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Of all the idols a man clings to, the last and hardest to abandon is himself. A man may crush every pagan image and reject every false doctrine, yet self remains untouched, seated deep within the throne room of the heart. It stays there until the living God tears it down by His own hand. Scripture does not flatter us here. Jeremiah 17:9 says the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick. That is not a description of culture or environment. It is a description of us. This is why repentance is never a shallow shift in behaviour. True repentance is the overthrow of a god. It is the turning from the worship of self to the worship of the living God. When the Lord opens a man’s eyes, he sees that his greatest enemy has never been the world around him. It has never been temptation alone. It has never even been Satan himself. His greatest enemy has been the rebellion that flows from his own heart. Romans 8:7 says the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God and cannot submit to His law. That word cannot is not poetic. It is absolute. This is why salvation must be a sovereign work of God. No man dethrones himself. God must do it. The proud heart always imagines it has the final say. It believes it can choose Christ whenever it wishes, obey Him by natural strength, and produce righteousness out of its own desire. Christ dismantles every illusion with one sentence. In Matthew 16:24 He says if anyone would come after Him, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Him. Christ does not ask a man to improve self. He commands self to die. Luke 9:23 says this denial is daily. It is not a momentary emotion. It is a lifelong crucifixion. The gospel does not offer self a cleaner image or a moral upgrade. The gospel brings self to the grave. Galatians 2:20 declares that the believer has been crucified with Christ. The old man does not get polished. He gets executed. Romans 6:6 says our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be brought to nothing. New life does not rise from human effort. It rises because Christ now lives in the believer and rules where self once sat. When God finally breaks a man of self, that man becomes free in the truest sense. He obeys not to earn favour but because a new heart has been given. Ezekiel 36:26 says God removes the heart of stone and gives a heart of flesh. That man worships because God has taken the idol down and placed His own glory there instead. That man lives because Christ has taken the throne that self once guarded. Until God destroys the idol of self, a man remains blind. But when God does this holy work, the most dangerous god a man ever served finally falls, and the living God is seen for who He is.