Should Christians Die To Self Daily?

Do believers have to ‘Die To Self’ to be saved or to remain saved? We hear this phrase all the time don’t we? Yet, can I ask a question? Where does that phrase read in the Bible? In reality, it actually does not even exist as a phrase in the entire King James Bible.

What we do see in the Bible is for born again BELIEVERS to ‘deny your self’ . Once eternally saved and born again,  we still have a free will to live as God wants or to live carnally with a secular view of life, as we want. That is to live with the worldly view or live with a Godly view of the world and life.  That said, God says He will discipline us if we live worldly because He loves us. Just as an Earthly parent does to their children.

Apostle Paul tells us that we need to put off the old man, our  old Adam/Flesh thinking and renew our mind by the Word of God (Ephesians 4:22, Colossians 3:9, Romans 12) . This is repentance for a believer (changing our mind) about many things according to the truth of the Word of God. It causes an inward change in our thinking and beliefs and that works it’s way outward into our lives in love for others because we live as we believe in the mind. Apostle Paul says, as believers, we should “renew our mind”.  This is not about our Spirit which was made righteous and perfect  BY GOD (1 Cor.5:21, Hebrews 10:10-14, Colossians 2) from the very moment we believed on Christ for righteousness (John 3:14-18, Ephesians 1:13-14).  This is about replacing the wrong thoughts and beliefs we have, still in our corrupt MIND, after we received the New Self, the new Spirit, our core being.

Apostle Paul put it this way,

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:8-10 KJV)

This is very clear. We are not saved eternally by our own efforts in being a good person or doing good works. We are saved by believing in faith what Christ accomplished on the cross; having paid for the sins of the whole world. After we believe on Christ for righteousness, God still allows our free will in how we will live. If we live carnally going along with the worldly secular view of life, we will miss out on what God has planned for us. The Lord will discipline us as well, which is not too pleasant right? We may have no rewards at the Judgment Seat of Christ for believers or will lose eternal rewards we could have accomplished. Do we want to be ashamed at this judgment of believers? Face to face with Christ? Think about that. We have been given a tremendous gift in eternal life and forgiveness and we SHOULD be walking in our lives from a Godly viewpoint. We should deny what we want all the time and desire what God wants. Help others in love as Christ loved us. God has a plan for us believer!

“I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,…And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;” (Ephesians 4:1..11 KJV)

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”  (Romans 12:1 KJV)

Is it not a reasonable service that we should focus on for the rest of our physical lives here on Earth, not on worldly wants but instead on what God wants,  given what Christ has done for us and given us? This is what Jesus meant by,

“He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.” (Matthew 10:29 KJV)

“He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.” (John 12:25 KJV)

Once we become saved, we should have a desire for Godly things, looking forward to what God has planned for our believing life here on Earth. We should GIVE UP our previous worldly view of life which is all about what we want and instead lose our life willingly, and give it all to God. Again, this is not about salvation or losing salvation. It is about us thinking and walking in life for Christ.

As an example in life, we are on our way to purchase a candy bar and some chips etc. On the way to the store you run into a homeless person who is asking for money so he can buy some lunch.  The worldly way is to just walk by and go get your goodies and not even feel guilty about it.  The Godly thing to do, is to give up what you want and help this person get some lunch.  I know, this is a simplified situation and many situations are complex. But it is to illustrate a point. An unbeliever can also help the person and some teach that is the way to gain favour of God and be righteous, which is not correct. It was a good deed, yes, but it does not erase the other times you may have walked by. Now, as a born again, eternally saved believer, we know our good deeds do not save us nor keep us saved. We give up our want and give to this homeless person as they need. Why? To gain God’s favour or to do what we now know is the truth and what is right? To live as Christ wants us too and as our New Spirit wants us to as well.  We know what Christ did for us, freely we received and freely we should give.

Our walk after salvation matters much. The Lord has a real purpose for our life that He has prepared for us to live out (Eph 2:10, Matthew 6:31-34). We really should let our desires go that are not from God and move forward as believers, working for the Lord by His power (Ephesians 6:10) to produce good fruit that will last for the Kingdom, help others come to salvation and edify other believers, feeding the sheep as we all grow in the faith. Not denying ourselves can also hurt out witness to others for the Gospel.

We should not just be a born again believer by belief on Christ and live carnally as the Corinthian believers did. Apostle Paul rebuked these eternally saved believers. We need to change our focus in life to God’s plan for us, even if we do not know the specifics.  A change of direction not to remain saved, but because we are eternally saved!

We should be more than BORN AGAIN BELIEVERS, we should be walking as FOLLOWERS of Christ and His teachings.

