TAKE UP YOUR CROSS AND FOLLOW ME, BUT WE ARE ALSO TOLD TO DENY YOURSELF
Jesus said take up your cross and follow me, but what does deny yourself mean?
Take up your cross and follow me…. Jesus taught that to be His disciple, His follower, requires the spiritual discipline of self-denial: “Then Jesus said to his disciples: If anyone wants to come after me, let him deny himself , and take up your cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). As Jesus said, take up your cross and follow me, it is also for us today.
Denying yourself (take up your cross and follow me) is an essential part of our Christian life.
Take up your cross and follow me…abnegation…deny yourself
The Dictionary of Biblical Subjects defines self-denial as “the willingness to deny oneself possessions or status, in order to grow in holiness and commitment to God.” Take up your cross and follow me, but you have to deny yourself and then “take up your cross and follow me”. The words that Jesus used in the original language for “deny yourself” were strong terms similar in meaning to Paul’s words in Philippians 3:7–8:
“But how many things were gain to me, I have estimated as loss for Christ’s sake. And certainly, I still estimate all things as loss due to the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whose love I have lost everything, and I consider it garbage, to win Christ “. Obeying the voice that says “take up your cross and follow me” is the result of having everything for garbage to win Christ.
The purpose of self-denial, which regards all earthly gains as “loss,” is to become more like Jesus in holiness and obedience to God. Self-denial is what leads us to obey the voice that tells us to “take up your cross and follow me.”
DENY YOURSELF (TAKE UP YOUR CROSS AND FOLLOW ME)
To deny yourself is to crucify the flesh with its passions, Jesus said: take up your cross and follow me
Self-denial includes overcoming the persistent carnal demands of the body, also known as the carnal self or the natural man, and submitting it to the Word of God so that it does not fall into sin: “But those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh. with their passions and desires” (Galatians 5:24). If you have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires then you can obey the voice that says “take up your cross and follow me”.
Take up your cross and follow me, a call to deny ourselves
Self-denial for the Christian means renouncing himself as the center of existence (which goes against the natural inclination of the human will) and recognizing Jesus Christ as his new and true center, this is denying himself. It means recognizing that the old man is dead and that the new life is now hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3–5). Take up your cross and follow me is a call to deny ourselves.
Take up your cross and follow me, denying yourself must be a daily exercise
From the moment of our new birth in Jesus Christ, and we obey, take up your cross and follow me, denying yourself becomes a daily exercise for the rest of this life on earth (1 Peter 4:1-2).
Now that the Holy Spirit dwells in us, we are thrown into a conflict between the divine Spirit of God and the carnal self. Paul describes this constant struggle in Romans 7:14–25; However, despite this struggle that we all have, we must obey the command of Jesus “take up your cross and follow me”.
Take up your cross and follow me: Denial of self is something we can learn only by the grace of God and the power of his Spirit
Denying oneself is something that we can only learn by the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit: “For the grace of God has manifested itself for salvation to all men, teaching us that, renouncing impiety and worldly desires, let us live soberly, righteously, and godly in this age, waiting for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:11–13). Take up your cross and follow me is to renounce impiety and worldly desires. Take up your cross and follow me is a command to deny ourselves.
Take up your cross and follow me: Deny yourself and crucify the flesh
Through self-denial and the crucifixion of the flesh, our life in Christ grows, becomes stronger, and develops more and more. Christ now becomes our life. These famous words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer help us understand the meaning of self-denial: “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” Take up your cross and follow me is the voice that reaches a man who is going to crucify his flesh so that his spiritual life may grow in Christ; therefore, he “take up his cross and follow me” to crucify the flesh.
Take up your cross and follow me because a follower of Jesus must be prepared to die if death is where the path of discipleship leads: “I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me; and what I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20; see also Romans 6:1–11). Take up your cross and follow me… we should no longer live but Christ in us.
SOME WAYS TO DENY YOURSELF
How to deny yourself?…Take up your cross and follow me
The most significant way to deny yourself is how we love and esteem others
Perhaps the most significant way that we practice self-denial is in how we love and esteem our brothers and sisters in Christ. Self-denial is the basis for Christian fellowship and service within the church:
“Not looking each one for his own, but each one also for the others. Let there be in you this feeling that there was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider being equal to God a thing to cling to, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, made in the likeness of men; and being in the condition of a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, and death on a cross” (Philippians 2:4–8; see also Matthew 5:38–48; Mark 10:42–45) . Jesus denied himself and took up the cross, therefore, “take up your cross and follow me.”
Denying yourself means seeking the good of others
Deny yourself for the weak in faith
The Scriptures teach us to deny ourselves for those who are weak in faith (Romans 14:21; 15:1–3; 1 Corinthians 8:13; 9:23). When you are willing to sacrifice your time, energy, rights, position, reputation, privileges, comforts, and even your very life for the sake of Christ, you exemplify what it means to deny yourself:
“He who finds his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake, he will find it” (Matthew 10:39; see also John 12:24–26; 2 Corinthians 6:4–5).
TAKE UP YOUR CROSS AND FOLLOW ME, MATTHEW 16:24
What did Jesus mean when he said, “Take up your cross and follow me”?
Let’s start with what Jesus did NOT mean. Many people interpret “cross” as a burden that they must carry in their lives: a strained relationship, a thankless job, a physical illness. With self-pitying pride, they say, “That’s my cross I have to carry.” Such an interpretation is not what Jesus meant when he said, “Take up your cross and follow me.”
When Jesus carried his cross to Golgotha to be crucified, no one thought of the cross as a symbol of a burden to bear. For a person in the first century, the cross meant one thing and one thing only: death by the most painful and humiliating means that human beings could carry out.
Two thousand years later, Christians view the cross as a treasured symbol of atonement, forgiveness, grace, and love. But in Jesus’ day, the cross represented nothing more than a torturous death. Because the Romans required convicted criminals to carry their own crosses to the crucifixion site, carrying a cross meant carrying their own execution device as they faced ridicule on the road to death.
Take up your cross and follow me is to die to oneself
Therefore, “Take up your cross and follow me” means being willing to die to follow Jesus. This is called “dying to self.” It is a call to absolute surrender. After Jesus commanded to carry the cross, he said: “Because everyone who wants to save his life will lose it; and everyone who loses his life because of me, he will save it. Well, what profits man, if he gains the whole world, and he destroys or loses himself?“ (Luke 9:24-25). Although the call is hard, the reward is unmatched, so he listens to the voice that says “take up your cross and follow me”.
Wherever Jesus went, he drew crowds. Although these crowds often followed him as the Messiah, his view of who the Messiah really was, and what he would do, was distorted. They thought that the Christ would herald the restored kingdom. They believed that He would free them from the oppressive rule of their Roman occupiers. Even Christ’s own inner circle of disciples thought the kingdom would come soon (Luke 19:11). When Jesus began to teach that he was going to die at the hands of the Jewish leaders and their Gentile overlords (Luke 9:22), his popularity plummeted. Many of the surprised followers rejected it. Truly, they could not put to death their own ideas, plans, and desires, and exchange them for His.
Take up your cross and follow me, but discipleship requires sacrifice
Following Jesus is easy when life runs smoothly; our true commitment to Him is revealed during trials. Jesus assured us that trials will come for his followers (John 16:33). Discipleship demands sacrifice, and Jesus never hid that cost.
In Luke 9:57-62, three people seemed ready to follow Jesus. When Jesus asked them more questions, their engagement was lukewarm at best. They did not know how to calculate the cost of following him. No one was willing to take his cross and crucify his own interests on it; however, they had to hear the voice that says “take up your cross and follow me”.
Therefore, Jesus…