Luke 9:22-24 (Jesus, describing to His disciples what was
soon to come) “…The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the
elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed and be raised up on the
third day.”
And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to
come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.
For whoever wishes to save
his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one
who will save it.”
We’ve seen that “denying self” and "taking up one's cross" means to totally identify our
whole being with the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross, making that
finished work the ONLY issue in eternal salvation. We receive because He paid.
There is no way we can earn anything from God. Ever. Our righteousnesses are
filthy rags.
Jesus was addressing Jews in this context. Following Jesus
was very unpopular; even dangerous for a Jew of that time. It was against their
religion.
Verse 24: a person might think he would “save his life”
by denying that Christ is enough. He would rather cling to his legalism. This
is cowardice. In reality, he would “lose it.” No discipleship = no production; a wasted
life; loss of reward in temporal life as well as eternity.
However, the believer who “loses his life for My sake” through
the daily dependence on the finished work of Christ, the grace provision of
God, has lost his life (self) IN CHRIST. That’s when the believer really begins
to have Abundant Life; to grasp the meaning of life, the true purposes
of God. That believer’s life (in the sense of service, usefulness, production,
awareness of purpose, knowledge of God) is saved. He has purpose, direction,
definition, mission. He is alert to, and responsive to what God Initiates.
This believer is not tooting his horn about doing great
things for God, or even what great things God is doing for and through him.
This believer is daily displaying the cross. Christ’s finished work. Our
only hope.
Luke 9:25 “For what is a man profited if he gains the whole
world, and loses or forfeits himself?”
“whole world” material possessions, popularity,
self-esteem, approval, etc.
“himself” the
real you. Lost or forfeited in the frantic search for happiness or maintenance
of status quo (what will people think?).
Self-sufficiency is spiritual blindness. THE LORD IS MY
SHEPHERD. He has paid. He has provided. He sustains. Our glory is in His cross.
Our burden is to openly proclaim, as Jesus did, the cross.
That’s what He has called us to do. In order to proclaim it to others, we must
keep sight of it ourselves. In our time, in our society, there are many, many
people like the rich young ruler, who think they have it made because of their moral
lifestyle. It is our job to disturb their cocoon by always making an issue of
the cross of Jesus Christ. Some will go away grieved, but we will have given
them the truth.
Galatians 6:14 “..may
it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through
which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”
“It is finished!”
