Take Up His Cross Daily
Did you take up your cross today? Have you searched the Scriptures to understand how it is done? It is very similar to our communion. On the first day of the week, we “take eat this is my body” with bread. How do we know what to do? We learn it by study and become proficient with practice. The cross is no different. When Jesus introduced the cross to his disciples, it held no religious significance. If we sweep away centuries of superstition and ignorance, we can find the same truth. The world and false religion have cheapened this cross into a piece of jewelry, grave marker, or symbol of Christianity. Our cross is none of these things.
“He was saying to them all, If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me” and “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple” (Lk 9:23; 14:27). Obviously Jesus did not mean jewelry or a steeple.
For those hearing this for the first time, it could only mean one thing: execution by crucifixion. The cross was only used by Rome for capital punishment. The Roman philosopher, Cicero said, “Let the very name of the cross be far away not only from the body of a Roman citizen, but even from his thoughts” (ISBE). Rome saw a cross as “cruel and unusual punishment” and no Roman took up a cross. It showed Rome’s contempt for treason, robbery, assassination, or sedition in the nations it conquered. It was a painfully slow and humiliating way to die. Scourged, nailed by hands and/or feet, and left to die in public view, by suffocation, infection, starvation, and/or thirst. That was all a cross could signify then.
Hence as Rome’s cross brought slow agonizing physical death, Jesus’ cross brings slow and agonizing death to worldliness. The denial he demanded will not be quick or painless. When Jesus said “take up his cross daily” or “carry his own cross”, they heard “instrument of death.”
So while banished from the mind of a Roman and a curse in Israel (Deut 21:22-23), Jesus made it a daily necessity. Without a cross one “cannot be My disciple,” for “he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me” (Mt. 10:38). Therefore, “if anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross” (Mt. 16:24-25). NOTE: Jesus never told his disciples to carry “my cross.” He said each disciple must take up “his own cross.” Since this is not physical, he is using Rome’s cross as a parable. Each disciple builds his cross to crucify his desires and kill his own will, then learns to use it through practice.
As he sent out the twelve (Mt. 10:16-39), he revealed the cost of being a disciple would require a cross. As “sheep in the midst of wolves, ... delivered up to councils, ...scourged in synagogues, ...brought before governors and kings, ...delivered by brother; father, or children to be put to death,” and “hated by all for My name,“He who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me” If we don’t learn how to endure these things, we are unworthy. It is not simply the price to follow Jesus. It is the weapon Jesus gave us to give up pleasures, relationships, bad habits, or even our life when they get in the way of faithful service. We must learn to carry/use this cross to make agonizing long term sacrifices for him.
Paul is the perfect example of how the cross was used for crucifixion. It was a two step process. God did the first when Paul was “buried with Him through baptism into death” and his “old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with” (Rom. 6:4-6). It was God who brought him to “the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Gal. 6:14). But after coming up out of the waters of baptism, Paul took up his own cross. Paul used it so well that “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2:20). God began it by grace in baptism, and Paul continued it by taking up his cross in self-denial.
Think about it. When we are “tempted and enticed”, it is agony to deny it. Our lust demands fulfillment and intensifies as we deny it. Picture yourself in the midst of this temptation taking out your cross, nailing your hands and feet to it, and remaining there until that desire is dead. That is what Paul meant by “it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” It is how “those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Gal. 5:24).
Everything hindering full service must be crucified. In every temptation each disciple must “deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me” (Lk. 9:23). Imagine Jesus agony on his cross and the temptation to “come down from the cross” but he endured it (Mt. 27:39-43). So we too when tempted want to come down from our cross. Jesus suffered agony on the cross for our salvation. He expected us to suffer a similar agony in self-denial. We use our cross until fleshly desires are dead and we are crucified! It is excruciating to kill our own will and completely submit to our Lord. This is why we need the cross daily! Far from wearing a gold or silver graven replica, the mark of those who carry the true cross of Christ is self-control, holiness and full submission (i.e. crucifixion).
