If any man come to Me, and hate not…his own life…he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after Me, cannot be My disciple…So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be My disciple.
—Luke 14:26-27, 33
For the third time, Christ spoke here about bearing the cross. He gave new meaning to it when He said that a man must hate his own life and forsake all that he has. Three times He solemnly repeated the words that without this a man cannot be His disciple.
If a man “hate not…his own life”—why does Christ make such an exacting demand the condition of discipleship? Because the sinful nature we have inherited from Adam is indeed so vile and full of sin that if our eyes were only opened to see it in its true nature, we would flee from it as loathsome and incurably evil. The flesh is “enmity against God” (Romans 8:7); the soul that seeks to love God cannot help hating the “old man” (Romans 6:6) that is corrupt through its whole being. Nothing less than this, the hating of our own lives, will make us willing to bear the cross and carry within us the sentence of death on our evil natures. Not until we hate this life with a deadly hatred will we be ready to give up the old nature to die the death that is its due.
Christ added one more thing: “whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath”—whether in property or character—“cannot be My disciple.” Christ claims all. Christ undertakes to satisfy every need and to give a hundredfold more than we give up. When we by faith become conscious of what it means to know Christ, to love Him, and to receive from Him what can enrich and satisfy our immortal spirits, then we will regard as our highest privilege the surrender that at first appeared so difficult. As we learn what it means that Christ is our life, we will “count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus [our] Lord” (Philippians 3:8). In the path of following Him and always learning to know and love Him better, we will willingly sacrifice all—including self with all its life—to make room for Him who is more than all.