Matthew 16:24-26  “Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what good will it do a person if he gains the whole world, but forfeits his soul? Or what will a person give in exchange for his soul?” 

This statement by Jesus is also recorded in Luke 9:23-24 “And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, this is the one who will save it.” 

This is clear teaching by Jesus as to what it takes to be a true disciple of His. These two accounts of His words undo the “easy believism” that has taken over the systematic theologies of the institutional churches of today. His words also undo the systematic theologies of those who would have you working harder and harder to gain your right standing before our God.

“If anyone wants to come after Me.” This is an exacting standard. There is no discipleship path except the one He is revealing. There is no second way or third way. There is only one way, as is made clear by His exclusive standard, “If anyone wants to come after Me.”

“He must deny Himself, take up His cross, and follow me.” As Luke recorded it, “… take up his cross daily.…” What does Christ mean by His words, “Let him deny himself?” The answer is in the next phrase, “…let him take up his cross….” Many people have made the cross out to be the burdens we encounter in life. A difficult disease, a difficult spouse, a difficult financial setback. Burdens are not what Jesus is speaking of when he speaks of the cross.

The cross here is the cross of Christ, which is the cross of crucifixion. It is the crucifixion to self-will, self-living, self-effort, and self protection. Every command of Jesus is secondary to the crucifixion of our entire sense of self, for it is unbelief that leads to self-will and self-promotion. These in turn lead to sin. Jesus is speaking to the death of the root of all sin, which is the self.

And He means all of the self. Once in a discussion of the imperative of the crucified life, a person asked, “Well, why can’t I just crucify my right had now and the rest later?” There is a reason why crucifixion is the means of the death of self in us. It is thorough and complete. There was never any doubt that a person crucified was dead. So it is with the crucifixion of self.

And crucifixion was impossible to do to oneself. It had to applied by another. The Spirit of Christ is the only one who can do that to us. Our role is to present ourselves completely for the dying to self process. Jesus is unequivocal about this: “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, this is the one who will save it.”

For Christ, the path to the resurrection life was through death. For us it is no different. If we would find the fullness of the resurrection life of Christ in us, we must offer ourselves up completely to the work of Christ to do away with our old self and all self-living. He will not share the control of our living with us. We must choose the death of self to gain the life of God in us.

And make no mistake about this: to fail to yield all to Christ and accept His life in place one’s own life is to lose one’s life and forfeit one’s soul. “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it. For what good will it do a person if he gains the whole world, but forfeits his soul? “