And [Jesus] said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:23-27)
As we’ve just finished celebrating Easter in which Christ literally took up His cross to die for our sins, let’s look at what it means to truly follow Him by taking up our own cross daily.
Jesus starts off this sentence with an “If”. If anyone would come after me. Choosing to go after Jesus is a choice. But once you make that choice, He makes clear what you should do – deny yourself and take up your cross daily and follow Him.
Taking Up Your Cross
To His audience, taking up your cross had a clear meaning, because crucifixion in those days was well known as torture and ultimate led to death. To take up your cross was a one-way journey. When criminals were crucified on crosses, it wasn’t voluntary since they were dying as a consequence of their own sin, but Jesus in order to go after us and redeem us in our sinful state, He willingly faced the cross as a consequence of our sin. In order to go after Jesus, we must willingly choose to pick up our cross daily to follow Him.
Taking up our cross daily has to be a choice made every. single. day. Each day isn’t promised to us, but every day that we wake up, we have to make the fresh decision of taking up our cross that day to follow Jesus, which requires denying ourselves. In our pride we wouldn’t choose to deny ourselves, in fact it’s the opposite – our culture celebrates elevating ourselves and granting ourselves permission to indulge in whatever we want because “You deserve it”. But do we deserve anything? Well, we do, but it’s death since that’s the wages of our sin. BUT the last half of that verse in Romans is “but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”(Romans 6:23) Jesus came to give us eternal life and abundant life at that, in Him, so how does that reconcile with denying ourselves daily, taking up our cross, and following Jesus?
An Abundant Life of Denying Self
It’s important to keep the proper heavenly perspective in this. Abundant life in Jesus isn’t about your physical life. Jesus never promised houses, cars, high paying jobs, designer clothes, no sickness, and popularity – health, wealth, and prosperity are all aspects of living an abundant life for this world, not for Jesus. An abundant life in Jesus is a spiritual one. One in which we have peace, joy, and strength in Him as we journey through this life as sojourners, living for God’s glory as we await the final destination of our heavenly home.
In denying yourself, your fleshly desires, and choosing every morning to take up your cross on this one-way journey you chose to walk when you accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, and following Jesus as you abide in Him – you are living an abundant life. It surely doesn’t look abundant to the world, because the lives of Christians are filled with trials, but when God looks at you and sees your genuine faith in Him and how you’re being refined by the trials you face – it is more precious than gold.
In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. (1 Peter 1:6-9)
Choose What You Lose
Jesus clearly lays out that if we choose to chase after things in this life, then only this life is what we gain, but we cannot take anything of this world with us into eternity. However, if we choose to chase after Jesus in this life, He is our reward now and for eternity. What does it profit anyone to gain anything in this world then, when the cost would be yourself? In light of this, there is nothing in this world that is worth following over following Jesus – even if that means losing everything here in the process.
Lastly, Jesus says if anyone is ashamed of Him and His words, that He would be ashamed of them in the end. It’s easy to think that anyone ashamed of Jesus just simply isn’t saved. But in order to be ashamed of something, you have to believe in it first. You have to believe Jesus exists and have some kind of personal connection to Him in order to be ashamed of Him. So it’s not those who openly mock Him or don’t believe He is real that this speaks to – it’s those that do believe. In contrast, look at what the apostle Paul said in his letter to the Roman Church:
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame… (Romans 5:1-5a)
So, if we justify ourselves in this life, caring more about what the world thinks of us than God, the end result is shame – even further Jesus being ashamed of us. But if we choose to follow Jesus, taking up our cross daily and walking the path that is paved with refining trials, then our end result is hope, which does not put us to shame.
In loving and serving this world, we have everything to lose, but in loving and serving Jesus, we have everything to gain. Wouldn’t you agree – Jesus is worth losing everything in this life for? Jesus chose to take up His cross for you physically, will you choose to daily take up your cross for Him spiritually?