If you think it means we have works to do in order to be saved you are sadly mistaken. And if you think it means that works must be done after you have believed in Jesus for eternal life to make sure you don’t lose eternal life, again you are sadly mistaken. You have not believed the record left to us by the apostles.
To know what this does mean we first need to understand who Jesus was talking to when He said this. Because as in all teaching context is important in understanding why what is being said is being said.
In the gospels we see Jesus telling Israel plainly in Mt.15:24 that, “I have not come but for the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” So in context His teaching was only for Israel, and only for Israel under the law. A different covenant than the one we are in today. These are 2 very important things for us to know in order to understand what Jesus was telling them that they must take up their cross and follow Him.
Because unlike the New Covenant, under the Old Covenant Paul says in Gal.3 the law they were given kept them “shut up unto the faith that should afterward be revealed.” So they could not receive eternal life until after Jesus died.
This is why Paul told the Hebrews in Heb.9:15-17 that Jesus had to die to empower the New Covenant in which eternal life could be given to those who trust in Him and His resurrection. And in Heb.6:4-9 that by rejecting Jesus after having experienced all the things God did for them in the Old Covenat they can not be renewed again unto repentance. Because Jesus being the once for all final sacrifice for their sins there is no other sacrifices they can do to ensure their repentance was accepted by God.
So what Jesus is saying to Israel under the law about taking up the cross and following Him is for these Israelites a message about the covenant that was to come. And has nothing to do with works of any kind. Even works of the law. Either for Jews under the law. Or for anyone after the New Covenant was given power by Jesus’ death.
This is then what is meant by Jesus when He said they must deny themselves. It is that they would leave their old life under the law behind. To join with Jesus in newness of life in the Spirit.
Adding that any advantage they thought they might have by clinging to the old life would end in the losing of their souls. Which is why in Phil.3 Paul said he considered any profit he had as a Pharisee under the law as both “dung” and “loss” compared to knowing Jesus.
So taking up your cross means to be born again. Because the cross represents death. As a man joins himself with Jesus in His death by faith he leaves his old life behind. So that he can be joined with Jesus in eternal life by faith. This is a man’s taking up of his cross.
It is akin to the symbolism we see Paul describing that is baptism. When we go under the water it symbolizes our death, ie the taking up of our cross. And when we raise up out of the water it symbolizes our new and eternal life in Christ, ie being born again.
So if you have been born again the taking up of the cross for you is finished. There is nothing left for you to do to receive eternal life. Because by the cross you have died with Christ. And by faith in His resurrection you have risen with Him in eternal life.
And with that finished you now “follow” Jesus by the communion your new spirit has with the Holy Spirit that now lives in you. You have given up your old life for this new life in Christ. And by the renewing of your mind that also comes by hearing the Holy Spirit as He teaches you the truth.
Being led by the Spirit as Paul in Rom.5:1-5 teaches us in tribulation that works patience. And patience experience. And experience hope. The kind of hope that leaves us not ashamed. Because God’s love has now been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit leading us in and through all of these things.
As far as any works are concerned they will be a by-product of our relationship with God. So as the Holy Spirit sheds God’s love abroad in your heart you express that love to God and others. Resulting also in works that James says people can see that show them that you have faith in Jesus for eternal life.
This is what Paul is saying when he writes in Eph.2:10 after saying we are saved by grace through faith and not of works, “10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”
These works are not to prove to God or anyone else that you are saved. He already knows that if you have truly believed in Jesus. And they can only know that if they are born again and have grown in discernment themselves. These works are only the means by which men see what a person having faith in Jesus should look like. That is all.
If you have not yet taken up your cross to join with Jesus in death and raised by faith in His resurrection. And are not yet a follower of Jesus. Paul tells us that all you need to do is confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus. And believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead.
This brings salvation. And fulfills Jesus’ instruction to take up your cross. Because this covenant is the time Jesus was talking to Israel about when He told them they must take up your cross and follow me. To make you a child of God by dying with Christ and raising from the dead in newness of life.
So don’t let the idea of taking up of the cross weigh you down. As if it is a bunch of really difficult works you must do. Let it do what Jesus designed it to do when He told them in Mt.11:28-30, “28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Let it put you right next to Him in eternal life as you are raised to life from the death of your cross by faith in Him.
If you will do this then you will have a spirit created in you by God that was never there before. A spirit that joins you to God as His child. And as His child you will be heir to His kingdom. And will have eternal life now. And immortality at the resurrection.
Do this… and I will see you there or in the air!
