Taking Up Our Cross “Daily”
Categories: Church of Christ Bulletin Articles, uncategorized
In Luke 9:23, the text reads: “And he said to them all, If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.”
Brother Edwin Crozier, preacher for the Brownsburg congregation in Brownsburg, Indiana, provides us with the following interpretation of the above verse in this video.
When people in the first century saw someone bearing a cross, they immediately knew three things about that person:
1) That person was guilty.
2) That person had given control of his life to someone else.
3) That person was destined to die.
When Jesus tells to “take up our cross daily, and follow me” (Luke 9:23), He is telling us to do the same three things:
1) Recognize our guilt (we have sinned – Romans 3:23).
2) Surrender our lives to Him (Psalm 51:15-17; cf. Psalm 34:18; Isaiah 57:15).
3) Die – to die to self, giving up control of our lives and allowing Jesus to live through us as living sacrifices (Gal. 2:20; Romans 12:1).
It’s also interesting to note that the passage in Luke 9:23 contains the word, “daily.“ We need to pick our cross up just for today, not thinking about yesterday or tomorrow. If God grants us another day, then we can pick our cross up again, serving our Lord in whatever circumstances we find ourselves in.
Are we carrying our cross today?