Taking Up Your Cross

Following the Good Friday service yesterday, my wife Laura and I had a thought-provoking talk.  It is my practice to ask Laura what God revealed to her for personal application during the sermon.  "It was good," she said.  "But I think it would have been good to talk more specifically about what 'taking up your cross' means.  That phrase is used so often in Christian circles it has almost lost all meaning."  She was absolutely right.  The term has even been adapted into modern vernacular outside the church.  When people face irritating or frustrating circumstances they hate but must endure they say with a sigh, "I guess this is my cross to bear."  The ironic thing is, that's not how Christ approached His crucifixion.  It was no drudgery.  He approached it with fierce determination and willingness, knowing His hour had come.  For the joy that was set before Him Jesus endured the cross and ultimately rose victorious.

The sacrifice of Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God on the cross was ordained by the Father from before the world began.  Jesus came to seek and save the lost, and for the purpose that He might demonstrate the love of God for fallen man through sacrifice.  The cross was Christ's calling.  It was purposed by God to satisfy divine justice.  There can be no forgiveness without atonement.  Atonement means to redeem, to buy back.  It carries the meaning of an exchange, to reconcile, restore.  In the Old Testament under the Law, atonement occurred by the shedding of the blood of an animal.  The wages of sin is death, so the death of the sacrifice was exchanged for the life of the sinner.  When Jesus took up His cross and was crucified on Calvary, His shed blood once for all provided atonement for all who repent, trust in Him, and obey the Gospel.  If I were to die on a cross, it would have no redeeming power because I am a sinner.  So what is Jesus talking about when He commands we deny ourselves, take up our cross daily, and follow Him?

The Father purposed that Jesus would be a sacrifice.  This taking up our cross is our reasonable service to God as disciples.  The cross we are told to take up is the calling God has placed upon our lives as living sacrifices unto God.  Some people would love to follow Jesus without meeting the other conditions Jesus speaks of.  They believe they can follow Jesus without denying themselves or without embracing the calling of self-sacrifice God has ordained for their life.  But Jesus gives us indispensable insight with His command in Luke 9:23-24:  "Then He said to them all, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. ²⁴ For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it."  Jesus could not have remained a sinless sacrifice if He chose to avoid the cross.  He would have ceased from walking in the will of His Father in heaven.  Personal consequences for the results of disobedience or rebellion should never be seen as "a cross to bear."  Jesus had never done anything wrong, yet He was called to carry His cross and be nailed to it.  God had a purpose in Christ going to the cross, and He has a calling and a purpose for your life as well.  Even as God strengthened Jesus to answer His call faithfully to the end, so He will empower and comfort us.

This calling and purpose God intends we take up is to be done daily.  It is not a "one-off" decision.  Since we live in a body of flesh that resists and even resents the righteous demands of our Father, we must continue to deny ourselves.  We must labour through the power of the Holy Spirit to cast down arguments and bring into captivity every thought to the obedience to Christ.  The denial of self enables us to submit to God's commands and divine will.  Focusing on our cross can never give us the strength to carry it.  Our eyes must be fixed upon Christ's example of sacrifice on the cross and His current risen state.  We must place our trust in Him alone.  We do not serve a dying or dead God, but the One True Living God!  Because He is alive, He has the power to strengthen and enable us to do everything He calls us to.  By God's grace we can follow Jesus Christ to death and glory.  The path to glory always passes through the cross.

I close with a quote by J. Oswald Sanders:  "Self-sacifice is part of the price that must be paid daily.  A cross stands in the way of spiritual leadership, a cross upon which the leader must consent to be impaled.  Heaven's demands are absolute, 'He laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren' (1 John 3:16).  The degree to which we allow the cross of Christ to work in us will be the measure in which the resurrection life of Christ can be manifested through us." (Spiritual Leadership, 1st Edition, pg. 142)  Taking up our cross involves a decision to first drop everything which may hinder or weaken our grip.  Once we have emptied our hands, we must decide to take up the cross.  It is God who strengthens us to lift it and Christ will bear it with us.  Instead of being a horrible weight, it is a path to fellowship and closeness with God obtainable through no other means.  Praise God for the cross!