Answer: Anyone who would come after Jesus must deny himself
and take up his cross and follow Him, (verse 24).
MORE INFORMATION AND/OR OTHER SCRIPTURE REFERENCES:
See "DENY / "DENY HIMSELF' / DISOWN"
in the Glossary.
See "TAKE UP HIS CROSS" in the Glossary.
See "DISCIPLE" in the Glossary.
In the Greek, the words "deny" and "take
up" show momentary action, but an action that is
urgent--Do it at once! In the Greek, the word
"follow" is in the present tense of continuous
action. We are to deny ourselves immediately, take up our
cross immediately and follow Jesus continuously. Unlike Simon
from Cyrene (Matthew 27:32; Mark 15:21;
Luke 23:26), who was forced to carry the cross of
Christ (the Romans put the cross on him and made him carry it
behind Jesus), we make a decision, a commitment to pick up and
carry our cross, continually following after Jesus:
Matthew 10:32-39: [Jesus said,]
"Whoever acknowledges Me before men, I will also acknowledge
him before My Father in heaven. But whoever disowns Me before
men, I will disown him before My Father in heaven. Do not
suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not
come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn
'a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a
daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law--a man's enemies
will be the members of his own household.' Anyone who
loves his father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; anyone
who loves his son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me; and
anyone who does not take his cross and follow Me is not worthy of
Me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses
his life for My sake will find it."
Mark 8:34-38: "Then He [Jesus]
called the crowd to Him along with His disciples and said:
'If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take
up his cross [Luke 9:23 says, 'take up his
cross daily'] and follow Me. For whoever wants to save
his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me and for
the Gospel will save it. What good is it for a man to gain
the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give
in exchange for his soul? If anyone is ashamed of Me and My
Words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will
be ashamed of him when He comes in His Father's glory with the holy
angels.'"
Mark 10:28-30: "Peter said to Him
[Jesus], 'We have left everything to follow you!'
'I tell you the Truth,' Jesus replied, 'no one
who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or
children or fields for Me and the Gospel will fail to receive a
hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers,
sisters, mothers, children and fields--and with them,
persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal
life.'" (See also Luke
18:28-30.)
Luke 9:57-62: "As they were walking
along the road, a man said to Him [Jesus], 'I will follow you
wherever you go.' Jesus replied, 'Foxes have
holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no
place to lay His head.' He said to another man,
'Follow me.' But the man replied, 'Lord,
first let me go and bury my father.' Jesus said to him,
'Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim
the kingdom of God.' Still another said, 'I will
follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my
family.' Jesus replied, 'No one who puts his hand
to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of
God.'"
Luke 14:25-33: "Large crowds were
traveling with Jesus, and turning to them He said: 'If
anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, his
wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes, even his own
life--he cannot be My disciple. And anyone who does not
carry his cross and follow Me cannot be My disciple. Suppose
one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and
estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete
it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish
it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, "This
fellow began to build and was not able to finish." Or
suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he
not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten
thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty
thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while
the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of
peace. In the same way, any of you who does not give up
everything he has cannot be My disciple.'"
Philippians 3:7-14: "But whatever
was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What
is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing
greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for Whose sake I have
lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ
and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that
comes from the law, but that which is through faith in
Christ--the righteousness that comes from God and is by
faith. I want to know Christ and the power of His
resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings,
becoming like Him in His death, and so, somehow, to attain to the
resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained
all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take
hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it.
But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward
what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for
which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."
Titus 1:15-16: "To the pure, all
things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe,
nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are
corrupted. They claim to know God, but by their actions they
deny Him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing
anything good."
