Life and Death of the Self Darlington Christian Fellowship 22/6/25 [] = not spoken
https://youtube.com/watch?v=jiOxHmT532s&si=qhe2AO6mGI0D2-Ou
Bible Reading: “Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”; 20 and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.” 21 So then, no more boasting about human leaders! All things are yours, 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, 23 and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God. This, then, is how you ought to regard us: as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the mysteries God has revealed. 2 Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. 3 I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. 4 My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. 5 Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God. 6 Now, brothers and sisters, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, “Do not go beyond what is written.” Then you will not be puffed up in being a follower of one of us over against the other. 7 For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?” (1 Cor 3:18-4:7)
Introduction
Every human being, including Jesus, has a “self-concept’, this is neither good nor evil, it is simply a created and crucial way in which we identify ourselves [as persons] and an essential aspect of what it means to be made in the image of God [as [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perichoresis the inter-loving Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Gen 1:26-28; Matt 28:19)]. The problem we have comes from the distortion of such a self-image. I will never forget the testimony of a brilliant Christian counsellor, who after hearing a sermon which “cut to the heart” (Acts 2:37,) was challenged during the night by the Holy Spirit to yield every part of her life to the Lord. The final thing she had to let go of was relying on her reason above the Lord! Which, sadly, she was never able to do. We all possess pillars of our own identity, such as common sense, popularity, honesty, an unwavering sense of justice, humour, intelligence, independence, vows never to do the wrong thing, being that is, a “good girl/good boy”, and so on. It is what we make of these self-concepts which often makes them idols. In the parable of the “prodigal son” it was the pharisaic faultless older brother whose self-centred accusations. “you never” against the father, [God,] left him alone in the outer darkness totally convinced of his own righteousness (Luke 15:25-32). One of the most common presenting problems for pastoral care is the excessive self-consciousness of believers. This is a sign, [despite all superficial appearances,] that most of the Church is living under law rather than under grace (Gal 3:23-25; Rom 6:14). Remember Psalm 50:21, “When you do these things should I be silent? Do you think that I am [’eh·yeh cf. YHWHin Ex 3:14 etc.] like you? [I accuse you, I lay out the matter before your eyes.]”. Idolatrous humans project onto God an image of themselves. It has been famously said, “God created man in his own image. And man, being a gentleman, returned the favour.” (Henri Rousseau). Funny, but it is tragically true (see Rom 1:22). [Just as spelled out in Proverbs, “as he thinks in his heart, so is he” (Prov 23:7)]
Creation and Humanity
The corruption, and restored glories, of self-imagination can only be properly appreciated from the perspective of a healthy view of the creation of humanity. (https://avowofconversation.wordpress.com/2009/04/30/the-human-person-as-priest-of-the-cosmos/#:~:text=Saint%20Maximus%20the%20Confessor%20remarked,is%20distinct%20from%20the%20world ) In Genesis 1:26-28, the image of God as male-and-female is placed at the apex of a great cosmic pyramid, in the subsequent creation story of Genesis 2 Adam is at the centre of successive radiant circles. Both images testify that the future of creation hinges on the future of the human self (cf. Ps 8). In reading familiar passages like Col 1:16, “all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”, we must be grasped by the revelation that the Christ to whom these words apply (Col 1:1ff) in the eternal divine plan is the one mediator of all things as a human being, one of us, even if unlike us (Heb 4:15),“For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim 2:5). The future destiny of “all things” hinges on the destiny of humanity. [The so-called Anthropocene, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropocene , is a non-Christian way of expressing the scope of this.]
