OUR CROSS

Luke 9:23, Then He said to them all, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. 24 "For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. 25 "For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost?

Christians follow their Lord by imitating his life and obeying his commands. To take up the cross meant to carry your own cross to the place where you would be killed. We must deny our selfish desires to use our time and money our own way and to choose our own direction in life without regard to Christ. Following Christ is costly now, but in the long run, it is well worth the pain and effort.

People are willing to pay a high price for something they value. Is it any surprise that Jesus would demand this much commitment from his followers? There are at least three conditions that must be met by people who want to follow Jesus. We must be willing to deny self, to take up our crosses, and to follow him. Anything less is superficial lip service.

OUR OLD MAN IS TO BE CRUCIFIED

Romans 6:3, Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.

The power and penalty of sin died with Christ on the cross. Our "old self," our fleshly nature, began to die and we begin the process of being freed from its power. The "body of sin" is not the human body, but our rebellious selfish nature inherited from Adam. Our flesh - like that of animals - is not evil; but it is selfish - knowing only its feelings. If we live in a way to fulfill the desires of the flesh we will be led by the many things that determine those desires - some good and some evil. God wants us to follow Him to do good regardless of how it feels.

Though our body at times desires the pleasures of sin, we must not regard the body as evil. It is the sin in us that is evil. And it is this power of sin at work in our body that is defeated. Paul has already stated that through faith in Christ we stand acquitted, "not guilty" before God. He emphasizes that we need no longer live under sin's power. God does not take us out of the world or make us robots--we will still feel like sinning, and sometimes we will sin. The difference is that before we were saved we were slaves to our sinful nature, but now we can choose to live for Christ.

Gal 2:19-20, "For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. "I have been crucified with Christ; 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 for me.

How have we been crucified with Christ?

Legally, God looks at us as if we had died with Christ. Because our sins died with him, we are no longer condemned.

Relationally, we have become one with Christ, and his experiences are ours. Our Christian life began when, in unity with him, we died to our old life.

In our daily life, we must regularly crucify sinful desires that keep us from following Christ. This too is a kind of dying with him.

And yet the focus of Christianity is not dying, but living. Because we have been crucified with Christ, we have also been raised with him. Legally, we have been reconciled with God and are free to grow into Christ's likeness. And in our daily life, we have Christ's resurrection power as we continue to fight sin. We are no longer alone, for Christ lives in us--he is our power for living and our hope for the future.

Eph 4:17, This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; 19 who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. 20 But you have not so learned Christ, 21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.

GOD DOES DESIRE A SACRIFICE

Romans 12:1, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

God wants us to offer ourselves as living sacrifices--daily laying aside our own desires to follow him, putting all our energy and resources at his disposal and trusting him to guide us. We do this out of gratitude that our sins have been forgiven. God wants us to be transformed people with renewed minds, living to honor and obey him.

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