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24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. 25 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it." ~ Matthew 16:24-25
Today, we continue our study of Matthew 16 which has a few firsts. These firsts include the Lord Jesus' first encounter with the Sadducees, the first prediction of His death, the first prediction of His resurrection and the first confession by Simon Peter that the Lord Jesus is "the Christ, the Son of the Living God." These "firsts" come in the context of learning what it means to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus. We do not become disciples in order to become sons of God, we become sons of God in order to be His disciples.
In v.24 of today's passage we read, "Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me."
This passage provides for us some of the characteristics of a disciple. Some have said that if the Lord Jesus is not Lord of all of your life then He is not Lord at all. This quote sounds good but it is inconsistent with the Scriptures. The context is key here in today's passage because the Lord Jesus was in the middle of teaching His disciples about discipleship, not sonship. We are not saved because we deny ourselves certain things and take up a cross and follow the Lord Jesus. We are made right in the eyes of God only through believing that the death of the Lord Jesus on the cross paid the penalty for that which separated us from God in the first place and that is our sinfulness. But, after we have become sons of God, then we become disciples of the Lord Jesus. The first is all about our justification and the second is all about our sanctification.
Now, the four gospel accounts were written that we might believe that the Lord Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and that believing in Him we might have life through Him. We unlock the kingdom or the rule of God in our lives with the gospel. If we want to follow Him or be His disciples, we must deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him. By no means do we follow Him to provide forgiveness of sin for anyone. Oh, we can choose not to deny self, take up our cross, and follow Him but that will only make us miserable. That is if we are born again and have entered into a personal relationship with Him through His work on the cross.
Discipleship is a tool to accomplish our sanctification which involves daily discipline on our behalf. It was once said "He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep (this life and all the pleasures it offers), to gain what he cannot lose (our eternal life through Christ.)" We learn to follow the Lord Jesus one step at a time, one a day at a time. Following the Lord Jesus or walking through life with Him at the helm our lives requires of us self-denial. Discipleship is not about our comfort or our self-fulfillment. The idea that we should have no troubles and our salvation is a guarantee of health, prosperity, and happiness, is just not consistent with His Word. When our theology is God-centered and not man-centered, we will see this world as He does and we will fulfill our calling, transcendently, as we are being defined by God.
The phrase "Take up your cross" was understood by every Jew who heard it. They knew that the cross was a cruel tool of death. Crucifixion started first with the Persians and then Alexander the Great introduced the practice to the Greeks, where it was picked up by the Romans. The Romans started using it around the time the Lord Jesus was born. In fact, the Romans perfected it as a punishment designed to maximize pain and suffering. It wasn't about killing somebody, it was about killing them in a really horrible way. Someone who was crucified suffered the maximum amount of pain.
To deny self is to deal a death blow to our selfish desires. In God's economy, we live by dying. According to God's way of thinking and living, we are the living dying. Living to Him and dying to self is at the epicenter of discipleship. When we say "yes" to the leading of His indwelling Holy Spirit and say "no" to our flesh or our sinful desires, we experience His life. In Ephesians we are told that we have been blessed in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing. As we transcend and gain the transcendent view of the Lord Jesus and follow Him, we will see that He uses all things in our lives for our good, even the bad.
In v.25 of today's passage we read, "For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it."
According to God's culture the follower of the Lord Jesus Christ gains by giving. This has nothing to do with being made right with God, we can't earn God's favor. This has everything to do with accessing the life that the Lord Jesus died to give us now. And, His life is transcendent and full of wisdom. Since the author of our salvation was made perfect through suffering, so must we but not to earn our rightness before God. No, we do this because we have been made right before God through the cross of the Lord Jesus. When we experience His kingdom and His wisdom, we grow in His wisdom and His holiness.
Now, a disciple is not someone who simply gets a new priority, a disciple is one who finds a new identity. This involves the gift of God's holiness applied to us through the Lord Jesus. The mark of a disciple is his ability to hear the Master’s voice and to be defined by Him! This is what enables him to shirk the definitions of this world which are most often contrary to the Lord's. The more we are defined by the Lord the more we will live according to His culture. The world screams at us, but the Lord Jesus whispers. Few hear His voice. Fewer still open the door to the leading of His Spirit to be defined by Him in such a way that the world will see our witness and be drawn to the Lord Jesus for themselves.
