Jesus said if anyone wants to follow Him, they must first deny themselves (Luke 9:23). What does it mean to deny yourself? It means you must deny your ego. You have been bought for a price, and your life no longer belongs to you (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). You are a slave of Jesus Christ (Romans 6:22). How could you, a slave, think more highly of yourself than anyone else (Philippians 2:3-5)?
You don’t have the right to make your own decisions, as every choice must now align with God’s will and His Word. As slaves of Christ, we are the lowest of the low, deserving of nothing, and any good that comes our way is only by the incredible grace of our Lord and King (Ephesians 2:8-9). We are nothing, but that’s okay, because He is everything!
To deny yourself means you must deny what you think you deserve because the truth is you deserve the opposite of what you think. You don’t deserve fame and fortune; you deserve Hell. God sets the standard by which each of us must live (Romans 2:6-8). He is holy, so we must be holy (1 Peter 1:15-16). The problem is we all have sinned and fall short of His standard for holiness and righteousness (Romans 3:23). As sinners, we cannot approach the throne of a sinless God (Habakkuk 1:13). Given this, perhaps the first step in denying yourself is to acknowledge who you are: a hopeless sinner deserving of eternal punishment from the all-holy and Almighty God (Romans 6:23)!
We must die to everything this world has to offer. Die to the love of money, cars, houses, prestige, success, social status. Everything in this world is absolute garbage (Philippians 3:7-8). It’s all temporary and cannot bring lasting peace or joy (1 John 2:17). Most important of all, it’s all dead. There is no life in the things of this world, so why do you work so hard for any of it (Matthew 6:19-21)? If we love the things of this world, it is proof we have no love for God (1 John 2:15). Why is it so hard to deny ourselves what society tells us we must have despite knowing how fake and deceiving it all is (Colossians 3:2)?
On a more positive note, when you deny yourself, you lose the right to fear anything. Imagine the freedom of living life without fear! What does it matter what happens to you? Jesus informs us we have nothing to fear from those who can only harm our bodies (Matthew 10:28). Only what you do for Jesus matters. When you deny yourself, you surrender everything to Christ. That includes our right to be afraid. If God is for us, who can be against us (Romans 8:31)? Nothing can separate us from His eternal and unconditional love (Romans 8:38-39). He promises that if we remain in Him, He will make a place in Heaven for us (John 14:2-3). By denying ourselves for a little while, we gain more than we could ever hope or imagine (2 Corinthians 4:17-18).
Maybe there’s one more we should mention: to deny yourself means to give up the pursuit of acceptance or being understood. Life is not about you; it’s about Jesus! The point of living is not to define yourself but to find yourself in Christ (Colossians 3:3-4). Whether your friends and neighbors like you is meaningless if they can’t see Christ in you (Matthew 5:14-16). What good is it to be accepted and watch everyone you know go to Hell (Mark 8:36)? Focus on what matters and discard all the rest. What matters is Jesus, not you. Pick up your cross, deny yourself, and follow Him (Luke 9:23). It is the only way to live.