So we set aside the cheap substitutes. The next time we face a powerful temptation we take up the cross. Self-denial is painful, but nailed to our cross, with no other choice but to remain there, we endure.
“He was saying to them all, If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me” and “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple” (Lk 9:23; 14:27). Obviously Jesus did not mean jewelry or a steeple.
For those hearing this for the first time, it could only mean one thing: execution by crucifixion. The cross was only used by Rome for capital punishment. The Roman philosopher, Cicero said, “Let the very name of the cross be far away not only from the body of a Roman citizen, but even from his thoughts” (ISBE). Rome saw a cross as “cruel and unusual punishment” and no Roman took up a cross. It showed Rome’s contempt for treason, robbery, assassination, or sedition in the nations it conquered. It was a painfully slow and humiliating way to die. Scourged, nailed by hands and/or feet, and left to die in public view, by suffocation, infection, starvation, and/or thirst. That was all a cross could signify then.
Hence as Rome’s cross brought slow agonizing physical death, Jesus’ cross brings slow and agonizing death to worldliness. The denial he demanded will not be quick or painless. When Jesus said “take up his cross daily” or “carry his own cross”, they heard “instrument of death.”
So while banished from the mind of a Roman and a curse in Israel (Deut 21:22-23), Jesus made it a daily necessity. Without a cross one “cannot be My disciple,” for “he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me” (Mt. 10:38). Therefore, “if anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross” (Mt. 16:24-25). NOTE: Jesus never told his disciples to carry “my cross.” He said each disciple must take up “his own cross.” Since this is not physical, he is using Rome’s cross as a parable. Each disciple builds his cross to crucify his desires and kill his own will, then learns to use it through practice.
As he sent out the twelve (Mt. 10:16-39), he revealed the cost of being a disciple would require a cross. As “sheep in the midst of wolves, ... delivered up to councils, ...scourged in synagogues, ...brought before governors and kings, ...delivered by brother; father, or children to be put to death,” and “hated by all for My name,“He who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me” If we don’t learn how to endure these things, we are unworthy. It is not simply the price to follow Jesus. It is the weapon Jesus gave us to give up pleasures, relationships, bad habits, or even our life when they get in the way of faithful service. We must learn to carry/use this cross to make agonizing long term sacrifices for him.
Paul is the perfect example of how the cross was used for crucifixion. It was a two step process. God did the first when Paul was “buried with Him through baptism into death” and his “old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with” (Rom. 6:4-6). It was God who brought him to “the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Gal. 6:14). But after coming up out of the waters of baptism, Paul took up his own cross. Paul used it so well that “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2:20). God began it by grace in baptism, and Paul continued it by taking up his cross in self-denial.
Think about it. When we are “tempted and enticed”, it is agony to deny it. Our lust demands fulfillment and intensifies as we deny it. Picture yourself in the midst of this temptation taking out your cross, nailing your hands and feet to it, and remaining there until that desire is dead. That is what Paul meant by “it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” It is how “those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Gal. 5:24).
Everything hindering full service must be crucified. In every temptation each disciple must “deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me” (Lk. 9:23). Imagine Jesus agony on his cross and the temptation to “come down from the cross” but he endured it (Mt. 27:39-43). So we too when tempted want to come down from our cross. Jesus suffered agony on the cross for our salvation. He expected us to suffer a similar agony in self-denial. We use our cross until fleshly desires are dead and we are crucified! It is excruciating to kill our own will and completely submit to our Lord. This is why we need the cross daily! Far from wearing a gold or silver graven replica, the mark of those who carry the true cross of Christ is self-control, holiness and full submission (i.e. crucifixion).
So we set aside the cheap substitutes. The next time we face a powerful temptation we take up the cross. Self-denial is painful, but nailed to our cross, with no other choice but to remain there, we endure.