Before you choose death, says Jesus, you must first choose denial.
Everything that I have written so far has been to bring you to this very point concerning what is contained in Jesus’ idea of denial.
This is the real contradiction of God. This is why everything you thought you knew about God is wrong. The contradiction of God is not you contradicting God; it is God’s requirement that you contradict yourself.
In my opinion, if you fail to understand and embrace what I am about to tell you, the consequences will be far beyond any you could yet possibly imagine.
Let him deny himself, said Jesus. The translation of the original Greek word aparneomai into the English word “deny” is a most unfortunate one for modern readers.
The Greek word is actually a combination of two words. The first is apo, meaning “off, or away from something near,” and in this particular case it means, “to the farthest extent, or utterly.” The second word is arneomai, and it means simply, “to contradict.” So a correct rendering of the word translated “deny” would be, “to utterly contradict.”
That means Jesus actually said: “If any man would come after me, let him utterly contradict himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” Peter contradicts Christ; Christ then turns to His disciples and says, unlike Peter, you must contradict yourself, not Me.
The notion of a required self-contradiction in following Jesus is by far the most difficult thing for most people to grasp and to believe and to implement. But it is the very key to understanding everything that Jesus says. If you fail to comprehend this single notion, in my opinion, you cannot but fail in following Christ.
No self-contradiction, no following Christ.
His thoughts are not your thoughts because they are a contradiction of your thoughts. His words are not your words because they are a contradiction of your words.
Everything about you is a contradiction of everything about Him. You want Him to give you the wisdom and the strength and the righteousness of this world. He wants to give you the very opposites. His goals and His purposes lie an entire universe away from your own, in an exact and precise utter contradiction.
You want to go up. He wants you to go down. You want to rule. He wants you to serve. You want to be first. He wants you to be last. You want to live. He wants you to die. Everything you want is an utter contradiction of everything He wants.
Therefore, every word that Jesus speaks to you as His disciple will, by necessity, be an utter contradiction to everything you presently believe. Every single word. Every single time. Without one single exception.
And listen carefully: He has designed it so that you can only know for certain that you are really understanding what He says if you find in what He says an utter contradiction to what you believed before He said it to you.
Do you understand? No contradiction of your word, no real comprehension of what He is saying.
Why must it be so?
In the garden of Eden, the first lie ever told was the serpent’s contradiction of God. God had said, In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. The serpent said in simple and utter contradiction, Ye shall not surely die.
You shall, said God; you shall not, said Satan. And that simple contradiction worked so well there that day that he’s never had to change the substance of his lies one bit.
Jesus said, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise (Matthew 21:16). Out of the mouth of babes you also get perfect contradiction. Ever hear kids argue? “Did too!” “Did not!” “Did too!” “Did not!” On and on they go until you force them to stop.
Who taught them that?
To a child’s mind, simple contradiction is the perfect argument. Because the source of the argument – themselves – is always deemed to be unquestionably right. There is no need to marshal any greater logic than that; they are simply considering the source. That’s the way gods always talk. They’re always right when they speak. That’s the very reason why they’re gods! Ye shall be as gods, said the serpent.
When Satan uttered his first contradiction in the garden, he assumed the new role as the source of truth. His words were spoken as one who was unquestionably right. He spoke his utter contradiction with the exact authority that he had heard God speak with before.
Ye shall not surely die, he declared to Eve. And there was not a molecule of ambiguity in his words. Not a trace of doubt. They rang with the authenticity of the words of a god. And Eve received them just as though they were.
Satan would be the un-God. The opposite god. And these would be the un-God words. The opposite words. His utterly contradictory words to God’s words. Satan hates God. And to be as un-like God as possible is to place your own thoughts as far away from His as you possibly can. And what is it that lies precisely an entire universe away from truth?
Why, of course, it’s the contradiction of truth.
And what did man get when he chose Satan as his new source of truth? He got the only “What is truth?” that Satan had in his new “Where is truth?”: nothing less than the utter contradiction of the truth.
And that’s why God’s thoughts are not your thoughts. Not by an entire universe. And that’s why His words are not your words. Not by an entire universe. That’s why His words are true and your words are not. And that’s why He hides the truth from the wise and prudent, who insist on keeping their contradictory words, and why He reveals it only to babes, who have abandoned theirs:
Because yours words are to His words exactly what Satan’s words are to His words: an exact and utter contradiction.
In order to follow Jesus, He says, you must utterly contradict the original contradictor, whose contradictions you now think and speak exclusively.
Jesus said to Nicodemus, If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? (John 3:12)
According to Jesus, there are earthly things and there are heavenly things. The self-contradiction that Jesus requires from His followers is not found in the realm of math or science. Those are the earthly things.
Jesus is not saying that two and two will ever be anything other than four. And He’s not saying that the sun revolves around the earth. All those earthly distinctions will pass away presently, and only the heavenly ones will remain. In the end, those earthly things will never have been the point at all.
