Matthew 16-12.8.21
Scripture
Matthew 16: 24-25
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.
Observation
After declaring to His disciples that He is going to die, Jesus states that to be a true follower of Him one must deny themselves. In addition, in order to gain eternal life, the disciples first had to lose it in the physical world.
Understanding
I always read this passage and think that it sounds extremely confusing and self-explanatory at the same time. That in order to follow Jesus we must die to ourselves and listen to and obey His commands to us. Additionally, in order to gain eternal life in Heaven we have to deny it here on earth to a certain extent. These concepts are so easy to define, but so hard to live out. We live in a society that says that dying for someone is in many ways the most romantic thing you can do for someone. And while I think it is amazing to sacrifice for the ones you love, Jesus contends here that “dying for Him” isn’t what He fully wants. He wants us to live for Him. Meaning, no matter the cost we follow Him fully and that we sacrifice our desires for His instead.
The difference between dying for something and living for something is the amount of times that you do it. Think about it: on earth you can only die once, whereas when you live for something you live continually making the most of what you are given. I understand that some people quite literally die for Christ and I am not trying to detract from that, but taking up our cross is a task that is continual and not just one and done.
Life Application
I want to reach the point where I can confidently say “to live is Christ and to die is gain.” Until then I will bare my cross and follow Jesus continually in the hopes of one day making it to Heaven. Sorry for sounding kind of morbid today, but with all that being said let’s live for Christ!
-Allison Khan