The Fallen Self
The true proportions of the Fall of humanity [into itself] are rarely faced in our egoistic days, that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23) is well-known to most of us, but few have been grasped by tis enormity. What St Augustine called the turning away from God’s Word and “turning in on oneself’ in sin (incurvitas in se) was the inexpressibly horrible act of Even and Adam turning their backs from the limitless power and authority of God’s spoken command which had created the universe and them in it (Gen 1:1ff): “the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”” (Gen 2:17 cf. John 1:1ff). Instead of submitting to the truth of God as faithful children they turned inward to their own limited [finite] mortal consciousness, self-creating their guilty consciences. Paul, illuminated by the Spirit of the living God (2 Cor 3:3), cries out, “ I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells” (Rom 7:18) Here, “flesh” speaks [not of anything physical, like “body”, but] of the crooked disposition of the human ego to always choose for itself and its own selfish best (Heb 2:4). “Self-love” is the essence of original sin (Augustine). [What psychologists call] the human compartmentalisation of the self/ego is ungodly and makes possible the self-sufficiency of Adamic humanity
[Religion
Dealing with the unlimited [cosmic] dimensions of the Fallen “[naked] self” (cf. Heb 4:12-13) is the problem faced not only by modern psychology, counselling and psychiatry, but by all the major world religions. Whereas the eastern religions treat the experiences of the “world” as illusory which must be escaped through countless [dreaded] reincarnations to reach eternal [moksha/nirvana/] enlightenment and its blessedness, the so-called Abrahamic faiths (Judaism. Islam, Christianity) look to a sovereign act of Almighty God to [destroy or] purge out the rebelliousness of distorted humanity.]
Eschatology
Unlike other religions, those with faith in Jesus believe in the power of the Holy Spirit to radically transform the Fallen ego before the End of this present passing world: in sober, unexaggerated language, in a chapter on marriage, Paul remarks, “What I mean, brothers and sisters, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they do not; 30 those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; 31 those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away.” (1 Cor 7:29-31). Since the human ego/self/soul is a created reality it is not, as many have held (e.g. from Plato on) essentially immortal [indestructible]. The created openness of the depths of the human being to its Righteous and Holy Creator (John 17;11, 25) means that humanity was made [conditionally eternal, therefore the self can be] to be radically transformable without limitation by the “Maker of heaven and earth” (Apostles Creed cf. Eph 3:20-21).
Jesus and the Transformation of Our Humanity
In coming to save us/ our souls [the human ego/self], the Son of God, Jesus, must become one Person [(the ternal Word John 1:1ff.)] in 2 natures, with the “I AM” of deity indwelling the “I” of [(Fallen)] fleshly humanity (John 1:14). This mysterious (Incarnational) reality involving the generation of a new type of B/being, is expressed most emphatically in the “I AM” statements in John’s Gospel made by the human Jesus.[ The 7 “I AM’s”; [the bread of life, the light of the world, the door, “Before Abraham was I am”, the good shepherd, the resurrection and the life, the way the truth and the life, and the true vine] these testify that Jesus simultaneously knew that he was both “God from God” (Nicene Creed) and weak mortal flesh, even when publicly confessing such paradoxical utterances stirred up, [not only bowing and worship from those who loved him (disciples and friends) (cf. Matt 26:9, 17; Luke 24:52; John 20:28), but] vicious attacks to kill him (John 8:59; 10:31-33). Whilst [in the fulness of the wisdom and grace of God,] all these early attempts failed, the cross was ordained, [from eternity, (1 Pet 1:19-20; Rev 13:8) to bring to perfection,] to bring complete maturity to the union of the “I” of the Son of God and “ego” of the man Christ Jesus in our place. This perfect saving unity could only be reached through voluntary substitutionary suffering. [This is the consistent saving testimony of scripture into which we have been baptised in Christ (John 19:30; Heb 2:10; 5:7-10).]
The cross brings about not annihilation of the human self, [the wish of all mystical religions, eastern and western,] but the maximisation of the holy self of Jesus. The sign of this is the [much misunderstood] cry of dereliction (https://secundumscripturas.com/tag/cry-of-dereliction/; https://www.reformation21.org/blog/understanding-the-cry-of-dereliction) “At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. 34 And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, … “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).” (Mark 15:33-34). Even though Jesus must be plunged into the outer darkness, the [Ichabod] state of the loss of the glory of God (1 Sam 4:19-22 cf. Rom 3:23) where “mortals weep and gnash their teeth” (Matt 8:12; 13:42; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30), the cry of dereliction is nevertheless the cry of an infinitely anguished covenantal faith; however [distant,] hellishly distant (Isa 59:2), the “Father” now seems, he is nevertheless emphatically “My God my God …. This makes Jesus “the pioneer and perfecter of faith” not only in time but for eternity PTL (Heb 12:2 cf. Rev 1:8, 21:6, 22:13).
