Jesus says, "Follow Me"

Contrary to much of the superficial teaching in the Western church, there exists a high cost of following Jesus Christ. In Luke 9, Jesus spends some time debriefing things with the Twelve forecasting His death on the Cross. Afterwards, He shifts the conversation in order for all of the crowd to hear. He gives the conditions for following Him.

1. Deny your "self". If anyone wants to come with Me, he must deny himself...This denial is not a type of asceticism where you simply refrain from partaking of certain pleasures or wants. Moreover, it is not a type of monasticism where you withdraw from all of society in order to focus on spiritual disciplines. This denial IS a relinquishing of your rights to Christ--the understanding that by following Jesus, you forfeit all of your rights to Him. This denial is also a forsaking of your sin (or the "old self"--see Ephesians 4:22). The call to "deny your self" compares to the common New Testament teaching of repentance.

2. Take up your cross daily. If anyone wants to come with Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily...It is important that we put ourselves in the shoes of the original hearers of this call. For anyone present at Jesus' teaching, the primary thing they would have understood at these words would have been "death". In Roman culture, an everyday citizen would have been as familiar with the term cross as we are with the term "electric chair". The average person at that time could have witnessed hundreds of executions in their lifetime.

But, Jesus is not simply conveying the idea of martyrdom (even though many Christians have given their lives for Him). The all-time principle Jesus conveys here is surrender. He is asking for life or death devotion. A condemned criminal was forced to carry one bar of the cross to the place of execution. He was on a one-way journey. To take up the cross daily is to live each day, not for self, but for Christ.

3. Follow Jesus or Obey Jesus. If anyone wants to come with Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me...Following Jesus means that you obey Jesus. To obey Jesus is to follow Jesus. The two are indelibly linked. Saying that you are a follower of Jesus without ever taking into consideration your obedience to Jesus is grossly irresponsible. And, this obedience is not a one-time deal; it is a continual way of life. It means that you follow Him on His terms and not your own. You don't get to make up the terms of discipleship. He writes them and calls you to follow them.

Being a Christian does not simply consist of reciting a prayer, walking down the aisle of a church, or joining a particular denomination. To be a Christian is to repent of the "old self", to surrender all your rights to Christ in life or death devotion, and to obediently follow Christ until you see Him face to face. How different would the world be if our pulpits truly taught this and followers of Christ truly lived this?