Carry Your Cross

“Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?” Matthew 16:24-26 (NLT).

If you are living in grace, why do you have to carry a cross? Isn’t carrying a cross the opposite of receiving God’s undeserved favor? To be honest, taking up your cross produces freedom in your life. Despite the pain of carrying your cross, you enjoy peace, purpose and friendship. It is because you’re living in grace that you are able to take up your cross and follow Jesus.

Let’s start by defining what taking up your cross means. The key is in verse twenty-four, which is to give up your own way. You are born into this world preprogrammed to demand your own way. It is wired into the fallen human nature to follow your own ideas. This lifestyle produces sin, selfishness, and death. You might not die immediately but stubbornly insisting on your own way produces toxicity. When the Holy Spirit baptized you into Jesus Christ, He crucified your old spirit with Jesus and He resurrected your new spirit with Jesus. Your old nature has been crucified with Christ and now it is your opportunity to obey God and follow Jesus.

The cross is an instrument of death. Jesus was given a cross to bear by the Roman soldiers. He died on that cross to buy you life. For you, taking up your cross means that you are going to crucify your old sinful self and live as a new creation in Christ. Technically, this has already happened, so now you need to live in that reality. “We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him.” Romans 6:6-8 (NLT). Because of the cross, you have been set free to live with Jesus. Now, you can follow Him.

To take up your cross means to submit to God’s Word and His will. This requires you to crucify your selfish ambitions and starve your flesh. Instead of feeding your flesh by giving it everything that it wants, you deny your flesh and choose to obey Christ. Like carrying a cross, this can be painful because you have to deny yourself and actively choose to follow Jesus Christ’s wisdom and will.

Ask the Holy Spirit to show you where you’re being stubborn. What does He want you to do instead? Deny yourself and submit to Him. Grace has set you free to make choices that align with God’s will. Usually, it is not difficult to decide what the right course of action is. What is difficult is to deny yourself and do it God’s way. The good news is that you have been given the desire and ability to submit to God. “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20 (NLT).

The fact is that your old self is dead and gone. Your new self is alive and dedicated to Jesus. Not only are you made in the image of Jesus, you are also inhabited by Jesus. You live in your earthly body by trusting and obeying. “So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.” Romans 6:11 (NLT). This is a mindset. Consider yourself alive to God and obey Him intentionally. The life of grace means to live for Christ, while dying to self. When you choose that lifestyle, you will experience a life worth living.

Prayer: “Dear Heavenly Father, I am so happy to choose to obey You! Help me to see where I’m stubbornly asserting my own will and not submitting to yours. I want to crucify my flesh and live free from the power of sin. Please forgive me for choosing my own way and give me the will power to deny myself and follow Jesus. In Jesus’s name, amen.”