Deciding to give up your life goals to His life goals,  the Holy Spirit indwelling us will move to help you fulfill what Christ has set for you to accomplish. Live the victorious Christian life and not a secular life full of waste for the Kingdom. Jesus will help you bear much fruit as a follower (John 15:5). You are not alone. The Lord is within you! He will help you.

“Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:”(Phil. 1:6 KJV)

This is what DENYING YOURSELF is about. I agree with doing this.

Is This The Same As ‘Dying To Self Daily’ That Some Are Teaching Though?

Some use the phrase ‘die to self daily’ meaning what was just discussed above. in such case, we are in agreement. However, the problem is it can cause confusion too and this phrase die to self daily often brings a different view about the “deny yourself” verses in Scripture. Some make this phrase about salvation itself.

There is just something wrong about the ‘die to self‘ phrase being thrown around so often these days, as many say it is what we must do to be saved or remain saved. What I read in the Bible is that my old self core being is ALREADY DEAD as a believer. In fact, the Bible teaches that we have been given a NEW SELF called The Spirit which is the very seed of God (1 John 3:9) and it cannot sin.

That is not to say that we do not sin as believers. We still reside within this corrupt body and we still have wrong thinking about many things in the mind, which Apostle Paul calls The Flesh (or sometime referred to by some as the Adam Sin nature), but God circumcised the SIN off the new real us now, our Spirit. The Spirit is the real us now and we are a New Creation in Christ which is at war with The Flesh, in our minds.

Yet, as Apostle Paul taught in Romans 7, verses 17 and 20… it is not our Spirit (our new self) that wants to, nor sins. It is The Flesh. And God severed the Flesh from our Spirit when He made us a new creation in Christ.

That is why at physical death, our Spirit goes to be with the Lord. It has no sin. It is perfect and Holy, fully redeemed and complete in Christ. Yet, our flesh, our body,  it cannot inherit the kingdom of God because it is corrupt with this THING called sin and goes to the grave. (Note: In Romans, the word SIN is a noun mostly! It is a THING.)

What I see in the Bible, what Apostle Paul taught, is that God gave us a new Spirit a new heart, a new self, and WE DIED (past tense) with Christ. Did you know that as a believer in Christ?

Our Salvation Begins With Death

Apostle Paul tells us that “the wages of sin is death…” (Romans 6:23 KJV). But not just Jesus’ death! Through foreknowledge of God and who would accept Christ (Ephesians 1), as believers, our old self, our core being Spirit, died WITH HIM on the cross!

In fact, we were buried with Christ and we rose again with Christ in the new created Spirit. We are right now as believers, COMPLETE IN HIM, in The Spirit. God gave us a new self, a new core being.

“For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:

In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:

Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.

And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;

Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;” (Colossians 2:9-14 KJV)

So yes, we put off our old Flesh sinful ways floating around in our MIND. It is a real struggle at times but that also shows you are born again. As belivers, we still fall into temptations and sin, but we feel real icky about it, guilty about it. The indwelling Holy Spirit also moves to change that in us, disciplines us. Yes, we strive to not do what The Flesh/Adam thoughts we have, tempt us to do. In that sense, we sort of ‘die to self‘. I get that. But that really is dying to our OLD SELF in our MIND, not Spirit. But the phrase, kinda goes against the way to say that because the language in the Bible tells us we died with Christ (past tense). And not understanding this, some say this is about salvation and it is not.

Maybe I am picky on the wording because I know most believers understand this and use this phrase describing our struggle with the old sin nature thoughts we have after Salvation.

And then I hear some preachers using ‘you must die to self daily!’ to be saved or remain saved…. as if that is how we get saved or stay saved; by our SELF righteous efforts. They take this phrase to mean the very opposite of the Gospel of Grace Through Jesus Christ, which is without works required, but is a FREE GIFT to be received or rejected. (Eph. 2:8-9)

Maybe it’s just me. Yet, maybe it is something we should think about before telling others to ‘die to self daily’, especially if they are not born again believers. And we cannot always know if a person is born again by grace thru faith right? Church buildings have lots of people that are not born again believers. This phrase not even found in the King James Bible. The phrase “DENY your self” is the best way to describe living a victorious Christian life.

This phrase confuses new believers. In Romans 5, Apostle Paul spoke of how free we are because of grace. So much so, that some may think we should just go on sinning, living worldly because as we sin grace abounds ‘MUCH MORE’.  So right after this truth Paul wrote this,

“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” Romans 6:1 KJV)

We are dead to sin because our old dead core being has been changed to the very righteousness of Christ, by God (2 Cor. 5:21), It is just that, ‘our old self  core being died with Christ’, so why walk it the old dead self ways? It is not who we are anymore. We are now IN CHRIST. And Christ is living IN US. We are to renew our MIND with the truth and we will walk in The Spirit to avoid the lusts of the flesh (Galatians 5:16).