Taking Up the Cross

"Those who are not willing to lose their lives for Christ are not worthy of Him. ( Matthew 10:38 ) 

They cannot be His disciples. ( Luke 14:27 ) 

These statements cannot be made to accommodate the casual approach to conversion that is in vogue in our generation. Jesus is not asking people to add Him to the milieu of their lives. He wants disciples willing to forsake everything. This calls for full-scale denial - even willingness to die for his sake if necessary.

When Matthew 10:38 says, 'He who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of Me,' it does not mean bearing the "cross" of a difficult situation, a chronic disease, or a nagging spouse. I have heard devotional sermons spiritualizing the cross to mean everything from a cranky mother-in-law to a leaky roof in a 1957 Chevy! 

But that is not what the word "cross" meant to Jesus' first-century audience. 

It did not call to their minds the idea of long-term difficulties or troublesome burdens. It did not even evoke thoughts of Calvary - the Lord had not gone to the cross yet, and they did not understand that He would.

When Jesus said, 'take up your cross' to them, they thought of a cruel instrument of torture and death. They thought of dying in the most agonizing method known to man. They thought of poor, condemned criminals hanging on crosses by the roadside. Doubtless they had seen men executed in that fashion. 

Jesus' listeners understood that He was calling them to die for Him. They knew He was asking them to make the ultimate sacrifice, to surrender to Him as Lord in every sense. 

Jesus adds a final paradoxical thought on the meaning of discipleship: 'He who has found his life shall lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake shall find it.' ( Matthew 10:39 ) 'He who has found his life' seems to refer to a person who has guarded his physical safety by denying Christ under pressure, or someone who clings to his life rather than taking up the cross. 

Because his first concern is securing his physical life, that person loses his eternal soul. Conversely, those who are willing to forfeit their lives for Christ's sake will receive eternal life. 

The Bible does not teach salvation by martyrdom. The Lord was not advising the disciples to try to get themselves killed for Him. Again, he was referring to a pattern, a direction. He was simply saying that genuine Christians do not shrink back, even in the face of death. 

To express it another way, when confronted with a decision between serving self and serving the Lord, the true disciple is the one who chooses to serve the Lord, even at great personal expense. 

Again, this is not absolute in the sense that it disallows temporary failures like that of Peter. But even Peter 'did' ultimately prove himself to be a true disciple, didn't he? The time came when he willingly gave his life for Jesus' sake. 

Luke 9:23 records similar words of Jesus: 'If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.' Notice the addition of the one word 'daily.' The life of a disciple invites persecution and therefore must be a life of daily self-denial. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, 'I protest, brethren, by the boasting in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.' ( 1 Corinthians 15:31 ) 

The idea of self-denial does not jibe with the contemporary supposition that believing in Jesus is a momentary decision. A true believer is one who signs up for life. 

The bumper-sticker sentiment 'Try Jesus' is a mentality foreign to real discipleship - faith is not an experiment, but a life-long commitment.

It means taking up the cross daily, giving all for Christ each day. It means no reservations, no uncertainty, no hesitation. ( Luke 9:59-61) It means nothing is knowingly held back, nothing purposely shielded from His lordship, nothing stubbornly kept from His control. 

It calls for painful severing of the tie with the world, a sealing of the escape hatches, a ridding oneself of any kind of security to fall back on in case of failure. Genuine believers know they are going ahead with Christ until death. Having put their hands to the plow, they will not look back. ( Luke 9:62 )

That is how it must be for all who would follow Jesus Christ. It is the stuff of true discipleship." 

( "The Gospel According to Jesus; What is Authentic Faith?" John MacArthur ) 

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