The Mind of Christ: Dying to Self

Surrender and Self-less-ness continued
October 30th, 2005

There is a real reason that surrender to God and dying to self go together. One great tenet of coming to the 'mind of Christ' is that God's ways are not our ways: our human logic cannot see what God can see. We are limited by time, space and a brief life span. He sees all that has been and will be. When we are filled with our selves, we choose the ways we know and have learned, using human logic and usually only thinking a step ahead. In the fullness of the natural mind, we only consider what is seen, felt, and experienced. We might go by more nebulous motivations such as 'intuition' or cause, but we still tie these to the pragmatic experience of "being-in-the-world". We do not look for the 'evidence of things not seen as faith is described. We are self-guided, self-motivated, and we feel very comfortable in the things and prompts of the world in decision making without feeling the need for divine guidance.

The Maze

It is not unlike a person placed in a complex labyrinth or maze, with multiple twists and turns, and danger or reward based upon the turns. There is the one who made us, who made what the maze is made of, who stands above and sees every turn and every outcome. The man down in the maze sees only the wall and an aisle before him: on his own he is likely to be devoured by the maze. But if he listens to He who stands above it, deciding the turns not on logic, or what looks more pleasant, but on trusting the one who really sees, he will successfully navigate to the end.

The Emptying of Self

This may all seem to not be directly related to surrender and selflessness but it is directly related. Surrender is the relinquishing to God a choice that is ours in the knowledge that he is omnipotent and omniscient.
It is a willing decision on our part to give in and give up to God what is rightfully his: our lives and path.

Concurrently, Selflessness, and the 'dying to self' which is spoken of in scripture, is not as many erroneously presume a hating of the self or degrading of the self: both of those involve a great deal of self-focus and self-consummation. Some psychologists fear that the dying to self taught in the Bible would lead to low 'self-esteem ' or depression, but their natural minds do not comprehend the difference between negatively valuing the 'Self' and letting go of the self that Christ may live through us.

What a difference!!! The surrender of 'self' and the 'dying' and putting away of self-full-ness actually can bring joy and not despair and depression in the worst trials we face. In depression, or what clinicians call clinical depression, rather than dying to self, persons become obsessed with self, their focus in entirely inward: no one can tell them what to do, to them there is no remedy, they are bad, evil, horrible, etc and they are in despair. Only the pain differentiates them from the egoist. Those filled with 'pride' and what we call 'self-esteem' do not hurt like the depressed person but both are utterly focused on the self: one loves it , one hates it, both are self-occupied.
Interesting, while the media and education ran with the concept of self-esteem years ago before researchers would have ever given a green light, the psychological research community found it much more complex a topic, and years have been spent even trying to come up with a common operational definition. "Self-esteem' like IQ often has a circular definition: it is what self-esteem measures test. A more recent study in fact pointed to increased levels of 'self-esteem' as being related to callousness towards others and aggressiveness. For all the years in education of trying to instill 'self-esteem' over other character values and valuing of others, we may have done the opposite of producing healthy individuals for a healthy society, but rather a generation of self-absorbed persons with small concern for others and a new moral clime
determined entirely on self-edification over all other concerns.

Dying to Self
The natural mind then, tends easily and immediately towards an over-concern with the Self, for the good or bad. But Jesus taught a very different way: not hating or loving the self, in fact scriptures teach

For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:Eph 5:29

Dying to self is not even 'getting rid of the self', for it is part of the nature God gave us, but of making it of no importance, allowing Christ to live through us the Life He purchased for us on the Cross: the indwelling of Christ, Christ within us, is the normal experience of the Christian, and the more we relinquish to Him our lives and His rightful place in our lives, the more we experience joy, peace, the fruits of the Holy Spirit, the power of God and a 'right-ness' of the way of God. We reap through dying to self, the abundant life, not depression and despair.

This does not mean that the Christian will not experience pain, sorrow, and even for moments or a season despair: we are involved in a horrible warfare, Christ ever for us seeks to keep us in His Way, producing fruit. The World and the adversary of our souls, tries with fervent pride to undo all that God has done: his goals are strife, division, unbelief, horror and the demolishing our faith and life. When all that hits hard, we want to blame God, when we should be attributing those despairing events to the devil and the nature of the world. When we blame God, we misunderstand often in our natural minds, the nature of the battle we are in.

