How We Take Up Our Cross

This is to put in writing a thought that has been presented from the pulpit. It is presented here for more methodical contemplation. It has to do with Jesus' requirement to take up our cross (Matt. 16:24 ), and what that means. The thought has been made difficult because of a popular and general interpretation. A prevailing concept seems to be that Jesus was telling us we all have burdens and problems in life that we must endure. They are our crosses to bear. I believe there is something much more profound here.

In the first place Jesus requires that we actively "take up" something, not that we just endure or put up with something. In the next place it is accompanied by denying ourselves, and losing our lives. In every passage but one, that mentions taking up our cross, it says, "Whosoever would save his life shall lose it, and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall find it" (Matt. 16:24-25; 10:38-39; Mk. 8:343-35; Lk. 9:23-24). The one that does not say that, requires one to hate his own life (Lk. 14:26 -27). Denying one's self and forfeiting life accompanies and explains taking up one's cross.

The idea is this. Jesus said this before he had died upon the cross. But that does not mean a reference to the cross meant nothing to his listeners. The Romans had employed crucifixion when they wanted to send a powerful message to discourage rebellion. And one of the features of dying on a cross, was the humiliating requirement of having to carry that upon which you were going to die. In requiring that his listeners take up their cross, he was requiring them to voluntarily die. But in doing that, he promised they would actually gain their lives.

There are other passages to help us. Paul said he gloried in the cross of Christ through which "the world hath been crucified unto me, and I unto the world" (Gal. 6:14 ). Paul was alive and speaking, but he had been crucified. He had taken up his cross. In one of the Luke passages, Jesus said we must take up the cross daily. Similarly, Paul said, "I die daily" (I Cor. 15:31 ). If Paul laid down his life, and did so daily, according to Christ's promise he should have gained a life. He did. He said, "It is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me," thus the life he lived in the flesh he now lived in faith (Gal. 2:20 ).

Putting all this together, in requiring that we take up our cross, Jesus requires that we take up that which will put us to death. We will deny self and live for something greater. We will put to death the exercise of passions which otherwise would kill us spiritually, and become new people ( Col 3:5-10), new creatures in Christ (II Cor. 5:17 ). We take up our cross and die on it. "He that hath died is justified from sin...Even so reckon yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus" (Rom 6:7, 11). And thus we remain, taking up that cross daily. Jesus said, "Take up your cross daily." Paul said, "I die daily." The cross is not simply some problem we bear, it is a whole way of life and commitment to another, Christ, instead of the selfish indulgences of this life. We die upon the cross we take up, and are given a new life by Christ. Jesus required us to put the old self to death. Thus in baptism, being forgiven at that moment, the old person dies, we bury it and arise to walk in newness of life ( Rom. 6:3-5). -- Dale Smelser