Self-denial accompanies obedience of every kind, which is why Christianity without self-denial is impossible. Biblical commands are almost always 180 degrees opposite of our natural way of doing things (Tim LaHaye). How true! “There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death” (Prov 14:12). Every area of obedience Scripture calls for requires self-denial. No wonder Charles Spurgeon offered this observation, “Superficial religion will always be fashionable because it does not require self-denial.”

A disciple’s practice of self-denial is essential in caring for, and maintaining his relationship with the Lord.

The self-denial God commanded by Christ is not the asceticism found in medieval piety, for that severe treatment of the body was driven by insecurity; by an absence of assurance of salvation. By contrast, true self-denial is logically the outworking of one’s communion with Christ, and one’s sonship and union with Christ. The believer enjoys belonging; he possesses the Spirit of Sonship (Rom 8:15).

Propitiation through Christ’s death is the quenching of God's wrath. Christ’s atoning sacrifice upholds and satisfies God’s righteous justice (Rom 3:24-26). Our Lord’s work of propitiation is the capstone of redemption. And as J. I. Packer states, propitiation is the mountain peak from which we scan the entire landscape of Holy Scripture. The satisfaction of divine justice on Calvary yields a love relationship to the God of the universe (2 Cor 5:18-21). This is the theme and message which permeates the Lord's table. Thus, the believer's meditation as he partakes of the elements symbolizing Christ's flesh and blood ought to turn to the reality of the propitiation Christ has wrought. Here is how one may reflect.

Our Lord during His earthly ministry spoke frequently of the gospel of the kingdom. (Mt 9:35).  He often would speak of the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven. “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mt 3:2; 4:17). After He was blasphemed, recorded in Matthew 12:24-31 (His miracles attributed to Satan), He spoke to His disciples privately in Matthew 13 about the mysteries of the kingdom. “To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God...” (Mk 4:11).

The cross is at the center of God’s plan of glory, rescue, and restoration. It is at the cross that the triumph of God’s Kingdom is accomplished. At the cross He battles the power of evil and gains the decisive victory (Col 2:11-15). His resurrection is the dawning of the first day of the new creation. The end of universal history that Jesus announced will finally arrive in fulness. The gospel of the Kingdom is an announcement about where God is moving the history of the whole world. Jesus employs a popular Old Testament image to drive this home: one day the world will be the Kingdom of God.

It is the premise of this article thatgenuine Christ-followers have ‘seen’ by faith the worth of the King and His Kingdom. Therefore, the spiritual sight of the Kingdom exerts a continuous controlling factor in their Christian walk; moving them to hope, holiness, love, and diligence. Thus, what God has done, and will do, through Christ in the inauguration the Kingdom of God is the pervasive mindset of a true disciple—we are calling this mindset, “kingdom consciousness.”

The premise of this article is that where the glory of Christ is central in the life of a local church, our Lord’s mandate of disciple-making will not require arm-twisting. By glory of Christ, we are not only referring to the exaltation of Christ to the right hand of the Father (Acts 2:34-36; Phil 2:9-11), but also to the entirety of Christ’s redemptive work including His glory in the church, His preeminence, majesty and centrality in heaven, His present intercession, and the glorious destiny of His church in His eternal presence (2 Thess 2:13-14).

God promises abundant pardon, overflowing grace, the sense of His presence, and reviving strength to those who are willing to regularly undergo the trauma of holiness.  

For Christ to exert His supremacy as Head of the Church, He must have supremacy as Head of the family (1 Cor 11:3). Thus, the ecclesiology of a church ought to demonstrate an understanding of the church’s ‘filial DNA’. Filial means what is befitting of a son or daughter. Our sonship in Christ ought to be mirrored in our spiritual parenting of our children. We ought to ask, ‘is our church made up of Christ-centered families in which fathers are shepherding their families’? Rather than merely, ‘is the church relevant for the family’? Indeed, a church is a family of families. It is a corporate family made up of smaller individual families. Both the church and the family are created to be cohesive units vivified and ruled by Christ.

In terms of belief, a conviction is the mental state of being convinced—the fixed state of belief. To hold a conviction is to ‘be held by’ an unshakeable belief without need of further proof or evidence (see Hebrews 11:1-3). Biblical convictions are the very core and foundation of godly character and virtue.