• When we present Jesus as a form of life improvement, as if adding some Jesus to your life will make everything better, we’re really not preaching the gospel.

• We dare not present the Christian life as just another way to make people happy or another means of self-help.

• The good news is that we don’t die to self as an end in itself. We die to self for the purpose of His life living through us.

It’s often said or implied that if we accept Jesus, our lives will get better. But Jesus was our suffering king. He is our life support. Without Him, we remain dead as chaff. Can you speak about this? I worry about false converts who expect Jesus to be a road to “self-improvement.”

You’ve noticed a legitimate problem in the broader Christian world. When we present Jesus as a form of life improvement, as if adding some Jesus to your life will make everything better, we’re really not preaching the gospel. We’re not helping people to understand what it means to be a Christian. I do believe that Jesus improves our life, but not at every moment and not for every person. There are some people for whom following Jesus will make their life more difficult, more challenging, and perhaps more painful in some circumstances.

The general concept that adding some Jesus to your life will make you happier with fewer troubles and concerns doesn’t always happen. It doesn’t always work that way. However, we don’t want to go to the other extreme and say, “Hey, if you really want to be miserable, follow Jesus Christ.” That’s not the idea either. We just need to preach the gospel clearly. It’s important that we explain to people what it means to be a follower of Jesus, in the way that Jesus Himself did. He told us that self-denial would be required of every one of His followers. Following Jesus means dying to self and taking up your cross to follow Him. Ultimately, we believe that there will be great joy and satisfaction found in following Jesus. But do you know what dying to self feels like? It feels like you’re dying. It’s awful. It’s terrible. If it feels good, you’re probably not dying to self. There are different ways in which the believer is charged with the responsibility to take up their cross and follow Him. We dare not present the Christian life as just another way to make people happy or another means of self-help.

C.S. Lewis wrote, “I didn’t go to religion to make me happy. I always knew a bottle of Port would do that. If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don’t recommend Christianity.” No, we follow Jesus Christ because it’s true and right. The Gospel is often presented by people as a kind of “cheap grace,” where you come to Jesus and your whole life will get better. But the reality is that we live in a fallen world which hates God. Those who definitely want to follow the Lord in this fallen world are going to face some opposition and hardship.

You can see how Satan would use a misguided presentation of the gospel in someone’s life. Picture a young convert who has lots of other believers around them. They will feel an exhilaration from being part of something new and knowing they’re forgiven. But when trials and difficulties come, they’re like, “Whoa, I didn’t sign up for this. I signed up to make my life happier, not to make it more challenging.” But both aspects are true. The happiness, joy, and abundant life for the Christian are true. In some other way, it’s true that the Christian life also requires a real death to self. Jesus said this when He talked about the cost of discipleship. We must absolutely count the cost of following Jesus.

Death to self feels like death, which is contrary to all of human nature. Our strongest desire is to survive. And yet, the key to the Christian life is 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.

Death to self is not a key concept in Christianity just because God likes to make us suffer. God knows that our abundant life is found in our identification with Jesus Christ. But that identification is comprehensive. We share not only in the glory of His resurrection, but also in His death.

Philippians 3:10-11 – That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

It’s easy to want “to know Him and the power of His resurrection,” but we often want to stop before we get to “the fellowship of His sufferings.” Remember that both parts of this verse are true. I feel bad for professed Christians who really don’t know anything of the fellowship of His sufferings. A lot of older writers are helpful with this. You don’t find people writing about this today. In many older books, you’ll find the idea of the deep union that we have with Jesus Christ in the midst of our suffering. There’s something glorious in that, and you can only truly know it by personal experience.This is an aspect of the Christian life that’s highly experiential. You can learn the principles and the necessity of it from the Scriptures. But people would much rather talk about dying to self than actually do it. I’d much rather tell you about your need to die to self than have to actually do it myself. But we all have to do it.

Dying to self is not a one-and-done in the Christian life. Each of us who has walked with the Lord for a while can relate some instances or seasons in our life when we were really experiencing this death to self. Sometimes it’s possible for us to feel like, “Well, good, I’ve done that. Now we’ll move on to something else.” But there’s a continuing element involved. There is a continual dying and being identified with His death, and a continual identifying with the glory and the power of His resurrection. Both are paradoxically true, so much so that Jesus would say, “If anyone wants to come after Me, let him take up his cross daily.” How often? Daily, daily, daily.

The good news is that we don’t die to self as an end in itself. We die to self for the purpose of His life living through us. You can’t really teach somebody else how to do this. You can only experience it yourself as the Holy Spirit applies it. Whose life is better, my life or Jesus’s? His life is better. The best thing I can do is actually die to self, get out of the way, and say, “Lord, live Your life through me.” You will see the fruit of that obedience, not only in your own participation in joy and peace, but also in the impact that your life has on others. Nothing beats that.

LIVE Q&A for August 21, 2025