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In Luke 9:23, Jesus reveals the exceedingly strict commands believers must obey to continually follow Him. For this, Christ requires that we completely deny ourselves and daily take up our crosses. However, as examples both within and without Scripture show, many believers fail to exhibit continual self-denial, with them instead suffering countless failures and struggling endlessly with habitual sins. Thankfully, God's Word reveals that through the means He has provided, living a continually spiritually led, self-denied life before Him is possible.
To understand why God's method alone produces this spiritually obedient and abundant living, an understanding of how God designed us is required. As 1 Thessalonians 5:23 notes, He created all human beings with three major parts: spirit, soul, and body. While many people believe the spirit and soul are the same, Hebrews 4:12 confirms they are different parts. This fact is crucial in our walk before God because our spirit contains His life upon salvation (Eze. 36:26), is indwelled by the Holy Spirit (Eze. 36:27), and is the only part of us that can genuinely worship the Lord (Joh. 4:24). Conversely, the soul-the seat of our mind, will, and emotions-is bound by the flesh's natural, self-conscious life that can only succumb to arrogant self-righteousness (Luk. 18:9-14) or unrighteous lusts (Gal. 5:19-21). Furthermore, as 1 Corinthians 2:11 states, those who live according to the soul-life cannot attain what is spiritual because the Holy Spirit alone can impart this understanding to us. Thus, our spirit alone can follow Christ in self-denial, for the fleshly sins and spiritual insufficiencies our soul's self-life completely hinder us from doing so in our own strength.
However, living according to the spirit is impossible until we allow the Holy Spirit to deal with our self-life as Scripture dictates. John 12:24 describes this means of deliverance, where Jesus notes how a kernel of wheat cannot bear fruit unless it dies and releases is seeds. A similar example is that of an apple, which is comprised of an outer peel, an inner flesh, and seeds residing in its innermost parts. Similar to how the apple's edible peel and flesh draw our attention, we likewise focus our attention on our body and soul. However, our spirit requires us to die to the fleshly desires of these outer parts for it to grow and produce fruit via the Holy Spirit, resembling how an apple's seeds will only bear fruit when the other parts die. Romans 8:7-8 and Galatians 5:17 note that this death to self is necessary because the flesh is hostile to God, wars against the Holy Spirit, and is completely incapable of serving Him. Thus, dying to ourselves is necessary to live the self-denied life that allows the Holy Spirit to work unhindered through our human spirit.
Though the power necessary to do this cannot be found within our body or soul, the Bible thankfully reveals how we can receive it from God through our spirit. First, Galatians 5:24 notes that when Christ died for our sins, He also crucified our flesh along with its sinful desires and self-righteous passions. Next, Galatians 2:20 reveals that when we received salvation, we become identified with Christ's crucifixion, receiving His new life through Him regenerating our human spirit. The Holy Spirit then dwells within our spirit and promises to make this victory over the flesh our living experience when we walk by Him, as Galatians 5:16 states. When we do this by prayerfully surrendering all our fleshly, self-centered desires, attitudes, and behaviors to Him, He puts them to death by applying the perfect victory of Christ's crucifixion to them. This victory then frees the Holy Spirit to renew our mind as Romans 12:2 proclaims, enabling us to align our thoughts, desires, and life direction with God's perfect ones for us. Thus, through the power of Christ's victory on Calvary and the Holy Spirit's application of it, we can live the life of self-denial Christ calls us to.
Within our natural selves, there is no providence for self-denial that can please God or completely overcome the flesh. This high calling demands His divine intervention to conquer what we cannot through His Holy Spirit indwelling and transforming us through our human spirit. Receiving the intimate God-consciousness, spiritual fruitfulness, and eternal victory of Christ's abundant life requires that we rely on the Holy Spirit to crucify all that is of our flesh, which alone can enable us to live the self-denying life necessary to follow Christ and receive the fullness of God's best for us in this life and eternity.
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