giving up of His unsinning self life to God,--just as solemn must it be
between us and our God--the giving up of self to death. The power of
the death of Christ must come to work in us every day. Oh, think what a
contrast between that self-willed Peter, and Jesus giving up His will to
God! What a contrast between that self-exaltation of Peter, and the deep
humility of the Lamb of God, meek and lowly in heart before God and man!
What a contrast between that self-confidence of Peter, and that deep
dependence of Jesus upon the Father, when He said: "I can do nothing of
myself." We are called upon to live the life of Christ, and Christ comes to
live His life in us; but one thing must first take place; we must learn to
hate this self, and to deny it. As Peter said, when he denied Christ, "I
have nothing to do with him," so we must say, "I have nothing to do with
self," that Christ Jesus may be all in all. Let us humble ourselves at the
thought of what this self has done to us and how it has dishonored Jesus;
and let us pray very fervently: "Lord, by Thy light discover this self; we
beseech Thee to discover it to us. Open our eyes, that we may see what it
has done, and that it is the only hindrance that has been keeping us back."
Let us pray that fervently, and then let us wait upon God until we get away
from all our religious exercises, and from all our religious experience,
and from all our blessings, until we get close to God, with this one
prayer: "Lord God, self changed an archangel into a devil, and self ruined
my first parents, and brought them out of Paradise into darkness and
misery, and self has been the ruin of my life and the cause of every
failure; oh, discover it to me." And then comes the blessed exchange, that
a man is made willing and able to say: "Another will live the life for me,
another will live with me, another will do all for me," Nothing else will
do. Deny self; take up the cross, to die with Jesus; follow Him only. May
He give us the grace to understand, and to receive, and to live the Christ
life.