ASCETICISM
For the
ascetic, the body is a thing to be punished, denied, even
abused. The body is regarded as evil and the only way to defeat it is to starve
it of anything that might a spark desire… In brief, asceticism is the belief
that if you add up enough physical negatives you will get a spiritual positive.
Mere avoidance becomes the pathway to holiness.
Sam Storms
Copied
from: Pleasures Evermore: The Life-Changing Power of Knowing God by Sam Storms,
© 2000, p. 129. Used by permission of NavPress – www.navpress.org. All rights reserved.
Our Lord
requires us to take up our cross and follow Him, and there are many testimonies
to the blessedness of godly self-denial. Biblically it is not an attempt to
gain forgiveness or spirituality through self-abasement. Rather it is the
willing response of a heart dedicated to serving Christ at any cost. Asceticism
is a different matter. It is motivated by pride rather than humility, and it is
an attempt to accomplish in the energy of the flesh a right relationship with
God, which can be brought about only by a divine transformation through faith
in Jesus Christ.
John MacArthur
The
Quest for Something More from Our Sufficiency in Christ, 1991, Crossway Books,
a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org. p. 187.