Self Transformed by the Gospel
Many of us love to quote Galatians 2:20; “ I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” To realise this truth in practice requires a life of faith. In Ephesians 3:17 Paul prays: “that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith”. Through the gift of Jesus [in the Gospel] we have access through union with Christ to all the resources of his regenerating self [by Christ’s own indwelling faithfulness (Rev 3:14; 19:11 etc.)]. Let me quote from one Tim Keller’s [best books, available on PDF]], titled, The Freedom of Self Forgetfulness where he expounds today’s Bible reading. “True gospel-humility means an ego that is not puffed up but filled up. This is totally unique. Are we talking about high self-esteem? …Certainly not. It is not about self-esteem. (Paul) says ‘I don’t care about your opinion but, I don’t care that much about my opinion’ – and that is the secret [[mystery]]. A truly gospel-humble person is not a self-hating person or a self-loving person, but a gospel-humble person. The truly gospel humble person is a self-forgetful person whose ego is just like his or her toes. It just works. It does not draw attention to itself. The toes just work; the ego just works. Neither draws attention to itself. Here is one little test. The self-forgetful person would never be hurt particularly badly by criticism. It would not devastate them, it would not keep them up late, it would not bother them. Why? Because a person who is devastated by criticism is putting too much value on what other people think, on other people’s opinions….The person who is self-forgetful is the complete opposite. When someone whose ego is not puffed up but filled up gets criticism, it does not devastate them. They listen to it and see it as an opportunity to change. [Sounds idealistic?] The more we get to understand the gospel, the more we want to change. Friends, wouldn’t you want to be a person who does not need honour – nor is afraid of it? …Wouldn’t you want that?…gospel-humility, blessed self-forgetfulness. Not thinking more of myself as in modern cultures, or less of myself as in traditional cultures. Simply thinking of myself less.”
Corrupted Psychology
[Whilst I will unhesitatingly refer people in emotional need to Christian psychologists/counsellors, the modern self-esteem movement has had a powerful negative influence on the Church e.g. “Your Best Life Now” by megachurch pastor Joel Osteen.] Too many untaught believers are either excessively self-judgemental, e.g. [possessing self-fulfilling prophecies,] moved by a strong negative faith, “I’ll fail or self- opinionated in the direction of pride /I’ll ace this”, rather than bowing to the message of the Gospel. I recall a distraught young woman when hearing of the demands of discipleship blurting out, “Can I have nothing for myself?”, the answer is emphatically ….”No”, because the Gospel recreates the meaning of “I” in the image of Christ.
New Creation
“So from now on we regard/know no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:” (2 Cor 5:17) [This modern translation is far better than that familiar from the KJV, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”, which whilst not false, is far too individualistic and Western in its emphases.] Let me quote from Thomas Torrance about the true dimensions of Christian renewal in Christ:
“for one who is ‘in Christ’… his human nature …exists not just alongside of the Creator, but in such a way that his human being is anchored in the very being of God. The breath taking import of all this … is that our human nature has been taken up and in Jesus to the top and summit of being, and that with him and in him man is located in the very centre of all things!”
Conclusion
Paul speaks to these things profoundly: in challenging the Corinthians, “For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?” (1 Cor 4:7). The Corinthians had received exactly the same as all other believers in Christ, [ancient and modern,] the new heavens and earth! The restoration of all things, the entire new creation. “All things are yours, 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephasor the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, 23 and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.” (1 Cor 3:21), in the End God will have all things as he always intended them to be. This recreation of the universe arrives through the coming, ministry, death, resurrection, ascension and glorification of the humanity of the Son of God (1 Tim 3:16-17). The self will be as God always intended to be, it will be possessed of limitless “blessing and honour and glory and might” (Rev 5:13) in Christ as the kingdom of God keeps ever expanding (Dan 2:44-45). Whilst sin was an act of attempted sovereignty over the boundaries of human influence the perfected ego/self/soul of the resurrection life (1 Cor 15:45) will be all-inclusive of created things. The unlimited power and authority of the saints will at last be in parallel with their maturity in Christ. [(This is not pantheistic!), the eternal partition of heaven and hell will be radical and distinct and forever understood in the light of the glory of the Lord.]