Self and the Cross — E.A. Johnston

Learning the Doctrine of the Cross Through Mentorship

I spent years in the church before I learned how to live the Christian life. It was an encounter with Dr. Stephen Olford that turned my world upside down as I knew it. Dr. Olford knew the doctrine of the cross in the life of a believer, and it was through his mentoring of me that I came to grips with the cross and the lordship of Jesus Christ in all its aspects in the life of a believer.

Stephen Olford’s Teaching on Galatians 2:20

Stephen Olford wrote a classic work on this topic entitled, Not I but Christ, from a study of Galatians 2 .20. When Stephen Olford preached, you sensed he was a man who spoke with divine authority, and his preaching was transformational to his hearers.

When he preached, you were gripped with eternity. Well, friends, I want us to look at this great thing today in a message I have entitled, Self and the Cross, because the true Christian life is lived via the cross.

The Cross Versus a Man-Centered Church

To bypass the cross is to place self on the throne, and the result is deadness, deadness everywhere. Ignore the teachings of the cross, and this is the main reason our churches today lack power as they teach a man-centered philosophy grounded on a man-centered methodology, and the end result is a man-centered theology centered around the happiness of man.

Matthew 16:24–25 and the Call to Discipleship

My text can be found in Matthew's Gospel. You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends. We will be in chapter 16 and in verses 24 through 25. Let me read us a striking passage of scripture. Here now is the word of God, and may the Spirit of the Lord be pleased to attend the reading of his holy word.

Then Jesus said unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

Salvation as Self Dethroned and Christ Enthroned

I want to explore several aspects of the doctrine of the cross in the life of a believer. In this passage, our Lord Jesus Christ lays out the imperative to be a follower of his. As a matter of fact, if one attempts to live the Christian life any other way than by this passage, it will result in complete failure, and your testimony is nothing more than a straw dog.

You cannot claim to be a follower of Jesus Christ and bypass the cross in your life. If you do, then your hope of heaven is nothing more than a hole in the wall. Salvation is this, friends. Self is dethroned, and another is enthroned there, the Lord Jesus Christ.

And to follow Christ in a life of discipleship means that self has to go to the way of the cross. You don't take two steps on your own and ask God to follow you. That's the main reason why the church has no power today, no authority, no influence.

We get the job done with money and manpower, and then we ask God to bless our efforts. God is never an afterthought. Christ must have the preeminence in all things. The Lordship of Christ is the missing doctrine of the church in our day.

The First Principle: Salvation Begins a Life of Discipleship

In our passage here from Matthew, we see Jesus plainly state. If you want to follow me, then there is only one way, and that is through a life of self-denial along the way of the cross. If you try to hang on to the self-life, then you will be the loser for it, for it is by dying to self that one finds his life in Christ.

The first principle I want us to see is this. When we find Christ and we are saved, it is then that we enter into a life of discipleship. The word disciple means learner. Every day, we are sitting at the master's feet and learning how to live for him by allowing him to live through us under the discipline of the Holy Spirit.

Our sanctification process never ends until we reach glory. Every day, we must die to self and become more and more Christ-like, or as the apostle Paul states in Galatians, until Christ be formed in you.

The Second Principle: The Christ Life Replaces the Self-Life

The second principle I'd like us to see is this, the Christ life for the self-life. This is accomplished via the cross in the life of a believer. Listen to Galatians 2 .20 as this principle is explained.

I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, in 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.

In this fantastic verse, friends, we see the truth of self and the cross, how self must go to the cross. Paul states, I am crucified with Christ. The crucified life is unheard of in most churches today.

Most pulpit dialogue is on self-empowerment. Even Christian publishers have lowered themselves to printing self-help books. The churches that are growing the fastest cater to the self-life. This is why the church today looks and acts just like the world, for there is no Christian separation from the world.

The Church’s Compromise With Worldly Values

Rather, the church, in an effort to reach the world, invited the world into the church, and look where that's gotten us. I spent a week recently with a Christian family, and they typify the average Christian today.

The wife attends a weekly Bible study at church, and is very involved with her church outreach in the community. At night, television programming is central to the home life, and the family laughs along at lewdness and profanity, perversion and nudity, as it spills out into their living room.

Beer is in the fridge as the beverage of choice. The other families along the street, who are non-Christians, look and act and talk the same way as the churchgoing family. And you can multiply this scenario throughout this whole country in regard to the church today, friends.

The church and the world look and act the same. The failure of the church to teach what true discipleship is, it's the reason for the failure in so many families today. People don't know how to live for Christ.

They've never been taught the principle of the cross in the life of a believer. Consequently, they love their Jesus, so long as he doesn't get in the way of their daily living. Many pastors refuse to preach unpopular messages that might offend their hearers, so everything is watered down to be more palatable and to be entertaining.

The Loss of Holiness and Moral Distinctiveness

Subsequently, the church today is neither hot nor cold, but nauseating. This generation of young people in church today think it's normal to use expletives in their conversation, and they see nothing wrong with profanity.

There is no moral code for them, and they do what is right in their own eyes, as they sleep with one another and sin all they want to, and see nothing wrong with it, as they sing about Jesus on Sunday morning.

The church of our day has lowered the bar on morality, and the doctrine of holiness is a taboo subject in most churches today. But here in our passage from Matthew, Jesus firmly states no one can be a follower of his unless that person denies himself and takes up his cross, and following Christ in a life of discipleship, where self goes the way of the cross.

Returning to Scripture and the Narrow Way

Should not a crucified Christ have crucified followers? Let's get back to reading our Bibles, friends, and making those scripture verses a living reality in our lives, for the Christian life is lived one way, along a narrow way, as we follow the Lord Jesus Christ via the cross.

Let us pray.