Christian churches, both denominational and not, each have their own criteria for entry into Heaven. Jesus provided three conditions, “Then said Jesus unto his disciples, ‘If any man will come after Me, let him (1) deny himself, and (2) take up His cross, and (3) follow Me” (Mat 16:24).
First off, “man” is literally not
in the original Greek; it is “if any.”
Maybe Jesus left the word ‘man’
out intentionally, not because it elevated only the male, but because depraved
men and women are not ‘man’ in the sense that Adam was the kind called ‘man.’
Jesus would refer to degenerates
for what they are — something less than man as God created him. That he glossed
‘man’ and substituted “any” may have some significance. It includes everyone
because “all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God” (Rom 3:23). Coming
short since Adam was made glorious, makes those living in His time less
than ‘man.’
It should be humbling to know
that you are neither glorious nor the dominant kind, but brutish, even more so
than the beasts. How many beasts set off atomic bombs? Only our kind.
Hopefully, that should humble you.
The first sin was man against
themselves. Both the Adam’s ate forbidden fruit. They died in two senses of
death: (1) their souls were emptied of the Image of God and (2) they assumed a
very different corruptible type of flesh to replace their incorruptible. The first
was immediate and the second a process in time in that they withered away as we
still do to this day.
What differentiates man from beast?
The value of life. For instance, Cain placed no value on the life of his
brother; he challenged God, (Gen 4:9) “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Indeed, he
was! As the son of Adam, just as Adam was the keeper of the Garden, so it was
for Cain.
Then Cain became the ‘god.’ Rather
than wait on Abel to live a full life and die naturally, Cain speeded up the
process. He was an ‘Antigod’ in the sense that he could not create but he could
take away life.
Cain was marked by God in some
manner. Because there were giants in those days, (Gen 6:1), I believe that Cain
was a hybrid being of some sort — another kind. As it turned out, inglorious
Cain was made a ‘beast’ of some sort so that righteous men would not kill him…
Seth’s lineage.
The first thing that the ‘free
range’ beast did in his new world was to kill. In one generation, man had
become brutish like the Beast. Killing his own flesh caused that degeneration
as both Cain and Abel had the same father, Adam, or so it was believed.
Cain was killed by his own kind —
blind Lamech. Lamech snuffed out the life of his own flesh and soon after, war
was brought into existence with Genun who invented it. Note that Gen-un made
death and murder genetic. [1]
As a general rule, only a few of the other species destroy their young. They may prevent the birthing process by destroying their own eggs (ovicide) but not with killing their own flesh and blood (infanticide). Any of the kinds known to do that was almost unheard of until recently, but now even many animals kill their young for various reasons. (I remember our mother cat eating several of her young and at five years old found that abhorrent.) About zoological infanticide, Wikipedia writes:
Infanticide only came to be seen as a significant occurrence in nature quite recently. At the time it was first seriously treated by Yukimaru Sugiyama, infanticide was attributed to stress causing factors like overcrowding and captivity, and was considered pathological and maladaptive. Classical ethology held that conspecifics (members of the same species) rarely killed each other. By the 1980s it had gained much greater acceptance. Possible reasons it was not treated as a prevalent natural phenomenon include its abhorrence to people…
Now even so called ‘humane’ women destroy their young and
often with the consent of the men, not for stressful reasons, but because babies
are inconvenient.
Although this commentary is not
about abortion nor infanticide, since 1980 points toward infanticide as one
indication that the end is near. Killing your own flesh was the worst sin
against another being and still is.
Remembering that the modus
operandi of the Wicked One is deception, claiming “My body; my choice” is
the Big Lie. It is another body and not another creature. Ironically, “believe
the science’ is also in vogue, all the while people say irrational things.
Note that science says that
infanticide has gained much acceptance and that it is no longer abhorrent to
people. People have become conditioned to death. Killing their own children makes
them more like the beasts.
Cain’s own progeny, blind Lamech,
killed the aged Cain. That was the first case of euthanasia (geronticide).
People kill elderly people because
the aged and infirmed are inconvenient. I winced when I realized that even
Hospice kills people by starvation and drugging them in the most ‘humane’ way
so that they will die humanely. Henrich Himmler would be pleased with both the
humane method and lack of awareness that they were dying.
The recent killing of ‘non-human’
Jews by Hamas reveals that many are no longer humane nor even human. They are
beasts and those who support such genocide on the part of Hamas are merely herds
of beasts following their natural instincts to accept any new thing that denigrates
others.
In short, perhaps Jesus did not use
the word ‘man’ because mankind was glorious, and now they are brutish.
Jesus went onto say, if any “come
after Me.” Note that on Palm Sunday, many praised Him but only a week later,
many of the same people, even the elite, came after Jesus, not to follow Him
but to kill Him.
