not merely to suffer, but to do the work to which God has called us while living a holy life, in spite of hardship and suffering. That is what Christ did for us.
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