Self-Denial Is Not Self-Destruction

One more from our friend Hendrikus:

Self-denial through the Spirit is the opposite of self-destruction--it is a crossing of the boundaries which we, in our egotism and addiction to the world, have imposed upon ourselves. Self-denial is thus in reality self-enlargement--we become ourselves again as God wanted us to be in the first place.

--Hendrikus Berkhof, Christian Faith, 469