Jesus had to clarify what He
meant by coming after. The first step in coming after Jesus, is denying
oneself. Peter denied Jesus, but he was humbled; then he followed Jesus all
the Way to the Cross on which Nero hung him.
The first step in denying oneself
is a pragmatic self-examination; you are not God nor any god and therefore you
can neither create nor save. You will die, die as “surely die” literally
means (Gen 1:31). “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the
judgment” (Heb 9:27).
The first death is certain; we
all have an appointment with the angel of death. Then comes judgment. We need
not die the second death — the death of the soul.
So how can anyone deny
themselves? By having right perspectives about who or what we are. Even Christians
are sinners that are saved by grace, meaning that we do not deserve salvation
but can be saved, not by following Jesus part of the Way, but all
the Way to the crucifixion. Peter, at first in denial, in the process of time,
followed Jesus all the Way to the Cross. No longer did Peter deny Jesus but denied
Peter. He had no power over Caesar, and he was then killed in the same manner
as Jesus.
Peter gave up his life long
before he gave up his life, so to speak. That may sound confusing, but professing
Jesus to the world and to Nero was exchanging his former life for a new one.
Peter went from fishing for fish
to fishing for men. He also gave up his name, Simeon for Peter. His nature
changed gradually. No longer was Peter the ‘Pebble’ as that name means, but
Jesus renamed him Cephas, the ‘Rock.’
Jesus did a makeover with Simon,
but people since the beginning of time make themselves over in various pagan
images, the most horrible image of them all was Jezebel.
Denying yourself is ceasing to
pay so much attention to the world and the things of the flesh. In this age, nearly
everything is about you. You are not even satisfied with your flesh but often
create new flesh that is more pleasing to you.
Marking the flesh is the most
obvious, but to have a presentable image, John wore rudimentary clothes. He never
needed a preacher’s suit to preach nor even the best suit to baptize. He could
have baptized naked, as early Catholic priests soon did, but John wore a suit
of camel’s hair much like the Garment of Adam in the beginning.
Being in the flesh is presenting
yourself for what you are not. You are not a snake and to make the skin as
beautiful as a snake’s is quite a strong statement who it is that you follow.
Wearing an arrogant suit to
church or to preach, is play-acting royalty. It reveals the things that are
important to you.
I am not any different. At times
I proudly place a high-dollar fountain pen in my short pocket to be noticed. That
also is in the flesh. We all are in the flesh and Christians often conceal the
Holy Spirit behind our dramatic faces as if in a play.
Denying the flesh is walking as
Jesus walked. He never ever would have dressed like media preachers today, nor
would He overly magnify Himself, albeit He had a right to. (God did that at the
transfiguration.)
Jesus is known for his meekness.
He put no stock in His Flesh, but it was the Spirit of God that He was to
manifest. Nowadays so many people manifest the demonic spirit of the Wicked
One, and wear garments made in the manner of him.
Denying yourself is admitting
that you are no god at all. Even the Serpent knew that! (Gen 3:5), so quit
acting as if you are. The world is not all about you, albeit we all have
inclinations to make it self-centric with over self-estimation. (Christ esteem is
what is lacking in people.)
Finally, we are to “take up His Cross,
and follow Me,” so said Jesus.
The most obvious two that did were
the repentant thief and Simon who carried the Cross of Jesus.
The less obvious was Judas whose ‘cross’
was a tree. He took it up to follow Jesus in death (by suicide), but it was not
for Jesus but to redeem himself.
Ironically, salvation is for
self-exaltation. Even that humble state that it is for each of us, to provide
for us room in the mansion of God, and forever.
Salvation allows us to squat on
the Estate of God to be realistic, but those who trust Jesus see it as the way
to glorify God. In other words, salvation is not all about you but all about
God. If you only want to go to Paradise for your sake, then that makes you ‘God.’
Taking up the Cross is to do so, not for your preservation per se
but to please God. His expectation is that you will glorify Him and not
yourselves.
Denying yourself is having right
reasons, and those reasons are not to escape Hell nor for life in Paradise, but
to honor God.
For those reasons, God expects those
who will abide with Him forever to begin denying themselves now; we must not
wait until we get there to glorify God for glorifying God is the Way to get
there. Hence, our ‘crosses’ that we are to bear is to deny our fleshly desires.
It is not so easy to take off our flesh, so the next best thing is not to let
it burden us.
Jesus carried a weighty Cross.
Our ‘crosses’ are much different. We need only to shed the flesh that the Serpent
gave us so that the flesh that God created for us can carry the burden.
In that process, the work is made
easy just like in the beginning when God did it all. Taking up our crosses is trusting
Jesus to get us where He was going!
(Picture credit; Alamy)
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