The Shadow of the Cross

Studies in Self-Denial

Book Details

Discerning Reader Editorial Review

Reviewed 03/11/2008 by Mark Tubbs.

Recommended. Seven compelling meditations on the Christian necessity of denying self.

“People seem now to consider it more than unfair to have to bear the weakest cross, and certainly not to ‘count it all joy’ with St James (1:2).” This quote could just as well have appeared in The Shadow of the Cross rather than in Ellen S. Lister’s introduction to The Loveliness of Christ, also published by Banner of Truth. Lister’s quote gets at the heart of Walter Chantry’s little book: there is no part of the Christian life untouched by the shadow of the Cross, a shadow which demands the ultimate human sacrifice: perpetual self-denial.

This book contains seven meditations on different areas in which the Cross throws its shadow across the Christian life. Author Chantry puts it another way: there is not a day when a Christian is unasked to take up the Cross. What this means for each Christian is different, but cross-bearing is universal: “Some who call themselves ‘Christian’ in fact have never taken up their crosses. Being ignorant of the experience of self-execution, of self-denial, they are of necessity strangers to Christ.” This book aims to show the tip of the iceberg, as it were, of a select few areas where the shadow of the Cross should and must be seen.

To begin with, Chantry briefly touches on misunderstandings and abuses of the compound term ‘self-denial’, of which there are no end of examples in Church history. But rather than explain the uses and abuses of the term through the ages, Chantry comes to the heart of the matter by suggesting that the inversely proportionate effect of true Christian self-denial is God-esteem. Self-denial is “never an end in itself” (pun intended, I wonder?), but draws the Christian to his knees in humility before God and communion with God.

In Chapter 2 Chantry unfolds the meaning of the phrase “take up your cross,” which has also experienced its own share of misuse through the centuries. Denial, he explains, is perpetual rather than once for all. It manifests itself in such disciplines as rising early to commune with God, witnessing in the workplace and to one’s own family, and service in the local church. Chantry’s definition of “take up your cross” is worth repeating here: “Bearing a cross is every Christian’s daily, conscious selection of those options which will please Christ, pain self, and aim at putting self to death.” Not necessarily welcome daily decisions, but crucial ones for the avowed Christ follower.

In line with the Hebrews reference to Christ despising the shame of the Cross for the joy he was about to experience, Chantry spends the third chapter showing how self-denial must lead to joy. In fact, Christ promised that his self-denying disciples would experience joy in this life (Luke 18:29-30) as well as in the hereafter. Chapter 4 explores the area of Christian liberty, encompassing a discussion of the weaker/stronger brother passage from Romans 14. Chantry takes a pastoral tack here, celebrating the diversity of the body and admonishing his readers to believe the best of one another, for Christ’s sake.

In Chapter 5 Chantry shows how the Fall was the first instance of self-assertion for both Adam and Eve. Chantry’s exposition of Adam’s response to losing his rib and gaining a wife is in itself worth the time spent reading the chapter. The chapter concludes that the true Christian marriage posture for both spouses is death to self, although this will play out differently as the spouses follow their different God-given roles: for husbands, to love their wives, and for wives, to submit to their husbands. Both love and submission, Chantry implies, are forms of dying to self when applied properly and scripturally.

Gospel ministers do not escape Chantry’s admonitions in this book: “A self-serving minister is one of the most loathsome sights in all the world.” From his platform as a retired minister, Chantry expends all of chapter 6 to take aim at pastors’ temptations to financial greed, power and prestige, and general reluctance to follow Christ in the footsteps of meekness, kindness, humility, and self-denial. Before he ends the book, in chapter 7 Chantry once again widens the scope to all Christians, but centers in on the bugbear of the majority of believers: prayer. True to his theme, he locates the key to successful prayer in the failure to set aside time for prayer. No programs and no quick fixes exist; only self-denial will do.

Although Chantry certainly writes like the older saint he is, with rhetorical flourish and frequent use of the passive voice, none of this detracts from the firmness, directness and clarity of his style. This is buttressed by the more important matter of sound exegesis, in which he shows a profound grasp of biblical matter, often drawing linkages between passages I would not have considered related until now. I leave you with this question from the first chapter to decide whether or not this book would benefit you (and I believe it will): “How low is self and how high is God in your heart?”