Those things which must be utterly contradicted are in the category of what Jesus calls the heavenly things, or the things that be of God. All of your ideas about those things lie in direct contradictory opposition to God’s.
Peter savors the life and the living, the things that be of men. He does not savor the suffering and death awaiting at Jerusalem, the things that be of God. And consequently, instead of contradicting himself, Peter contradicts Jesus:
And by contradicting Jesus, Peter becomes the example of exactly what every man who would follow Christ must never do.
Jesus turns to those who would consider following Him and says in effect: If you don’t utterly contradict yourself, here and now, before we even begin this journey, then five steps down this road, you’ll be utterly contradicting Me. Exactly like Peter just did. Like Peter, you want to live. And it will take nothing less than an utter contradiction of yourself before you’ll ever embrace the utter contradiction of taking up your cross and following me to die.
That’s why it’s so critically important to decide, before you accept the invitation to follow Jesus, that His words are the one and only source for truth. That His words alone are the only “Where” in which truth will ever really be found. That’s why a continuation all the way to discipleship in His word is needed to find the truth that is really there. You will need to continue in His words, because if you listen to them carefully, you will find that His every utterance is a precise, different-by-an-entire-universe, utter contradiction to everything you say.
Every word He will say to you from the moment you begin to follow Him will appear, to your natural way of thinking, to be upside-down, backwards, and just plain wrong. It will appear to be an utter contradiction. Because it is.
And if you’re unaware that with every word that He speaks to you, He is requiring an utter contradiction of every word that you speak, like the Pharisee in the temple, you will, without fail and without even knowing it, synthesize His words with your own to make His agree and confirm your own.
Instead of a contradiction of your words, you’ll find a confirmation of your words. And like the Pharisee, you will only think you know the truth. And you will only think you’re following Christ. Until that fateful day when Jesus contradicts you before the Father and His angels.
The immeasurable difference in the way that He thinks is the utter contradiction of the way that you think. Therefore, nothing that He will say to you from this point forward will ever sound like anything you would ever recognize as truth again.
And here’s what that means for you. Listen carefully:
As His disciple, if anything that you hear Jesus say agrees with the thoughts you already had on that given subject before He spoke to you, then you misunderstood what He really said, by precisely an entire universe.
And as His disciple, if anything you hear Jesus say requires no utter contradiction on your part to accept as truth and believe, then you misunderstood what He really said, by precisely an entire universe.
And as His disciple, if anything you hear Jesus say doesn’t shock you, and amaze you, and cause you to say “No way that can possibly be true!” then you misunderstood what He really said, by precisely an entire universe.
You missed the contradiction. By precisely an entire universe.
And if you would follow Christ, you must not miss the contradiction.
If Christ’s is the call to utterly contradict yourself, then everything that He says to you from this point forward must, of logical necessity, be a contradiction to what you now believe.
If He asks you to utterly contradict yourself in everything you are currently thinking, then everything you are currently thinking must be an utter contradiction to everything He is currently thinking.
And these are the eternal consequences if you fail to understand what Jesus is saying about contradiction:
The word deny that Jesus uses here is the same Greek word arneomai, to “contradict.”
Jesus warns that whoever “contradicts” Him before men, He will also “contradict” before His Father on judgment day. But whoever “confesses” Him before men, him will Jesus “confess” before His Father on judgment day.
And just like the word deny was an unfortunate translation from the Greek into the English, so also is the word confess equally unfortunate. And this is the second word that you really must understand.
The Greek word for “confess” is homologeo. It’s composed of two words: homo, “the same,” and logos, “word.” In other words, to “confess” is to say the “same word.” It means nothing more than that, and it means nothing less than that.
To confess Christ before men is not simply to say that Jesus is the Christ. The devils say that Jesus is the Christ. And tremble when they do. (James 2:9)
To confess Christ before men is not simply to go to church either. Unbelievers faithfully fill all kinds of churches every Sunday. A few devils have even been known to show up in church on a Sunday morning (Luke 4:33).
To confess Christ before men is not even to be baptized or to sing in the choir or to give your tithes. The Pharisee in Jesus’ story who went home condemned would have shamed you in every one of those areas.
Sing in the choir all you want. Unless you’re woefully flat, no one will care to contradict you there. Be baptized. Twice if you want to. Give all your money. I promise you, absolutely no one will contradict you there.
But if you begin to say the “same words” that Jesus said, your world will turn upside down faster than you can say the word “contradiction.”
Again: to confess Christ before men is to say the very “same words” that He said before men. It’s nothing more than that, and it’s nothing less than that.
And that may seem an easy enough requirement to get a clean bill of health on judgment day until you realize that everything single thought that Jesus has is one that you never had before.
