Cross Reference
New member
The difference between "abandoning" one's life to the cross of Christ and merely "surrendering" it to, perhaps later on, only pick it back up further down the road of life.
...... THE CROSS ......
Utter abandonment to God is, then, the only way of blessing. The alabaster vase must be broken that the ointment may flow out to fill the house. The grapes must be crushed that there may be wine to drink. Whole, self-centered, unbruised, unbroken men are but of little use, they "abide alone," living lives of isolated selfish indifference to everyone but themselves. They murmur at God's providences, because self is disturbed in its enjoyment; they are easily offended and difficult to reconcile, because their self-esteem has been wounded: they thirst for and eagerly drink in the flattery and praise of men because it indulges self-love; they are proud and egotistical, because they love to worship at the shrine of self; they are reluctant to give wealth or time to God's work in the world, because they want the latter for their own ease and the former for their own enjoyment. The nemesis of such a life is that, shrinking from the denial of self they die in self, for there must be a total loss of self, either in God and for Him, or eternal bondage to self.
In using the word "self" in these chapters, let it be clearly understood that it is degenerated self-love or selfishness to which we always refer. It is this selfishness alone that leads men to disregard both the claims of God and of their fellows, and to regard exclusively their own interests and happiness, instead of God's interests and the happiness of others.
The way of the Cross means, then, the overthrow of egoism, for before the divine life can rise in man, self must die. It is the very ground and root of sin. The assertion of the I is the perpetual tendency of the flesh. "I live" is the watchword of carnalism, and there is no sin which is not an assertion of self; as the principle of life. This idol is able to assume so many disguises, some of which are so subtle; delicate, and refined, that its presence in the heart can only be discovered by that searchlight of the Holy Ghost of which we have spoken.
It was at this idolatry of self, under the garb of religion, that Christ hurled the most terrible denunciations that ever fell from His lips. It was known in His day as Pharisaism, and wherever the life finds its center in the I, we are in danger of becoming as offensively egotistical as they.
This idol may actually assume the character of a defender of holiness teaching, and we may be ready to fight over terminology, and say the .bitterest things of those who dare to think differently to ourselves. That was why the Pharisees bated Christ, and hounded Him to the death of the Cross.
Our Christian work, our prayers in public and private, our reading of the Scriptures, our almsgiving, may all become poisoned with Pharisaism, and utterly devoid of the graciousness, meekness, and self-forgetfulness of Jesus Christ; and poisoned they inevitably will be, if the idol self is not given over to that glorious idol-breaker, Jesus Christ, for destruction.
"Who can tell," says one, "what harm this 'I' does to devotion — how it lessens it, and narrows it; how it renders piety ridiculous and contemptible, in the eyes of the world, which is always ready to criticize, spitefully and pitilessly, the servants of God? Who can tell of how many miseries and weaknesses and falls it is the cause? How it makes devout people fretful, uneasy, officious, uncertain, eccentric, jealous, critical, spiteful, ill-tempered, insupportable to themselves and to others? Who can tell bow often it frustrates and stops the operations of Divine grace; how it favors the cunning and snares of the devil; how it makes us weak in temptations, cowardly in times of trial, reserved and ungenerous in our sacrifices; how many noble designs it brings to nought; how many good actions it infects with its dangerous poison; how many faults it disguises and makes appear as virtues?"
J. Gregory Mantle
...... THE CROSS ......
Utter abandonment to God is, then, the only way of blessing. The alabaster vase must be broken that the ointment may flow out to fill the house. The grapes must be crushed that there may be wine to drink. Whole, self-centered, unbruised, unbroken men are but of little use, they "abide alone," living lives of isolated selfish indifference to everyone but themselves. They murmur at God's providences, because self is disturbed in its enjoyment; they are easily offended and difficult to reconcile, because their self-esteem has been wounded: they thirst for and eagerly drink in the flattery and praise of men because it indulges self-love; they are proud and egotistical, because they love to worship at the shrine of self; they are reluctant to give wealth or time to God's work in the world, because they want the latter for their own ease and the former for their own enjoyment. The nemesis of such a life is that, shrinking from the denial of self they die in self, for there must be a total loss of self, either in God and for Him, or eternal bondage to self.
In using the word "self" in these chapters, let it be clearly understood that it is degenerated self-love or selfishness to which we always refer. It is this selfishness alone that leads men to disregard both the claims of God and of their fellows, and to regard exclusively their own interests and happiness, instead of God's interests and the happiness of others.
The way of the Cross means, then, the overthrow of egoism, for before the divine life can rise in man, self must die. It is the very ground and root of sin. The assertion of the I is the perpetual tendency of the flesh. "I live" is the watchword of carnalism, and there is no sin which is not an assertion of self; as the principle of life. This idol is able to assume so many disguises, some of which are so subtle; delicate, and refined, that its presence in the heart can only be discovered by that searchlight of the Holy Ghost of which we have spoken.
It was at this idolatry of self, under the garb of religion, that Christ hurled the most terrible denunciations that ever fell from His lips. It was known in His day as Pharisaism, and wherever the life finds its center in the I, we are in danger of becoming as offensively egotistical as they.
This idol may actually assume the character of a defender of holiness teaching, and we may be ready to fight over terminology, and say the .bitterest things of those who dare to think differently to ourselves. That was why the Pharisees bated Christ, and hounded Him to the death of the Cross.
Our Christian work, our prayers in public and private, our reading of the Scriptures, our almsgiving, may all become poisoned with Pharisaism, and utterly devoid of the graciousness, meekness, and self-forgetfulness of Jesus Christ; and poisoned they inevitably will be, if the idol self is not given over to that glorious idol-breaker, Jesus Christ, for destruction.
"Who can tell," says one, "what harm this 'I' does to devotion — how it lessens it, and narrows it; how it renders piety ridiculous and contemptible, in the eyes of the world, which is always ready to criticize, spitefully and pitilessly, the servants of God? Who can tell of how many miseries and weaknesses and falls it is the cause? How it makes devout people fretful, uneasy, officious, uncertain, eccentric, jealous, critical, spiteful, ill-tempered, insupportable to themselves and to others? Who can tell bow often it frustrates and stops the operations of Divine grace; how it favors the cunning and snares of the devil; how it makes us weak in temptations, cowardly in times of trial, reserved and ungenerous in our sacrifices; how many noble designs it brings to nought; how many good actions it infects with its dangerous poison; how many faults it disguises and makes appear as virtues?"
J. Gregory Mantle