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