Taking up your cross... what does it really mean?

"(...) take up your cross daily, 

and follow me." 

Luke 9:23

I have always heard sermons on this passage and always felt the weight of such responsability. It didn´t sound really fun to DENY MYSELF (you can read the last post on this topic) and TO TAKE UP MY CROSS in order to follow Jesus. The problem here is: we have always seen the cross as a token OF PUNISHMENT, SUFFERING, PAIN, HEAVY BURDEN... and the list goes on! People who face hard relationships in their family or at work will say "that person is my cross" meaning they have to put up with this person, carry this heavy burden and accept that for their lives, after all "everyone has a cross" and we must "take up our cross"...

Ok, but that is NOT what the cross really means! The truth about the cross and taking up our cross is far better than THAT! 

"Having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; 

and He has taken it out of the way, 

having nailed it to the cross." 

Colossians 2:14

This is the scripture that displays what is the ROLE of the CROSS in our lives TODAY! Imagine it, we had a bunch of things contrary to us, things we did wrong, commandments we did not obey, ... Jesus took all that stuff, which was our CERTIFICATE OF DEBT, and CANCELED it! And not only CANCELED it, but he NAILED IT to the CROSS. 

Therefore, the cross in our lives today is a token of a PAID DEBT! Some will say, but YOU need to pay for the wrong stuff you did... well, Jesus paid the price for me! He overpaid it with his blood and the RECEIPT for that payment is the CROSS! My role is simply to RECEIVE his act of love towards me! 

The cross is also a token of VICTORY!

"And having disarmed the powers and authorities, 

he made a public spectacle of them, 

triumphing over them by the cross." 

Colossians 2:15

We should look at the cross and see a TROPHY! Now, I can´t imagine a world champion athlete to whom a trophy is given and he being sad about "taking up" his trophy. It makes no sense! He will make a SPECTACLE of it instead! He will show it off! He will be proud of it! 

That is why this scripture says that we MUST take up our CROSS DAILY... because only someone who feels like a champion -that is someone whose debt has been fully paid, and now is confident that he is in peace with God through the blood of Jesus- can actually follow Jesus.

Taking up your cross daily doesn´t mean ACCEPTING a daily portion of suffering, a penalty for some wrongdoing in the past... it means RECEIVING THE WILL OF OUR GOOD FATHER for us, and his will is always good, acceptable and PERFECT (Rom 12:2) for it reflects his heart!

And the reason why we must DENY ourselves before TAKING UP our cross is... we are not used to RECEIVING things so FREELY (just think of when someone says he will buy your meal... it is almost a fight about not letting him do it!). We think we need to DO THINGS IN ORDER TO DESERVE OTHER THINGS or that we will need to REPAY a good we received AFTERWARDS. Denying ourselves means denying SELF-SUFFICIENCY, SELF-EFFORTS, and simply RECEIVING in our hearts what JESUS ACCOMPLISHED for us on the CROSS. Jesus paid the price and gave us the RECEIPT! We are not in debt no more! He gave us the TROPHY He conquered FOR us. He is that good! He is THAT kind! That is why now we should look at ourselves and be sure that are MORE THAN CONQUERORS IN CHRIST! (Romans 8:37)   

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