And on top of that, every single word with which He expresses those thoughts is a complete and utter contradiction to every single word that you have ever said before. And more than that – and this is where the real danger lies – His every word is also an utter contradiction to every word that everyone else around you has ever said as well.
The words that Jesus says are so foreign, so strange, so alien and so contradictory in this world that if you begin to say the “same words” that He does, you will be instantly marked as also being foreign, strange, alien, and contradictory.
Do you understand why they crucified Jesus?
It wasn’t because He was a bad carpenter. It wasn’t because they didn’t like those guys from Nazareth. It wasn’t because He went to the synagogue or because He got baptized by John.
He got crucified because of what He said.
It was His words and only His words that got Jesus crucified.
And His words in your mouth will produce the same result for you. Every single time. Without exception.
Try saying the words Love your enemies at your local anti-Taliban rally. You’ll see pretty quickly how people feel about Jesus’ words. Even the self-named Christians at that event will likely have missed the utter contradiction to what they are naturally thinking. His words in your mouth will get the same thing for you that His words in His mouth got for Him. They will get you crucified.
In this world, that’s what His words always do. In this world, that’s what His words are supposed to do. That’s exactly why Jesus said you must take up your cross. Prepare yourself, not only for My crucifixion, says Jesus, but if you say what I say, prepare for your own crucifixion as well.
The interesting thing about crucifixion is that a man cannot crucify himself. Jesus didn’t instruct you to crucify yourself. You just need to take up your cross. If you confess Him before men, that is, if you say the same words that He said before men, you won’t need to crucify yourself. You’ll get lots of help from plenty of very enthusiastic people, eager to help you with the job. Just like He did.
The world celebrates the words of “your best life now.” They are the words of life and prosperity and joy and happiness. And they are also the bait of the bent-stick snare. And the bait is incredibly sweet to the taste.
But the world crucifies the words of Christ. And they crucify the Christ who says the words. And they crucify anyone else who says those words as well.
An entire universe away from life and prosperity, Christ’s words are the words of suffering and of death. And if that cup, even in the mouth of Jesus, was an incredibly bitter one, how much more bitter will it be in the mouths of those who in their own garden of Gethsemane have contradicted Jesus by saying, “Not Thy will, but mine be done”?
To say the same words as Jesus, you have to know the same words as Jesus. And to know the words of Jesus you have to continue in His words unto discipleship. And unless you’ve discovered the immeasurable differences that lie between His words and yours, and unless you’ve utterly contradicted yourself in every one of them, just like He told you to, then there’s simply no way that you can confess Jesus before men. And that’s a real problem.
Because if you’re not saying the “same words”’ that He says, you’re automatically, by default, saying “different words” than He says. And the definition of saying different words is “to contradict.” And if you’re saying different words than Jesus is saying, like Peter, instead of contradicting yourself, you’re still contradicting Him. And that’s not good at all.
Because Jesus says, If you say the “same words” before men that I say, on judgment day, I’ll say the “same words” that you say, before my Father which is in heaven. But, if you contradict me before men, I’ll also contradict you before my Father which is in heaven.
If you say what He says, and only what He says, He can’t help but say what you say, because he isn’t going to change his mind when you do.
Deny here is the same word “to contradict.” You need to contradict yourself. He cannot contradict Himself. You’re wrong. He’s right. Contradict yourself, not Him.
Jesus said,
It’s about these sayings of mine. You’ll never ‘do’ what I say until you first ‘say’ what I say. Do you understand? On judgment day, many will have ‘confessed’ that Jesus is Lord. Many will have done works, not in their own name or the name of another, but in the very name of Jesus Himself. Many will have been more than willing to confess their own thoughts about the words of Jesus, but unwilling to confess the words of Jesus about their own thoughts. And on judgment day, your own thoughts about His words will not have been enough. You must have been willing to say exactly what He says. To confess, homologeo, is to say the same words.
All of His words are utter contradictions to all of your words. Every word. Every time. No exceptions. If you recognize that, then you’ll begin to search for them, and in them you will hear all of the immeasurable differences that are really there. And if you hear them, you can say them. If your don’t, you can’t.
Your eternal future depends on it.
And from now on, after hearing Jesus speak, if you’re really listening for the contradiction that is in every word that He says, your response will be same as Nicodemus: How can these things be? That’s the language of a man who is hearing contradiction.
When Jesus finished giving the sermon on the Mount, those who heard Him were astonished at His doctrine. That’s the attitude of people who are hearing contradiction.
If you understand that His words are always an utter contradiction to yours, you’ll be astonished too. And if you’re not astonished after you hear Him speak, either you weren’t listening, or it wasn’t really Him speaking (Matthew 7:28, 22:23; Mark 1:22, 11:18; Luke 4:32).
Jesus requires us to contradict ourselves, utterly, completely, to the farthest extent, not because we are right in what we now believe, but because we are wrong. Not because we do know the truth, but because we absolutely and categorically do not.
Not by an entire universe.