Imagine attending a sermon that begins with the statement, "To follow Jesus means you have to take a lethal injection." This shocking imagery serves to illustrate a profound truth. When Jesus said, "Take up your cross and follow Me,"(Matthew 16:24) He didn't mean that you should bear the burdens of life until He calls you home. His audience would have known that the cross was a method of execution, just like a lethal injection would be today. What He meant is that you must metaphorically die.
Dying To Self
So why would Jesus use such gruesome imagery to describe being His follower? Because in a very real sense following Jesus meant dying. Sometimes we are called to literally die for Him, but always we are called to die to self. Jesus said that the follower who was unwilling to bear his cross for Him couldn't even be His disciple (Luke 14:27). What happens when you die to self? When we become Christians, the old self dies and the new man is born.
Crucified With Christ
Paul said that he had been crucified with Christ, and it was Christ who was actually alive in him. Paul went so far as to say that he actually no longer lived! In Galatians 5:24 Paul says that our sinful nature has been crucified. We can't live half way in the our old life and halfway in our new one. We can't be half alive and half dead. We truly are required to live a life fully committed to being obedient to Jesus.
No Longer Sin's Slave
Again in Romans 6:7, Paul reminds us that we were crucified with Christ so that we would no longer be slaves of sin. If we have died with Him, then we have been freed from the power that sin had over our lives. As a slave to sin we did as our master, the Devil, commanded us. It was he who ruled our lives. It was he who told us that happiness could only come from doing what we wanted to do, no matter what that was. Satan wants to keep you enslaved. He wants you to doubt God's promises. He wants you to feel powerless to keep from sinning.
Mighty In God
Without God's Holy Spirit living in us we would be too weak to resist the Devil, but when God lives in us it is His power that will fight the battle against sin. John 15:5 reminds us that apart from God we can't do anything. A Christian who has died to self is incapable of doing anything without God. That Christian is dead to the old life, but renewed by Jesus into a meaningful, purposeful life with Him.
To fight the battle against sin we need all the weapons that our Lord provides us. We need His truth, His word, and His salvation. We need faith, righteousness and prayer (Ephesians 6). In Ephesians 6:13, we are told to use the "whole armor of God", not just some of it. Each piece plays a crucial role in fighting our battle against sin. Our weapons are "mighty in God" according to 2 Corinthians 10:3-4.
Dying To Self - Living For Others
John 10:10 tells us that Jesus gives us life, His life, and when we have His life that is when we truly live. We are commanded to love God and others above all. We aren't commanded to love ourselves, contrary to what some popular television evangelists might have us think. As we become less like ourselves and more like Christ, as we die to self daily, then we will find it easier to live for others and serve them just as He did. This is what taking up our cross really means. As Somesh Ambhore once said, "So life is not about us becoming all that we can be, but it is about Christ being all that He already is in and through us."
Take Up Your Cross
When we fail to take up our cross, we fail to love God as should. We fail to love others as we were meant to. We choose sin instead of God. We choose lies instead of truth. We choose doubt instead of faith. We have to take up our cross daily by serving God as He has asked us to and by serving others. We should no longer try to control our lives but willingly give that control to God. Just as Jesus was the obedient Son, even to death on a cross, so we are also called to be obedient.
If we could just understand that to die to self means that we really haven't given up anything, except sin and death, but we are gaining more than we can even imagine (1 Corinthians 2:9). 2 Corinthians 5:17 reminds us that we are a new creature, the old one is gone and all things are new. This new creature wants to do God's will and with God's help he will be able to, maybe not every time, but the will of God will gradually become the only desire of your heart.
Hope In Christ
Our hope is never in ourselves but it is always in Christ. Galatians 2:20 says that the life we live now is lived by faith in the Son of God. Without Christ there is no pleasing God. Paul reminds us in Romans 12:12 that we should, "Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer."
Are You Dying Daily?
By dying on the cross and rising again Jesus conquered sin for us. By sending His Holy Spirit to live in us, He gives us the ability to conquer the sin that is present in our lives. Are you dying to self daily? Ask yourself these questions:
Do I worry about myself first before I try to be obedient to God?
Do I fear stepping out of my comfort zone and daring to serve as He served?
Do I worry about what others will think if I am truly obedient to God?
Do you worry about losing your friends if they see you dying to self?
Do I look back on the old days, the old life, and miss them?
In conclusion, we need to focus less on ourselves and more on pleasing God. By doing so, we can agree with Paul's declaration,
"For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." Philippians 1:21
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