flesh was sent to humble him.  There was a tendency to exalt himself, which was natural, and it would have conquered, but Christ delivered him from it by His faithful care for His loving servant.  Jesus Christ is able, by His divine grace, to prevent the power of self from ever asserting itself or gaining the upper hand; Jesus Christ is willing to become the life of the soul; Jesus Christ is willing to teach us so to follow Him, and to have heart and life set upon Him alone, that He shall ever and always be the light of our souls.  Then we come to what the apostle Paul says; “Not I, but Christ liveth in me.”  The two truths go together.  First “Not I,” then, “but Christ liveth in me.”

Look at Peter again.  Christ said to him, “Deny yourself, and follow me.”  Whither had he to follow?  Jesus led him, even though he failed; and where did he lead him?  He led him on to Gethsemane, and there Peter failed, for he slept when he ought to have been awake, watching and praying; He led him on towards Calvary, to the place where Peter denied Him.  Was that Christ’s leading?  Praise God, it was.  The Holy Spirit had not yet come in His power; Peter was yet a carnal man; the Spirit willing, but not able to conquer; the flesh weak.  What did Christ do?  He led Peter on until he was broken down in utter self-abasement, and humbled in the depths of sorrow.  Jesus led him on, past the grave, through the Resurrection, up to Pentecost, and the Holy Spirit came, and in the Holy Spirit Christ with His divine life came, and then it was, “Christ liveth in me.”

There is but one way of being delivered from this life of self.  We must follow Christ, set our hearts upon Him, listen to His teachings, give ourselves up every day, that He may be all to us, and by the power of Christ the denial of self will be a blessed, unceasing reality.  Never for one hour do I expect the Christian to reach a stage at which he can say, “I have no self to deny;” never for one moment in which he can say, “I do not need to deny self.”  No, this fellowship with the cross of Christ will be an unceasing denial of self every hour and every moment by the grace of God.  There is no place where there is full deliverance from the power of this sinful self.  We are to be crucified with Christ Jesus.  We are to live with Him as those who have never been baptized into His death.  Think of that!  Christ had no sinful self, but He had a self and that self He actually gave up unto death.  In Gethsemane He said, “Father, not My will.”  That unsinning self He gave up unto death that He might receive it again out of the grave from God, raised up and glorified.  Can we expect to go to Heaven in any other way than He went?  Beware! remember that Christ descended into death and the grave, and it is in the death of self, following Jesus to the uttermost, that the deliverance and the life will come.

And now, what is the use that we are to make of this lesson of the Master?  The first lesson will be that we should take time, and that we should humble ourselves before God, at the thought of what this self is in us; put down to the account of the self every sin, every shortcoming, all failure, and all that has been dishonoring to God, and then say, “Lord, this is what I am;” and then let us allow the blessed Jesus Christ to take entire control of our life, in the faith that His life can be ours.