Hi! NateMarshall
I returned to this Thread to re-read it. Sometimes I'm having to do that because I don't always obtain the intent of the Thread at first glance.
Whew! It was only on the second reading that I noticed your saying: "A.W. Tozer said, "If you try to wound yourself, you will only give in to the flesh. Come to Him, and let Him do the wounding. Nobody can teach you this wound, and you cannot inflict it yourself."
This fellah's advice is utterly pious nonsense!
Unbelievable! It's obscene that anyone should suggest that Jesus desires to wound people.
Errors lead a Christian away from the true foundation in the heavenly places and take him into Babylon, the great city of confusion, the great harlot who sits upon many waters (religious opinions). The pure and sound doctrine of truth leads along the high road to the purpose of God: the conformation to the image of Christ.
There is so much rubbish out there inviting Christians to excavate their navels. The evil one is doing treacherous damage while having God's people preoccupied with their 'self'.
It has always been difficult for Christians to have a proper perspective concerning the attributes of humility, obedience and sacrifice. However, we shouldn't be surprised that the evil one is eager to distort the intent and meaning of these attributes.
There will be some who might ask the question: "But doesn't man have to be little and humble? Doesn't he have to subordinate himself completely? Didn't Jesus say, "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself?", (Matt 16:24).
Jesus was speaking of those who would come after Him, who desired to follow Him. It concerns the first step on the high road. Those of us who want to share in the heavenly call will have to humble himself in the visible world. He will have to be inclined to help and serve others. He who looks after his sick neighbor's difficult children shows self denial. She who babysits for a young couple who want to go to church shows self denial. Those who insist on comfort, ease, honor and attention are unfit to follow Jesus, "He did not serve Himself".
Those who are capable of humility in their natural life will not be handicapped in spiritual life by earthly worries and the anxieties of life. But in his struggle against the evil one in his own territory, the believer will put on his royal raiment and use his authority. A true Christian is lenient and easy in the natural world, but in the unseen world he does not compromise, and takes up his place as a man of authority.
Some say that self has to die. The Spirit of God will not do this, for He is a life- giving Spirit. If self dies, how can Paul say, "I boast in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ"? Does man have a second self? If not, how can he have fellowship with Christ, if he has no longer his own self? Really, the enemy has an easy job of it if we piously insist that we have killed our own self, for how could there be life in us if we had? Or communion with God?
By fighting self, by making laws and precepts, by establishing rules and regulations, we end up in legalistic attitudes where joy and gladness will die. God wants us to struggle in the heavenly places against the powers, the rulers of this world, the evil spirits in the heavenlies, until, having been set free from all our enemies, we may serve Him without fear all the days of our life!
While it remains true that we are not fighting against self, but only the evil one, Jesus said that those who wish to follow Him, have to deny themselves. Self-denial is the first step on the road towards salvation.
What did the Lord mean by this?
As long as a woman is independent and unmarried, she decides for herself what to do and where to go. She is her own master. When this woman marries, though, she gladly and of her own will drops the independence she had. From that moment onward she is united with her husband, and arranges her behavior to suit him.
In a good marriage this kind of self-denial is not something difficult but rather a matter of joy. It is an easy yoke and a light burden. Paul writes: "I have been crucified with Christ and yet I live, that is, no longer my own self, but Christ lives in me. and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in (communion with) the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me".
In faith the human spirit is married to the Spirit of God "in order that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit", (Romans 8:4). It is God's purpose to take up a dwelling place in man, not to kill or subdue man's personality, as in a marriage that has gone wrong and as the devil tries to do, but in order to dwell together in the earthly tabernacle in perfect love and harmony. God has no pleasure in the death of a sinner, but in his repentance, that he may live ! He desires that his people have life, and have it abundantly.
Romans 8:12,13 says: So then, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh - for if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live."
"We are debtors" means that we are required to live according to the Spirit, for He lives in us. We are not allowed to live according to the flesh to do its desires. If we live according to the flesh, if a Christian backslides or weakens until he listens to the enemy again, (the instigator of the evil desires in man), he is alienated from God, and this separation will lead to his destruction and death.
This verse also mentions the "deeds of the body", when the Evil One used the body to reveal his intentions in the visible world. How can we put to death these deeds of the body? By the law of the Spirit of life ... not by adhering to the law of Sinai!
The law of the Holy Spirit, which functions in the body of Christ (the congregation), leads to deliverance and salvation, to fullness and perfection. Putting it to death means commanding it to cease functioning. This happens when we resist by the power of the Holy Spirit the desires created by the devil. Then the body is for the Lord and the Lord for the body. Then we glorify God with the body, (1Cor 6:13,20).
The answer to the problem of sin cannot be found in humility, in self-denial, in chastising the body, in fasting or adhering to restrictive precepts, but only in faith that He who is in us is stronger than the one who is in the world. He who trusts in the Lord has faith in the power and wisdom of the Holy Spirit who dwells in him. The Holy Spirit creates in us thoughts and desires for that which is good and acceptable and perfect. He fills us with the thoughts of God which lead us towards life.
When Jesus invites the people to come to Him, it is to lay down the yoke of the enemy which burdens them. Jesus calls them to renounce their false thinking and ideas, to stop giving in to the pressure of the pious spirits, to listen to Him, to accept His thoughts (Word) and to take upon them His yoke. That is why it says, "Learn from Me".
Jesus comes to deliver all who turn to Him from the yoke of the pious spirits. That is why Paul was able to say: "For freedom Christ has set us free; stand fast therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery", (Gal 5:1).
Jesus specifies the qualities of his doctrine, as opposed to that of the evil spirits, "Learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart". The teaching of Jesus has nothing in common with the pressure and compulsion of the pious spirits. His call to serve God is not hard and commanding; He only invites: "Let him who desires come. Jesus does not threaten, He does not agitate those who follow Him but allows them ample time to develop harmoniously and to recover from inner damage and injury. "He will not wrangle or cry aloud, nor will any one hear his voice in the streets; He will not break a bruised reed or quench a smoldering wick", (Matt 12:19).
Jesus' yoke is easy, His burden is light. Are we prepared to take upon us this yoke, to turn away from the pious teachers who try to infiltrate our thoughts with ideas which don't belong to God? Are we ready to turn our back on the pious denial of natural life, on self-chastisement and the desire for outward show in our life of faith, on religious efforts and cold, hard religious consistency?
For Jesus promises those who accept his yoke, "And you will find rest for your souls".
