Jesus taught us that in order to be His disciples, we must "deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him." Jesus was not talking about self-sacrifice or just doing without. He was teaching us that in order to follow Him we would have to deny the old fallen man in us and cast ourselves completely on the grace of God. Man would have to declare his utter helplessness. Human ability is depraved by sin, and therefore man's thoughts and the intents of his heart are only evil continually. At the heart of the Reformation, and certainly all of life, is the certainty that man is completely dependant on the sovereign grace and mercy of God. This was the message of the Reformation. It struck a blow against Pelagianism and semi-Pelagianism, which deny the total depravity of man.
If man is still depending of the value and uprightness of his own works, he may engage in a type of "self-denial," but not in "denying himself." When you get right down to it, it is easier to deny yourself certain amenities than it is to deny your own abilities and cast yourself at the mercy of God.
Denying yourself turns you to God's grace. It is denying yourself that causes thanksgiving to overflow from your heart. Mere self-denial often fails to get to the point of denying the real accursedness of fallen man that only Christ can redeem us from.
The words which follow the right view of denial come from the Apostle Paul (and all who understand grace)-"Yet not I." Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:10, "But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me." Grace alone.
You cannot say, "Yet not I" without following it with "but . . . . " Something must fill the void left by a confession of our own depravity. For example, in Ephesians 2 we are taught the total depravity and deadness of man which brings him under the wrath of God. No sooner had Paul said this that he added, "But God . . . made us alive together with Christ" (Cf. Eph. 2:1-6).
"Yet not I" is explained well in Galatians 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ; 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 for me." It is Christ who lives in us-who gives us life, and is our life-so we can live by faith and not by the feeble works of self-denial. Christ only.
In Philippians 3, Paul outlines his upbringing as a Pharisee (filled with self-denials). This personal history is followed by, "But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. . .not having my own righteousness, but that which is through faith in Christ." "Yet not I" recognizes that even our best works are defiled with sin. Faith only. Even when we are told that we must "work out our own salvation with fear and trembling," we are also taught that "it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure" (Phil. 2:12-13).
The consequence of the Reformation was that it directed man away from himself and unto the cross of Jesus Christ. The Reformers saw that only the Son of God could remove the old "I" and replace it with the new "I"-a new heart and life in Christ (see Rom. 7:13-25 with nine uses of "but"; 2 Cor. 5:17; and Eph. 4:17-24).
"Yet not I" are words that humbly bring us to see our own unworthiness, unwillingness, and inability, but at the same time to see the great sovereignty of God. I believe the Protestant Reformation accomplished that for Christ's Church. "Yet not I" are words that should come first to our lips when we pause to give thanks to God, from Whom all blessings flow. Thank God for bringing those words into our vocabulary again.
"Yet not I," as our Reformed confession, must be followed with "but all in Christ alone."