Following Jesus TodaySample

"And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it." - Luke 9:23-24 KJV

We have been seeing that if we are to follow Jesus, we must pay a price that is no price at all when compared to the glorious price paid for our redemption. We have seen that we must deny ourselves. When we talk about self we are referring to the tendency in us all to live independently of God. When we read the account of the fall of man, (kindly read Genesis chapter 3) we will see that man wanted to live a life outside of the government of God and that led man to submit to the deception of the serpent. The enemy simply promised them a life outside of God's surveillance - they were to become gods to themselves; having their own ambitions and doing what they wanted without any law of God hindering them. This is but the manifestations of self. Therefore, in the Lord's desire to restore man to his original pattern of living, he commands man to let go of that desire to live independently of God (self) and submit himself to God's authority and surveillance. How I wish that our eyes would see that apart from God we do not have a life.

We shall now consider the next point of action;

2) Take up your cross:

After concluding that you must deny yourself, you must then consider taking up your cross. The two are interwoven. You can't have one and not have the other. The cross is a symbol of death. It means that Jesus, by this instruction, is showing us how to deny ourselves. A man who carries a cross in the Roman Empire is on his way to die. To take up our cross is to consider ourselves dead to this world and its interests. A man that takes up a cross has nothing in himself to glory about. He considers himself dead to all things. His confidence in himself and things dies. Such are those who carry their cross. They do not have ambitions and interests to live for. The Lord becomes all that they truly have and live for. This is a hard truth, but may the Lord encourage us to take this path of life. For in death to self is true living for God.

As we take up our cross to follow Jesus, we are encouraged to know the Lord Jesus carried His cross so we could have life in Him. Therefore, we must carry our cross so He can live in us and live through us (see Galatians 2:20 and 2 Corinthians 5:14-15).