There is no salvation without denying the flesh. In order to come to Christ for pardon, we must be willing to deny ourselves pleasures which we may have already drunk deeply from. We all know this experience of self-denial in some measure: a person often has to deny themselves some immediate enjoyment in order to spare themselves later hurt. If we do not stop eating certain rich foods, we know that we will feel sick afterwards; if we spend too much money on trivia, we know we will not have enough left to pay for important household items; stay too long on some beaches and you will find yourself cut off by the incoming tide. So we stop, we deny ourselves an immediate pleasure in the interests of our greater good.
Here wisdom begins with insight into the nature of this world’s pleasure. They tend to create cravings in us, but the addiction to evil that develops leads to a painful enslavement that is harder and harder to break free from. Childhood and the dawn of life are vanity. The wise person uses his mind rather than follow his feelings. If youth is a period of vanity, then I must resist its apparent attractions, and remember that sin is like a baited hook; the bait looks good, but the hook which is hidden within it is sure to take me if I swallow it. Victory does not lie in overcoming by degrees – giving up one sin and promising ourselves another in exchange – but it comes when being united to Christ we reject sin once and for all. The one who comes to Christ must die to sin once and for all and overcome it through repentance and faith.
The word translated ‘youth’ means literally ‘blackness’ and refers to youth either because hair in youth is black as opposed to grey, or because it is like the dawn of life when the sky is still dark before the sun rises.