“Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.'” (Matthew 16:24)
True salvation is when we realize we are nothing, hopeless, damned, and lost. We have nothing good in ourselves, we are sinners condemned to die! And we believe in and trust Jesus Christ as our Saviour. But that is just the beginning. When we become a Christian, our flesh and sinful nature doesn’t just disappear. We have to learn to DENY our flesh, say NO to the temptations around us, and at no matter WHAT THE COST, follow Jesus Christ!
A person who is not willing to deny himself cannot truly claim to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. The word “deny” means to completely disown, to utterly separate oneself from someone. We have to utterly disown our selfish desires, our flesh, and the temptations of a wicked heart! Like Paul wrote in Romans 7:18, “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh…” IF we want to truly know all that God has to offer, we MUST have NO OPINION, NO DESIRES, and NO WILL of our own, because all of our opinions, desires, and will come from a frail human heart. We must learn to leave EVERYTHING to our loving Heavenly Father, and seek to do WHATEVER He wants. Paul also wrote in Colossians 3:5 “Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.”
Now, that means it will cost us. We may lose relationships, we may forfeit friendships, and we will have people who dislike and disagree with us. That is all part of taking up our cross! To take up our cross is simply to be willing to pay ANY price for Christ’s sake. If we have to endure shame, embarrassment, reproach, rejection, persecution, or even death because of our faith in Jesus Christ – so be it! John MacArthur wrote, “To come to Jesus Christ is to come to the end of self and sin and to become so desirous of Christ and His righteousness that one will make any sacrifice for Him.”
Jesus Christ did not call us to be disciples so that He could make our lives easy, rich, and famous. He called us to forsake this world and follow Him, being Holy as HE is holy, and pointing others to faith in Him ALONE! 1 John 2:6 reminds us, “the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.”
“If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”