Scripture Reading: Matt. 16:21-26; Luke 9:23-25;Rom. 6:6; 8:13; Gal. 2:20; Eph. 3:17a
Ⅰ
We need to see a vision of the self so that the self may be exposed and deniedand that we may hate our independence from God and from theBody—Matt. 16:21-26; John 15:4-5; Philem. 8-14:
A
The self is the soul-life with the emphasis on human thoughts and opinions—Matt. 16:23-25:
１
In Matthew 16:23-25 three terms are related to one another: mind, himself,and soul-life.
２
Our mind is the expression of our self, and our self is the embodiment of oursoul-life—vv. 23-25.
３
Our soul-life is embodied and lived out by our self, and our self is expressedthrough our mind, idea, thought, concept, and opinion—vv. 22-23.
B
The self is the embodiment of Satan; the self is the essence of Satan in the soul,making the soul independent from God to express its self-opinion and self-will—v. 23:
１
The origin of the self was Satan's injecting his thought into the humanmind—Gen. 3:1-6.
２
The soul became the self when something of Satan was added to the soul;the thing that was added to the soul was the thought, or the mind, of Satan—Matt. 16:23; 2 Cor. 11:3.
３
The self is the soul plus the satanic mind—Matt. 16:23, 25.
C
If we have a vision of the self, we will see what the self is—the self is the souldeclaring its independence from God—v. 23; Luke 14:26; Job 42:5-6:
１
Due to the fall, the soul created by God declared independence from God—Gen. 3:1-6:
ａ
Man took the thought, the idea, of Satan into his soul, resulting in thesoul becoming the self, which is independent of God.
ｂ
The soul is especially independent of God in the opinion and in the will—Matt. 16:22-23:
⑴
The self is something of Satan in the soul expressed through theopinions—v. 23.
⑵
We have opinions as the incarnation and manifestation of the selfbecause we are independent of God; the more we are independent ofGod, the more we have opinions as the manifestation of the self.
２
Whenever we do something by ourselves without depending on God, we arein the self—vv. 22-23; cf. Phil. 3:3.
３
Being independent of the Body is equal to being independent of God.
Ⅱ
The hindrance to seeing the vision of the Body and to practicing the Bodylife is the self—Col. 1:18; 2:18-20, 23; 3:15:
A
The Body is versus the self, and the self is the enemy of the Body—Matt.16:18, 23.
B
Because the self is something independent of the Lord and of the Body, the selfis the greatest problem to the building up of the Body—Col. 1:18; 2:1-19, 23:
１
When we have the self, we do not have the Body—Matt. 16:24.
２
When we have the Body, we do not have the self—v. 18; Eph. 4:16.
C
We should deny ourselves and identify ourselves with the Body; if we do this,the life we live will fully be the Body life, and the Lord will gain the expressionof His Body—1 Cor. 12:27; Col 1:18; 3:15.
D
In order for the Body to be built up, the self, the independent soul, must becondemned, denied, rejected, and renounced—Matt. 16:18, 21-26; Luke 9:23-25.
Ⅲ
We should deny the self, take up our cross, and follow the Lord—Matt. 16:24:
A
For a person to overly care for himself is for him to love the self and to alwayslook at, think about, and consider himself—2 Tim. 3:2.
B
To deny the self is to forget about our self and to forfeit our soul-life; losing thesoul-life is the reality of denying the self—Matt. 16:26; Luke 9:24-25.
C
We need to see how to deny the self, to deal with the self:
１
We need to have the revelation that our old man has been crucified withChrist—Rom. 6:6; Gal. 2:20.
２
After seeing this revelation, we need to recognize and accept this fact.
３
We need to apply to ourselves the death of Christ that He accomplishedand that we have recognized; this is the correct meaning of bearing thecross—Matt. 16:24:
ａ
This application must be carried out in the Spirit—Rom. 8:13.
ｂ
When we live and walk in the Spirit, the Spirit applies the death ofChrist to us—Gal. 5:16, 24-25; Rom. 8:4, 13.
４
To bear the cross is to remain under the killing of the death of Christ for theterminating of our self, natural life, and old man; in so doing, we deny theself so that we may follow the Lord, the resurrected Christ, as the life-givingSpirit in our spirit—1 Cor. 15:45b; 6:17; Gal. 5:25.
Ⅳ
It is crucial that we deny the self and take Christ as our person for thechurch life as the living of the one new man—2:20; Eph. 2:15; 4:24; 3:17a;Col. 3:10-11:
A
In the one new man there is only one person—Christ—Gal. 2:20; Eph. 3:17a.
B
It is vitally important for us to know that our spirit is the inner man and thatthe person of this inner man is Christ—Rom. 8:16; Eph. 3:17a:
１
If we would take Christ as our person, we must see that our spirit is notmerely an organ—our spirit is our person—1:17; 3:16-17a.
２
We should deny our self, our own person, and live by our spirit, our new person—Matt. 16:24; Rom. 8:4; Eph. 3:17a.
C
For the church life as the living of this new man, we must reject our old personand live by Christ as our new person—Luke 9:23-25; Rom. 6:6; Gal. 2:20.
D
We need an absolute consecration of handing ourselves over to the Lord andyielding our person to Him so that He can be our person; our consecration is totake Christ as our person—Rom. 12:2; 14:7-8; Eph. 3:17a; 2 Cor. 5:15.