Take up Your Cross
I know I have heard Jay Bakker say that taking up your cross is finding your purpose (because the cross was Christ’s purpose), and I won’t deny that there is definitely something to that. Specifically, though, I think the “purpose” referred to in “taking up your cross” is dying. It seems pretty obvious to me. The cross was a means of death for Christ and anyone else who was hung upon one (i.e.: the theives right next to him). Christ is asking us to deny ourselves and take up our crosses and follow him. Where was he going that he wanted us to follow? To conquer death by dying and then rising again. What he says next seems to clarify: “If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.” (Luke 9:24)
Paul reiterates this in Galatians…
For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me. So I died to the law—I stopped trying to meet all its requirements—so that I might live for God. My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me [on the cross]. (Galatians 2:19-20) (emphasis mine)
…and gives us a means by which this is accomplished (namely baptism)…
Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.
Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was. We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him. We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him. When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God. So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus. (Romans 6:2-11)
So, “taking up your cross” does mean finding your purpose, but because we know that he “wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4), I think it’s safe to say that the purpose for each and every one of us is to die to sin and live a new life in Christ. It is his will for all of us!
Deny Yourself
“[T]hrow off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception.” (Ephesians 4:22)
Take up Your Cross
“Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there.” (Galatians 5:24)
And Follow Him
“This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” (2 Corinthians 5:17)
