Everybody has a natural inclination within them to avoid suffering and pain and I am not saying to any of us that this is wrong. There is a drive within all of us to preserve our lives, to extend our lives. Self-preservation, it is said, is the first law of the universe and so we desire to make sure that we don't suffer any pain.
Yet on the other hand, here is Jesus who seems to be counseling us that, somehow or another, this drive for self-preservation, for self-satisfaction—this drive for comfort or whatever we might call it—has to be somehow be pushed out of the forefront of our lives and into a secondary place.
Escaping what is surely a life-threatening situation at the end time is what is involved in the context here. Taking one's cross or seeking to find one's life does not mean bearing up under some difficult and awkward tragic burden. But brethren what he's talking about is dying to self, always the self wants to preserve itself. Always the self wants to satisfy the self, always the self seeks out comforts for the self. But when we become Christ's, we cannot do that because these self-satisfactions, this self-preservation, this seeking of comfort runs counter to—contrary to—the way of life that God has called us to, to obedience to His very commands.
Let me put it another way: "To deny oneself, means to say, 'NO' to self and 'YES' to Christ." It means to obliterate the self as the dominant principal of life and make God the ruling passion of one's life. So a Christian may have to sacrifice his personal ambitions—his ease and comfort—the career that he might of enjoyed. All of us certainly will have to sacrifice our wills, because no Christian can do what he likes; he must do what Christ likes.
The one thing God wants more than anything is the one thing we need the most: daily sacrifices that put to death our human nature and self-focus. Brethren, God never asks us to sacrifice anything that is not for our own good. Paul tells us in Philippians that we must reframe sacrifice as an investment. Paul tells us in Philippians 3:8-9 that he counted all things as loss. Not just as loss, actually as rubbish, he says, that he may gain Christ in the righteousness of God through faith.
Brethren, we too must reframe sacrifices as investments. We must count all things loss as Jesus commands in Luke 14:26 and Matthew 16:24-25, and as Paul exhorts right here in Philippians, we must be ready to sacrifice everything to follow and imitate Jesus Christ, so that we can have fellowship with His sufferings. Fellowship with His sacrifice is what Paul is saying, so that we then can be conformed to His death. Sacrifice is not just the one thing, sacrifice is everything.
It is how we are being transformed each and every day into God's image. Paul adds in Philippians 2:17 (you can turn there if you want), we should be glad and rejoice as we are poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of our brethren.
And Paul brings it all together for us here. It is a beautiful illustration. Remember, we have the burnt offering first. We have the meal offering right on top, and at the end, the way it was concluded was with a drink offering which was gradually poured out, wine gradually poured out, signifying the offerers' willingness to give their life poured out in complete service and dedication to God and His Family.
