Matthew 16:24 Then said Jesus to his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. I. THE SELF-DENIAL WHICH CHRIST REQUIRES FROM HIS FOLLOWERS. 1. Negatively. (a) It cannot mean, to renounce our senses and our reason; (b) nor to renounce our desire and hope of salvation, to be perfectly disinterested, resigned, and annihilated, as the mystical writers call it; (c) nor to renounce our free agency and our acts of obedience; (d) nor to reject the comforts and conveniences of life, and to afflict and torment ourselves when nothing requires such a sacrifice. 2. Positively. (a) To deny ourselves is to renounce every evil affection and every evil work, and to put off the corrupted man, in order to follow Christ; (b) to deny or renounce our own good works, our own righteousness, to renounce them so far as not to be proud of them, not to rely upon them as perfect and meritorious; (c) to renounce all those things which concern our worldly interests and our present situation, such as ease and quiet, popularity, riches, inheritances, preferments, dignities, which we possess or pursue. There is a way of renouncing or denying these things, in a moral sense, without forsaking them; and that is, to entertain moderate affections for them, to possess them, according to the apostle's expression, as though we possessed them not; never to prefer them to our known duty in any instance, and to be ready actually to part with them, if God should require it. (J. Jortin.) Parallel Verses KJV: Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. |
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