A CHRISTIAN VIEW OF SELF

Several New Testament passages are commonly cited in popular views of Christian life and spiritual growth. They are sometimes understood incorrectly. Here are a few of those passages:

^·            John 3:3 “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John the Baptist speaking of his relationship with Jesus).

·       Romans 6:5-7 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.

·       First Corinthians 15:31 I affirm, brethren, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.

·       Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

·       Galatians 5:24-25 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another.

·       Ephesians 4:20-24 But you did not learn Christ in this way, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.

·       Colossians 3:9-11 Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him —  a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all.

If sincere believers misunderstand this important issue, they may believe that they must come to a place where they have no more self, or that the self must somehow be eliminated, removed, made passive, or incapacitated. This kind of view arises from a misunderstanding of Scripture and from a dualistic view of the material and non-material.

A more accurate understanding should see the self as being subjected to the authority of Christ, and being completed through the transformative work of the Spirit. This transformation involves a conforming of the inner person to the image of Christ. It also includes individual and corporate (or social) aspects of the person’s self.