Need For Taking Up The Cross Daily

(GB Message)

“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. For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits himself?”, Luke 9:23-25 (NASB).

Taking up one’s cross daily indicates the believer’s responsibility to make spiritual discipline a daily routine. Satan and the carnality in us cunningly make us overlook this aspect and instead imparts to our minds the ‘Discipline yes but daily no’ rule. We have to devise ways and means of bringing it into our daily routine in spite of the counter suggestion of evil forces. Here, the God-given mind can come to our rescue in devising the ways and means of accomplishing this aim.

When God gives us the command, it is our duty to fulfill it. It is very wrong to assume that we can fulfill His command only to the extent ‘possible’. According to this logic, no one can be in hell.

There is nothing reclusive or remote about taking up one’s cross. It does not refer to a hermitic existence. Instead, it requires that we be very much ‘in the world but not of the world’. It requires that we be ‘not conformed to this world, but transformed by the renewing of ones mind.’ The question may arise as to how exactly this is accomplished. The clue here is in the word ‘daily’. Unless one makes it a routine habit, it will not be possible to fulfill His commandments.

Last night in our Bible study, we learnt about involving God even during our meals time instead of having a dichotomous existence – with one leg in the world and another in spiritual matters. Instead we must try to live a single phase existence uniformly although we are in a dual-plane existence by nature which is unavoidable. That is the reason Paul considers us aliens in this world. Though we are earthly, we have become a new creation in Jesus Christ. Such an existence is not very easy as long as we live on this earth. At times this can be painful, difficult, and even humiliating, but our objective is to live as spiritual beings, all the time looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross despising the shame.

Lord Jesus is going to share His glory with the believers. For instance, we are going to be resurrected like Him; we are going to be in the presence of God the Father, as He is always with Him. In the words of the Bible, “And if children (of God), then heirs – heirs of God and joint heirs of Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may be glorified together” (Romans 8:17).

The word “daily” indicates the believer’s responsibility to make the spiritual discipline a daily routine. We can find many vital reasons for doing so:

• a) We have to tread a narrow path which only very few find
• b) The path we tread in is narrow, and besides that, many will not be able to make it
• c) Few only are chosen
• d) One has to work out one’s salvation with fear and trembling
• e) It is a travel from an alien and hostile territory; the sooner we cross it the better it is for us, since, to linger on here is fraught with many dangers.
• f) We are surrounded by three deadly enemies: Satan, our carnality, and the snare-filled alluring environment around us. A little stumbling can have far reaching adverse consequences
• g) We are in the end times and so we can expect innumerable hazards and catastrophes
• h) Many spurious teachings are afloat to mislead people.
• i) The warnings given to the seven churches are equally applicable to us.
• j) The responsibility we have of carrying with us the tasks as a result of the Adamic curse
• k) The time at our disposal for various tasks is dwindling day by day. Though the end draws near slowly and imperceptibly, like the warming of this earth, it is nevertheless real and with dangerous consequences.
• l) “The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force”, Mt 11: 12.

To beware of in our peculiar nature:

• a) A lack of remembrance in spiritual things. Peter talks about the need to “stir us up by way of reminder . . . That you should remember the words spoken before hand by the holy prophets, Lord Jesus Christ and by the apostle” (2 Pet 1: 13; 3: 1,2)
• b) Hearing the word of God and saying “Lord, Lord” but not doing much.

Taking up one’s cross daily should mean a self-renouncing faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Here the cross symbolizes a controlling gadget to develop within himself with respect to controlling his carnality, ego, and environmental spiritual hazards around him. We should constantly bear in mind that we are living in alien territory. In our pilgrimage, we see around us so many distracting factors that are not congenial to the spiritual pilgrimage. That is the essence of John Bunyan’s classic “The Pilgrim’s Progress.”

When the Lord points out, “He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it”, it may appear to be a paradox for earthly people. As a matter of fact, anything spiritual cannot be understood by all. Only those who have the indwelling Holy Spirit in them can understand. The language, the methodology and the very goal of the spiritual life can be an enigma to many people, although to us they are very meaningful.

Those who understand at least something in the spiritual realm and try to grow, must praise the Lord that He has granted, by His great mercy, this much progress and God-awareness, with the help of His Holy Spirit. We must pray for the Lord to eliminate the non-spiritual things from our spiritual pilgrimage. Even if we are faithful in a little, we will be blessed by the Lord.

We have heard of the story that is told to children about how a monkey, in order to escape from the crocodile in the river, said that he had forgetfully left his heart underneath the tree in the opposite bank. In the spiritual life, we at times behave like this. We have to ask ourselves if we are like this, behaving hypocritically towards God in fulfilling His commandments whole heartedly, not leaving some aspect underneath a tree, as it were.

Spiritual life can be like like swimming across a river to the opposite bank. Swimming is not like crossing over in a luxury boat. When I sleep in the night, it is not like swimming. I am completely relaxed as otherwise I cannot be peaceful. Working out one’s salvation, from what I understand, is not like traveling in a luxury boat, neither is it like a relaxed nap in a comfortable bed.

In the spiritual life, one of the problems we encounter is the constant suggestions made to us either by Satanic forces or by our own carnal mind, contrary to the spirit of the word of God. Satan can even comes to us, using the word of God to offer wrong suggestions. God has given us a mind to consider everything intelligently and conduct our ways accordingly. Beware of the mind which can turn carnal unless it is under proper control.

In one of the churches wherein I was earlier, for every useful step I devised to progress in spiritual life they contradicted me stating, “It is not written in the word of God.” They tried to prevent me from explaining difficult terms like faith, repentance and the like, stating that there is no need to explain these things, and then going on to say “enough if you state what is written in the Bible.” It took many years to understand that it was a church ruled by carnal people. (There might have been better branches of the same church else where: I don’t know.) Everything done in the church was, according to them, according to the word of God. Looking back, they understood the scripture without the help of the Holy Spirit.

The other extreme, as in some churches, is in ignoring expository teaching entirely and replacing it with intellectual lectures. It is generally pleasing to hear such preaching. Imagine learning to swim in a difficult waters by taking high sounding instructions from intellectuals! What is necessary is that the message be entirely based on the word of God and it be understood with the help of Holy Spirit, and absorbed through the God-given mind. The God-given mind could be both dangerous and a blessing depending upon the person’s spiritual state.