Jesus Christ demands self-denial, that is, self-negation (Matt. 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23), as a necessary condition of discipleship. Self-denial is a summons to submit to the authority of God as Father and of Jesus as Lord and to declare lifelong war on one's instinctive egoism. What is to be negated is not personal self or one's existence as a rational and responsible human being. Jesus does not plan to turn us into zombies, nor does he ask us to volunteer for a robot role. The required denial is of carnal self, the egocentric, self-deifying urge with which we were born and which dominates us so ruinously in our natural state. Jesus links self-denial with cross-bearing. Cross-bearing is far more than enduring this or that hardship. Carrying one's cross in Jesus' day, as we learn from the story of Jesus' own crucifixion, was required of those whom society had condemned, whose rights were forfeit, and who were now being led out to their execution. The cross they carried was the instrument of death. Jesus represents discipleship as a matter of following him, and following him as based on taking up one's cross in self-negation. Carnal self would never consent to cast us in such a role. "When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die," wrote Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Bonhoeffer was right: Accepting death to everything that carnal self wants to possess is what Christ's summons to self-denial was all about.
J.I. Packer

Latin Vulgate Ecclesiastes Chapter 3:1-22.

Index: Latin Vulgate

 

Ecclesiastes 3

[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
[7]
[8]
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[10]
[11]
[12]

3:1 omnia tempus habent et suis spatiis transeunt universa sub caelo

3:2 tempus nascendi et tempus moriendi tempus plantandi et tempus evellendi quod plantatum est

3:3 tempus occidendi et tempus sanandi tempus destruendi et tempus aedificandi

3:4 tempus flendi et tempus ridendi tempus plangendi et tempus saltandi

3:5 tempus spargendi lapides et tempus colligendi tempus amplexandi et tempus longe fieri a conplexibus

3:6 tempus adquirendi et tempus perdendi tempus custodiendi et tempus abiciendi

3:7 tempus scindendi et tempus consuendi tempus tacendi et tempus loquendi

3:8 tempus dilectionis et tempus odii tempus belli et tempus pacis

3:9 quid habet amplius homo de labore suo

3:10 vidi adflictionem quam dedit Deus filiis hominum ut distendantur in ea

3:11 cuncta fecit bona in tempore suo et mundum tradidit disputationi eorum ut non inveniat homo opus quod operatus est Deus ab initio usque ad finem

3:12 et cognovi quod non esset melius nisi laetari et facere bene in vita sua

3:13 omnis enim homo qui comedit et bibit et videt bonum de labore suo hoc donum Dei est

3:14 didici quod omnia opera quae fecit Deus perseverent in perpetuum non possumus eis quicquam addere nec auferre quae fecit Deus ut timeatur

3:15 quod factum est ipsum permanet quae futura sunt iam fuerunt et Deus instaurat quod abiit

3:16 vidi sub sole in loco iudicii impietatem et in loco iustitiae iniquitatem

3:17 et dixi in corde meo iustum et impium iudicabit Deus et tempus omni rei tunc erit

3:18 dixi in corde meo de filiis hominum ut probaret eos Deus et ostenderet similes esse bestiis

3:19 idcirco unus interitus est hominis et iumentorum et aequa utriusque condicio sicut moritur homo sic et illa moriuntur similiter spirant omnia et nihil habet homo iumento amplius cuncta subiacent vanitati

3:20 et omnia pergunt ad unum locum de terra facta sunt et in terram pariter revertentur

3:21 quis novit si spiritus filiorum Adam ascendat sursum et si spiritus iumentorum descendat deorsum

3:22 et deprehendi nihil esse melius quam laetari hominem in opere suo et hanc esse partem illius quis enim eum adducet ut post se futura cognoscat