How do we 'die to self'? Do we muster it up? take classes? buy a book on 'how to die to self'? No, none of this would work for more than momentary practices. Dying to self for the Christian becomes both a single choice for one event, and a way of life. I knew a man once who drove a truck for a living, who had to make the decision between a well-paid job which would keep him away from home much of the time, or a cut in pay for a local company which would give him ample family time, but cause the family to struggle financially. The natural mind and most Christians today, would immediately argue that the family needed the finances, but God sees children needing a parent, a worker needing rest and time with God, a mind set not on money and self-determination but on trust. Now not the same choice is 'right' in every circumstance, but the note here is not on 'self-denial' or purposely making your life difficult to be 'spiritual' but on making your decisions in relationship to God with a transformed mind instead of the natural one.

Vocation is not the only choice in which we must die to self and allow God to work through us: the 'Dying to Self' in scriptures affects every life choice such as marriage, childen, moves, what we see or read, wear, etc down to the small obediences which God calls us to that may lead to grand works of God. Philip was in the middle of a grand crusade with many saved souls when God instructed him to go into the middle of the desert and just stand there: nobody around, nothing to do, no crowd, ---but within a short time, the Ethiopian Eunuch, the attendant to Queen Candace passes by, and in his discussion with Philip, is born again, from above, and goes on to bring the gospel to Ethiopia and then Northern Africa: all because Philip did not concern himself with whether the call of God made 'common sense' to him: he died to his self will and reasoning, and divine reason wrought a work so great it has lasted till today as a testimony of faith.

My daughter once pointed out that the first Martyr of Acts, Stephen, unlike the other Apostles was appointed to take care of the needs of widows. The other apostles were concerned that they should not be about 'waiting on tables', but Stephen, rather than taking his place in the pulpit, gave himself to fulfilling a need in the Church that was in Christ's heart: he put aside his 'self-desire', even a good one of taking a higher place in the Church and preaching, and instead went to the forgotten and alone, and made sure that elderly women were cared for. The result? Not only did the need get met, but Stephen, in the end of his life, stoned to death by religionists of his own kind, preaches a sermon that has lasted 2000 years, converting many to the household of God. Stephen did the 'illogical' thing and let Christ make the decision: in the end both his own desire and the needs of the Church were fulfilled in a great work of God.

We need to learn to first identify our self will, self-motivations, and examine in any choice whether we want most the feeding of the flesh or spirit. Tithing is an example. Sometimes when we
'save' tithe and it build up, for awhile, we may be tempted to say, well, there is no food in the kitchen, or we have to pay the electric bill, maybe we can just 'owe' God. That is adhering to natural reasoning, fear of God not providing or suffering, and self-full-ness: we make the decision to hold back based upon our wanting to do things in a way we decide and are comfortable with. All of us however have heard countless stories of believers who made the plunge, paid the tithe, and ended up with more than they could have asked or expected. Before we pay a tithe when there are bills, it looks like jumping off a cliff, and many fail, choosing our ways instead of God's. But when we die to self, becoming willing to suffer even loss, then we shortly afterwards see the abundance of faith, of our walk with a Savior who is trying not to punish us or try us beyond what we are able, but to lead us into a deep trust. The more of His life we allow, the more we 'get out of the way' and allow Him to live through us, the more we see the wonder of God, joy and the more faith is increased for the next trial.

Loving Not Their Lives

In the endtimes, in Revelation is described the key to success in walking with the LORD: it is not money, nor fame, nor honor: it is the overcoming of the corruption, sadness and chaos of the world, by fighting the divine battle, even unto the death: His way, and not ours. Most of us are not there yet: we are able to die to the self for moments, but sometimes in a mundane world, heaven seems nebulous and far off, and we lose the joy of our salvation. The consummation of 'dying to self' and surrender, though come in walking forward, even in the worst and most threatening battle, as scriptures denote:
And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.Rev 12:11

There are the three things that cause victorious Christianity:

1-The Blood of the Lamb: it is our safety, healing and trust and life
2-The Word of their Testimony ---the Word of God and the Testimony of a life as a written Epistle
and
3-LOVING NOT THEIR LIVES UNTO DEATH--that is the song of martyrs, God's war heroes.

His Life, and not ours: that is what we promised. When Peter gave up and went back to fishing because the Divine became too much to handle, Jesus appear on a work-a-day beach, cooking fish for breakfast, extending and reminding of the great calling: Peter, do you love me? Well Peter, like most of us kept saying yes, but finally admits his frailty: instead of rebuking him as Jesus once did, He affirms him in his call:"Feed My Sheep", Feed My Lambs". He did not talk to Peter about 401k benefits, his children's college fund, or whether he would ever be given even a change of clothing: Jesus simply commissioned him. The Mind of Christ.