Believers and Disciples 5

Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. (Luke 9:23 NIV)

Now, let us take a look at the conditions to be a disciple.

From the passage above, we see Jesus state, in clear terms, the conditions for being a follower/learner of his.

“Whoever wants…” tells me the call is open to all (believers) and that each person is individually responsible for deciding whether he or she wants to be Jesus’ disciple.

To be a disciple, Jesus said, one must, as conditions to be fulfilled

• deny himself
• take up his cross
• follow him.

The Amplified version of the verse sheds more light as to what two of the conditions mean:

“And He said to all, If any person wills to come after Me, let him deny himself [disown himself, forget, lose sight of himself and his own interests, refuse and give up himself] and take up his cross daily and follow Me [cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying also].” (Luke 9:23 AMPC)

Most Christians only know of self-denial in fasting. Fasting from food, drink, sex, etc. This is because very few really have an understanding of what the self is. The various versions of the Bible could help give insights as to what the self is.

What the KJV called ‘flesh’ in Galatians 5:19 is what ERV called ‘sinful self’, and GNB called 'human nature’, and MSG called a life. The works, acts, or things that the self does are quite clear and obvious, as that verse says. Verses 19-21 of the Good News Bible version read thus:

“What human nature does is quite plain. It shows itself in immoral, filthy, and indecent actions; in worship of idols and witchcraft. People become enemies, and they fight; they become jealous, angry, and ambitious. They separate into parties and groups; they are envious, get drunk, have orgies, and do other things like these. I warn you now as I have before: those who do these things will not possess the Kingdom of God.

The list actually goes on and on.

If I were someone who worships idols and practices witchcraft, there is no difference between me and someone envious of another or an ambitious man. We are all operating from the realms of human nature.

Romans 8:8 says, “Those who obey their human nature cannot please God.”

Knowing what the self is should give us an idea of what it means to deny the self. Denying oneself can only be possible for a believer. There is no way an unregenerated soul can possibly deny himself.  Verse 9 of Romans 8 speaks to believers thus:

But you do not live as your human nature tells you to; instead, you live as the Spirit tells you to — if, in fact, God's Spirit lives in you. Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

A believer receives the Holy Spirit as a gift from the Father at salvation. It is the presence of the Holy Spirit that now confers on the believers this ability to deny self/human nature, giving a contrary directive to what the self wants.

Galatians 5:16‭-‬17GNB says

What I say is this: let the Spirit direct your lives, and you will not satisfy the desires of the human nature. For what our human nature wants is opposed to what the Spirit wants, and what the Spirit wants is opposed to what our human nature wants. These two are enemies, and this means that you cannot do what you want to do.