What is involved in following Jesus? He did not entice His followers with false promises, but He made it clear that following Him entailed the way of the cross. Jesus took up the cross and, if they were to follow Him, they too would take up the cross.

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.” (Luke 9:23 )

Discipleship is not reserved for a select few, Jesus was addressing all of the people. He prefaced His statement with the word if. Jesus never cajoled anyone to follow Him, but He gave them a choice. If you want to follow Me, then you must first deny yourself. The force of this command is to do it at once. The thought of denying oneself goes against our natural inclination. The world teaches that many of our problems are caused by denying ourselves resulting in low self-esteem. Fostering high self-esteem is not the solution, but it’s the problem. We are to think rightly about ourselves:

For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. (Romans 12:3)

As we consider the great commandment, Jesus tells us that we are to love God with our entire being and we are to love our neighbor as ourself. The emphasis is on God, not on ourselves.

The next command that Jesus gives is that we are to take up our cross daily. This command also conveys the idea of doing it at once. Taking up one’s cross is an acknowledgement that we have been crucified with Christ. We no longer live for ourselves, but for Jesus who died and rose again on our behalf. We are to take up our cross daily because we have a tendency to drift spiritually so we need a daily reminder.

We had a saying in the military, “The only easy day was yesterday.” This was not meant to discourage us, but it was a reminder that we must be vigilant and to keep growing.

Finally, we are to follow Jesus. This command is in the present tense and it implies a continuous action. It is significant to note that Jesus did not say, “Follow these rules” He said, “Follow Me.” We may discover that we can follow Jesus when life is going well, but are we able to follow Him when we encounter adversity? Jesus told us that in this life we will have tribulation, but we can take heart because He has overcome the world (John 16:33).

If we are to follow Jesus, it will involve paying the price, but it is worth it. The cost of not following Jesus is far greater than the cost of discipleship.

Associate Pastor – Discipleship.  The Church at LifePark

Professor of Discipleship, Columbia International University

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