WE are into the second week of looking at this chapter titled Discipleship in Principles of Spiritual Growth. All that we have reviewed so far has brought us to this point, yet it is interesting to consider that from a scriptural standpoint, discipleship is a fundamental first principle. Given that fact, it would appear interesting to note that we don’t hear all that much about discipleship these days.
LOOKING back to last week, it would be worth reviewing all of the author’s opening comments, but here is a worthy summary to his point:
A disciple is one who first maintains the fellowship of the cross, which results in fellowship with his Lord: discipleship. “The atonement of the cross and the fellowship of the cross must be equally preached as the condition of true discipleship.”
AS basic as discipleship may be, we are going to see in the author’s comments to come why it is this concept and command may have faded somewhat in current Christian thinking and priorities. Jesus, with whom all authority resides, did not mince words when he called his disciples to pick up their cross and follow him. In its truest form this meant death to self and all that that implies. Yes, he did not mince words, but it is a reality that our unsanctified hearts and minds often do, giving evidence to the struggle of Romans 7 that clouds the heart, mind, and will of even the most devoted follower.
WE might think that Christ’s urging to his followers in discipleship and need for the application of the cross to the inner person, “self,” is a new or unique idea to and in the New Testament. But it is not. Just one example of this is Romans 12:1-2 “living sacrifice” principle can be observed in Isaiah 6. In that famous heavenly scene vision, where Isaiah observes the holiness of God, we find a pivotal event in Isaiah’s “experience” with the prophet and intended mouthpiece of God. He was already called and been used of God, and yet something more was needed if he was truly going to fulfill his call and purpose of God. Read the text (Isa 6:1-8), and see if you can find the parallel to Luke 9:23ff, Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.”
SO, with that introduction, let’s look at today’s consideration.
“Father, change us oh God into your likeness.” -M. Hamby.
With highest regards in Christ,
Joe
Neh. 8:10; Isa 30:15; Jas.1:2
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Chapter 13—Discipleship – Part 2
A disciple is one who is free from the old and free for the new. In other words, scriptural words: “dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God” (Rom. 6:11). And for this the Lord Jesus clearly states that each must take up his cross. Here is the ultimatum, so now to the “how.”
But first, how not to take up one’s cross: “Christians need to understand that bearing the cross does not in the first place refer to the trials which we call crosses, but to the daily giving up of life, of dying to self, which must mark us as much as it did the Lord Jesus, which we need in times of prosperity almost more than adversity, and without which the fulness of the blessing of the cross cannot be disclosed to us” (Andrew Murray).
“May we cease to confuse the words ‘a cross’ with ‘the cross.’ Sometimes believers in self-pity bemoan themselves, and say, ‘I have taken, or must take up my cross, and follow Jesus.’ Would that we would lose sight of our Cross in His cross, then His cross becomes our cross; His death, our death; His grave, our grave; His resurrection, our resurrection; His risen life, our newness of life.” No, taking up our cross does not mean the stoical bearing of some heavy burden, hardship, illness, distasteful situation or relationship.
Enduring anything of this nature is not bearing one’s cross. Taking up the cross may or may not involve such things, but such things do not constitute our cross.
The believer’s cross is the cross of Calvary, the one on which he was crucified with Christ (see Gal. 2:20). There the eternal emancipation proclamation was signed with the blood of the Lamb and sealed by the Spirit of God. Every believer is thereby freed from all bondage, but not every believer is aware of this liberating truth.
Sad to say, the only believers who are interested in freedom are those who have come to the place of hating instead of hugging their chains. “It is true that the intellect is stumbled by the cross; yet the antagonism to the cross is mainly moral, both in the sinner and in the saint, for its message is only welcomed by those who desire freedom from the bondage of their sins, and who hunger and thirst after the experiential righteousness of God.” Yes, the need must be intense, as Norman Douty says: “The Divine way (via the cross) for spiritual emancipation is just as offensive to the child of God as the Divine way for salvation is to the lost.”
When the believer begins to really see the cross for what it is—a place of death—he is inclined to hesitate about choosing such fellowship. Our Lord Jesus understands this well, but there is no other way, since that is the manner in which He finished the work on our behalf. So He simply allows our needs to continue their relentless pressure until we finally bend to His inevitable way of the cross.
We will be ready to take up our cross when self becomes intolerable to us, when we begin to “hate our life” as spoken of in Luke 14:26. This deep burden of self and hunger to be like Him cause the function of the cross—crucifixion—to become attractive. The long devastating years of abject bondage make freedom in the Lord Jesus priceless—the cost becomes as nothing to us! .. to be continued
