Mark 8: 34 – 35
“If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s shall save it.”
In Galatians 2: 20 Paul makes an interesting statement. “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” Paul was living and teaching exactly what Jesus said was the call of each of us; to give up our lives for Him. We are not supposed to have a care for ourselves. Well, how can we? We are dead? Why should we worry about a dead person, a former existence? For example, let’s say someone does or says something that would predictably hurt your feelings. If you are dead and the life you now live is the life of Jesus, why should you be offended? Or let’s say there is something you would really like to do but you have not read your Bible or prayed all week much less on this day? Jesus said deny yourself, take up your cross and follow him. That is not to say that you can never have any social time or play time. That is not what Jesus is saying here. He is simply saying that if you truly want to be a follower of his, you have to learn to put him absolutely in first place. Your old self is dead. Stop serving the old self.
When you died with Christ you were also raised up with him. The life you now live you live through the Son of God. It is his life that you are to lead, not your own. You are to leave the carcass of your old man lying in the grave and pick up your cross and follow the Son. What is your cross? It is not suffering, brokenness or bondage. It is the mission that God has predestined for you.
Jesus’ cross was a literal one. He came to die on that cross so that we might live, but you don’t have to die on a cross. There is something else for you to do. There is something uniquely ordained for you. Your cross figuratively represents that anointing. So, your life becomes about your vision and your anointing because of the new life that you have been given in Christ Jesus rather than about the things that you thought were important when you were still living in the world. You are a new creature uniquely created in Christ Jesus.
This is true even if you have been saved a long time. We are constantly dying to self and arising to the greater life in Christ. Take up the new life that Jesus has given you, the better life, and follow him.
