Deny self and take up your cross daily

H- ^X Luke 9:18-27…²³ And Jesus 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. NASB

E- I believe “our cross” is to die to self daily and to be willing to die for His message if required and not be ashamed of His message!

Parallel passages for v.23 are found in Matthew 16:24 and Mark 8:34. I believe the all refers to all who would ever accept Jesus as Savior and immediately become Disciples ^Y. In v.22 Jesus had just explained His mission was to be killed. So now He begins to explain what it means for all Disciples to “come after Me”. He had to die, but so did all future Disciples if they were to be genuine followers.  Jesus explains in Luke 9:24-27 that death is not necessarily a physical death for all Disciples. What Jesus was describing for His Disciples was a figurative death, a death to that selfish tendency in every human heart, that is empowered by the sin nature that indwells every believer until the day we die or are raptured.

Jesus is telling those who would be His Disciples the cost of following Him.  Disciples are to “take up his cross daily and follow Me” by dying to our self-centeredness and be willing to die for Him as we follow Him. So how do we effectively deny self? Only by the “grace of God” which is continually discipling us to deny ungodliness and self! This grace is administered by the indwelling Holy Spirit, Who is continually energizing Disciples giving them the desire and the power to deny themselves.

Charles Spurgeon said, “There are no crown wearers in heaven who were not cross-bearers on earth.” Vance Havner said, “What our Lord said about cross-bearing and obedience is in bold print in the Bible.” John Stott said: “The great scandal of Christendom today is so-called “nominal Christianity.” In countries to which Christian civilization has spread, large numbers of people have covered themselves with a decent, but thin, veneer of Christianity. They have allowed themselves to become somewhat involved; enough to be respectable but not enough to be uncomfortable.” ^T

A- ^X The command of Jesus is to deny self and be willing to die for His message every day.

R- O God help me to be Jesus-centered, filled by the Holy Spirit daily, and obedient to Your commands because I love you with the love You give me.

Henry Luke — To receive my daily blog posts scroll to “Follow” and add your email. Disclaimer: My Personal Journey by Henry Luke has no control over any advertising that may appear on this blog post and receives no payment for it. Ads & their links come from Word Press or other sources.

Notes: A- How to have peace with God click here, how to have peace of God click here, and how to teach Disciples ^Y to be Disciple-makers click here.; T- Austin Commentaries by Book; X- 4 steps in The H.E.A.R method of Bible study and worship; Y- “Disciples” or “Christians”?