Preparing for His Victory
 

Beyond Humiliation:

The Way of the Cross

By Rev. J. Gregory Mantle (1853-1925)

Excerpts from Chapter 4

The Idol Self

"I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." Galatians 2:20

 

"If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died [to sin], and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory." Colossians 3:1-4
 

"I am more afraid of my own heart than of the Pope and all his cardinals. I have within me that great Pope, Self." Martin Luther


We are told in the history of India, that Mahmoud — who conquered a great portion of India hundreds of years ago destroyed all the idols in every town to which he came. In time he laid siege to the great city of Guzurat. Forcing for himself an entrance into the costliest shrine of the Brahmins, there rose before him the figure of a gigantic idol, fifteen feet high. He instantly ordered it to be destroyed. The Brahmins of the temple prostrated themselves at his feet, and said: “Great Mahmoud, spare our god, for the fortunes of this city depend upon him.”

“Ransom vast of gold they offer, pearls of price and jewels rare,
Purchase of their idol’s safety, this their dearest will he spare.

“And there wanted not who counseled, that he should his hand withhold,
Should that single image suffer, and accept the proffered gold.”

But Mahmoud, after a moment’s pause, said he would rather be known as the breaker than the seller of idols, and struck the image with his battle-axe. His soldiers followed, and in an instant the idol was broken to pieces. It proved to be hollow, and had been used as a receptacle for thousands of precious gems, which, as the image was shattered, fell at the conqueror’s feet.

Such an idol is self, who pleads and promises that 'if we will but let it stand, it has pleasures, gifts and treasures to enrich us at command.' This hateful idol will spend years in intriguing to escape from the hand of God. Not in listening to its pleadings, however, but in delivering the idol over to utter destruction, shall we find our true wealth and pleasure, for jewels of priceless worth await those who have learned the secret of losing their life for Christ’s sake that they may find it.

Utter abandonment to God is, then, the only way of blessing. The alabaster vase must be broken that the ointment may flown 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 without Him.

"...if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy." James 3:14-17

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. ...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 Pharisaic, and wherever the life finds its center in the I, we are in danger of becoming as offensively egotistical as they....

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also." Matthew 23:25-26

Our Christian work, our prayers in public and private, our reading of the Scriptures, our almsgiving, may all become poisoned with Pharisaic, 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?”

This idolatry of the human I is, then, to be fought against, and pursued through all the intricacies of our being.... Self is the very citadel of Satan in the heart; it is the great stronghold of the enemy; it is the most subtle, the most stubborn, the most tenacious foe with which the Holy Spirit has to contend in our nature. “Self,” says William Law,

“is not only the seat and habitation, but the very life of sin the works of the devil are all wrought in self; it is his peculiar workshop; and therefore Christ is not come as a Saviour from sin, as a destroyer of the works of the devil in any of us, but so far as self is beaten down and overcome in us. Christ’s life is not, cannot be, [reigning in us]... unless the spirit of the world, self-love, self-esteem, and self-seeking are renounced and driven out of us.”

...It is this continual death to self which constitutes the life of faith. It is so sweet an experience that we may sing of “the pain and bliss of dying,” because the grace which gives perfect peace, takes the place of nature which brings constant trouble. It is a state, moreover, in which God communicates Himself with familiarity.




7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, mthat the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. 8 We are nhard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not oforsaken; pstruck down, but not destroyed— 10 qalways carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, rthat the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. 11 For we who live sare always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So then death is working in us, but life in you.
The New King James Version. 1996, c1982 (2 Co 4:7). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

"...know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! ...

      "Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived." 2 Timothy 3:1-5, 12

 

"...we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." Romans 6:4

 

"Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them."  Colossians 3:5-7

 

 

7 But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. 8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss nfor the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in Him, not having omy own righteousness, which is from the law, but pthat which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; 10 that I may know Him and the qpower of His resurrection, and rthe fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may sattain 2to the resurrection from the dead." Php 3:7-11

 

1 And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight— if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister."  Col 1:21-23

 

"For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit..." 1 Pe 3:18




      "But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy." James 3:14-17

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