Take Up Your Cross

A Facebook group member recently posted the following question: “When it comes to being a faithfully obedient follower of Christ, denying myself and picking up my cross, my biggest challenge with that has been dying to my pride and ego daily.  It has been a struggle due to feeling like I'm soft or weak and allowing people to walk over me when I don't react in an aggressive manner to what I consider disrespect.  What's your cross that you have to bear to truly follow Christ, and what's your biggest challenge with it.”

Below is my response to this post/question.  As I often do, I tend to use such posts as an opportunity to create content rather than directly responding to the pure intent of the post.  I always try to be cordial and if any friction is created, I avoid arguing and use the opportunity for dialogue instead of argument. I end the rhetoric with hearty salutation and thank the original poster for the opportunity to discuss the topic in question.

My Response:

Often the idea of carrying one's cross is used as a metaphor for a particular personal challenge or temptation or weakness. It is not necessarily wrong to make such a comparison but it’s important that we don't miss the point of Jesus' message. Regardless of what life throws our way - our personal cross/burden - that thing that threatens our relationship with Christ, will always pale in comparison to the cross that Christ is referring to - not a cross that symbolizes personal problems, fears, feelings, or pain and suffering, the cross Christ referred to represents death. That is how those who heard this message would have understood what Jesus meant.

Taking up our cross is more than dying to our personal challenges, it means dying to self and trusting Christ alone. When we trust Christ with all our heart, soul, and mind, and surrender our will completely, then how we feel shouldn’t be what we use to measure our relationship with Christ. Our relationship with Christ is solely measured by our faith and belief. When my feelings, or problems, or challenges become the default that I use to determine whether or not I am truly following Christ, then I am telling Christ that I really don't trust Him. In other words, I have not died to self

Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

To say the post wasn’t’ about external challenges is confusing. I therefore assume the post question is referring to internal challenges,

The Facebook post makes reference to internal forces, such as pride, ego, soft, weak, and external forces, such as being "walked" over by others which may lead to aggression. Regardless of what personal challenges we face, if anything can interfere with our relationship with Christ is an indicator that we have not "put to death" the old way of life.

Faith is what we employ when any thought, doubt, ego, anger, or worry tries to become an obstacle to our relationship with Christ. In Galatians 2:20 Paul provides the definitive response to the bodily struggle we must bring under submission in order to live by faith

The fact is that everyone has obstacles to overcome each day in order to be able to live for Christ. If I have truly died to self, then the obstacles I confront each day don’t keep me from taking up my cross. The obstacles I confront threaten my ministry to others. Paul's assertion that "I no longer live" implies he no longer allows forces that are beyond his control, whether external or internal, to defeat the work that Christ is doing in his life. That does not mean that the struggle with sin, or lust, or anger, or fill in the blank, has disappeared. But if the Apostle Paul can claim that “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live” then I also must also make that claim if I am going to live a life of faith. Several years ago, I declared that I would strive each day to no longer allow anything – external or internal – to stand in the way of my faith in Christ. Do I fall? Absolutely. Everyday. But “the life I live now in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.