· To take up our cross is to take up the “gospel.” Jesus says that this denial of self and cross bearing are equivalent to losing your life for My sake and the gospel’s (Mk. 8:35). The good news is about who Jesus is (Son of David and Son of God, Rom. 1:1-4) and what He did (His death, burial and resurrection, 1 Cor. 15:3-4). This good news, the gospel of Christ … is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes (Rom. 1:16). The very form of Jesus’ death, crucifixion, was a public declaration of this good news. He was lifted up for all to see. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up (Jn. 3:14). Jesus said, When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am (the italicized word “He” in this verse is not in the original; the crucifixion demonstrated Jesus to be the “I am,” Jn. 8:28). In this Jesus witnessed the good confession before Pontious Pilate (1 Tim. 6:13). In other words, on the cross He preached the gospel.
When we take up our cross to follow Christ, our cross becomes the means by which we preach the gospel. Peter called believers to sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you (1 Pt. 3:15). Why would anyone ask us about our hope? It is only if they had seen us in a hopeless situation, expressing the optimism that is explained only by the reality of Christ in our lives! The “hopelessness” is our cross. We have submitted ourselves to God, and He has brought us into a valley of some sort. In that valley we have not tried to work our way out through the “things of men” but are waiting in hope upon God to bring us through. Like Christ, and by Christ, we witness the good confession through our cross.
· The last thing we will say about “our cross” is that it is our cross! The cross is personal. In one sense, they are all the same. To take up one’s cross is always the act of submission to God, that we desire to be always doing His business, His will. This is common for anyone who desires to come after Christ. But in another way, our cross is unique. What we mean is, God works in each believer in accordance to His will for us. What that means to me today is not the same as for you. This is a glorious truth. What it means is that God has cross-bearing disciples of Christ all over the world, bearing the testimony of the gospel, declaring the love of God through Christ in word and deed.
How do we take up this cross? We take it up when, knowing we have by faith been united together in the likeness of His death and thus in the likeness of His resurrection (Rom. 3:5), that we count it true of ourselves, that we are dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord (6:11). In other words, it is when you do your reasonable worship, when you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God (Rom. 12:1). We are growing the more constant we are in that place of faith and submission.
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