Self Renunciation # 1 (or "You Are Not Your Own")
The Apostle Paul teaches this important duty, by the following awakening and impressive appeal: "Don't you know that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought at a price; therefore, glorify God in your body" (1 Cor. 6:19-20). What is intended in these words is, that through the vicarious sufferings and death of Christ, as an atonement to Divine justice for human transgressions - all who believe in Him are freed from the curse of the law, and the dominion of sin, and are both justified and sanctified. The Christian is thus a bought man, a captive redeemed by price. It is in this sense the whole church is called the "purchased possession," (Eph. 1:14. Yes, and what an idea! I repeat it - a believer is a purchased man! And at what price has he been bought! All the jewels which adorn and enrich the crown and scepter of the British monarch; with all the others that compose the regalia of all the sovereigns of the Eastern or Western world, are of no more worth in the redemption of the poorest widow in the church of God, than the dust of the street. Nothing but the blood of the Son of God could purchase a single soul. What then must be the value of the soul; and on, what must be the worth of its salvation.
How obvious is the inference! "You are not your own, for you were bought at a price!" How is it possible you should be your own - if you have been bought? In what sense a Christian is not his own, is explained to you by another portion of Scripture - "None of us lives to himself," (Romans 14:7). Do enter very seriously, and solemnly, and deeply, into these two impressive passages -
"None of us lives to himself."
It is for you to recollect that the renunciation of SELF, as well as of SIN, was one of the solemn transactions of that scene, and that time, when you bowed by faith at the foot of the Cross, received mercy through Jesus Christ, and yielded yourselves to God. You then abjured - not only self-righteousness, but self-seeking, self-pleasing, self-living. Self, as a supreme object, was in every view of it renounced. Self, until then, had been your loftiest air; self-love your highest affection; but then you transferred your aim and your affection to another object. The Christian has no right to ask what he will do with himself; or to what he will give himself; or how he will employ himself. He is no longer at liberty to inquire how he shall spend his energies, his time, his property, his labor, and his influence; for he is not his own, he is bought with a price.
He is not to live for fame - and please himself with the applause of his fellow creatures. Nor is he to live for riches - and please himself with increasing wealth. Nor is he to live for health - and please himself with the glowing energies of a sound body. Nor is he to live for taste - and please himself with the pursuit of literature, science, or the arts. Nor is he to live for social enjoyment - and please himself with an agreeable circle of friends. Nor is he to live for ease -and please himself with unmolested quiet. In short, he is not to consider himself as his own master to please himself supremely in any way, nor his own property to employ himself on his own account, and for his own benefit. He is not to image that personal gratification is to be his end and aim,for the accomplishment of which he may lay down his own schemes, select his own course, and pursue his own methods, as if he had an independent and sovereign right over himself.
Self is "the old man" to be crucified with Christ; the body of sin to be destroyed; the corrupt nature to be put away; the law in our members to be resisted; the lusts of the mind to be subdued. Self is the enemy of God to be fought against; the rival interest with Christ in our soul to be put down; the means by which the devil would hold us in alienation from holiness to be opposed. Self is the most subtle, the most stubborn, the most tenacious foe with which grace has to contend, in the soul of the believer. It lives, and works, and fights, when many other corruptions are mortified. Self is the last stronghold, the very citadel of satan in the heart, which is reduced to the obedience of faith.
~John Angell James~
(continued with # 2)
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