And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after Me, is not worthy of Me…he that loseth his life for My sake shall find it.
—Matthew 10:38-39
Thus far we have looked at some of Paul’s words to the Galatians about the cross and our being crucified with Christ. Let us now turn to the Master Himself to see what He has to teach us. We find that what Paul could teach openly and fully after the crucifixion was given by the Master in words that could at first hardly be understood and yet contained the seed of the full truth.
It was when Christ sent forth His disciples that He first used the expression that the disciple must take up his cross and follow Him. The only meaning the disciples could attach to these words was from what they had often seen, when an evildoer who had been sentenced to death by the cross was led out, bearing his cross, to the place of execution. In bearing the cross, the criminal acknowledged the sentence of death that was on him.
Christ wanted His disciples to understand that their natures were so evil and corrupt that only by losing their natural lives could they find true life. Of Himself it was true: all His life He bore His cross, the sentence of death that He knew was resting upon Him on account of our sins. And so He wants each of His disciples to bear his own cross, the sentence of death that is on himself and on his evil, carnal nature.
The disciples could not understand all this right away. But Christ gave them words that, like seeds, would germinate in their hearts and later begin to reveal their full meaning. Each disciple of Christ was not only to carry the sentence of death in himself, but also to learn that in following the Master to His cross, he would find the power to lose his life and to receive instead of it the life that would come through the cross of Christ.
Christ asks His disciples to forsake all and take up their crosses, to give up their whole wills and lives, and to follow Him. The call comes to us, too, to give up the self-life with its self‑pleasing and self‑exaltation, and to bear the cross in fellowship with Him. In this way, we will be made partakers of His victory.