| The Cost |
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Here we see Jesus not only teaching His disciples, but also the crowd. This is one of a few times when Christ involved the crowd in His teachings. He then goes on to say something quite unusual...you must deny yourself. That goes against everything we are taught, and everything we naturally feel. We are taught to look after number 1, which is ourselves. Jesus is telling us to deny ourselves, which is to not think of ourselves as the most important. That is also taught elsewhere in Scripture where we are told to consider others higher than ourselves. Jesus then gives us a mental picture which must have shocked his audience...He says we are to take up our cross. That must have made the jaws of His listeners drop! The cross was an instrument of torture and death, and Christ is telling us we are to carry it. The disciples could not understand that until after Christ carried His own cross, then they understood this saying. We must be willing to suffer for Him and the Gospel, and maybe even die for it. How ofter we think the Christian life is to be a bed of roses, or at least the path of least resistance. Jesus never taught that and we should not expect it. It is a life that calls us to self denial and sacrifice. Are we willing to live it?
8:34 And he called to him the multitude with his disciples, and said to them, "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 8:35 For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it. |
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