We are continuing to look at how we should live to please God. This devotional reading looks at how we take up our crosses and follow Him.
Nuggets
- We get surety in our salvation when cheerfully accept the trials God uses to sanctify us.
- We get surety in our salvation when cheerfully follow Jesus.
In the Surety of Our Salvation study, we’re to the point where we are applying what we’ve learned that ensures our salvation. These, too, are the habits we need for habitual holiness.
We’ve looked at seeking God. In the last devotion, we started looking at what salvation is really about – coming after Him and denying ourselves. In this devotion, we look at what sanctification is really about – taking up our crosses and following Him.
Let's Put It into Context
To read devotions in the Habitual Holiness of Heart and Life theme, click the button below.
Here is a running list of nuggets for the theme.
Devotions in the The Surity of Our Salvation study
Here is a running list of nuggets for the study.
The foundation of this study is Beveridge’s sermon The Believer’s Safety
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Taking Up Our Crosses
“And he said to all, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me’ (Lk. 9: 23 ESV)
We get surety in our salvation when cheerfully accept the trials God uses to sanctify us.
Taking up our crosses can be a scary thing sometimes. It is especially so when we think it is a literal definition.
Crucifixion was the chosen as a form of punishment because it was painful and degrading. Offenders were usually impaled on the stakes, but their wrists could have just been tied to the crossbeam.
Depending on the method, it could take days for offenders to die. This was because the cause of death was usually loss of blood circulation or heart failure. To hasten death, soldiers would break the offenders’ legs so they could not support the weight of their bodies.
There is a powerful message given here. When we “see” Jesus on the cross, we see Him giving up His will for God’s Will. We know that Jesus was hoping some other way could be created to accomplish redemption. That was His prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane (Mt. 26: 36).
But Jesus said — regardless of how it had to shake out — He would do God’s Will. He couldn’t have been looking forward to the pain and humiliation. He went through with the plan anyway.
That submission is what Paul meant when he said that we should be crucified with Christ. He used the symbolism of baptism to describe how we are now dead to our old way of life — one controlled by our sinful nature.
Christ is the start of our reconciliation with God. “… ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’” (Jn. 14: 6 ESV).
Boston made a great observation. He wrote, “God will lay down the cross for every one who seeks heaven, that they shall have nothing ado but to take it up.”
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Too many times today, we think taking up our crosses is all about self-denial. I don’t think Christ would have said it two different ways if He mean the same thing.
To me, self-denial is more like giving up our old selves. Taking up our crosses is us becoming our new selves.
When we take up our crosses, we are united with Him. “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his” (Rom. 6: 5 ESV).
When we take up our crosses, we take up what is needed for us to navigate the Sanctification Road. That entails the following:
- We sentence sin to death and execute it by accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
- We strive to grow in grace and knowledge so that we can imitate Him.
- We make this decision – and decisions every day – to follow Him of our own free will.
It is in taking up our crosses – daily – that we are truly free. “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (Jn. 8: 36 ESV).
Just so we are perfectly clear. “For one who has died has been set free from sin” (Rom. 6: 7 ESV). Denying ourselves is an integral part of taking up our crosses. It is making the decision daily to come after Him.
When we take up our crosses, we will suffer trials that are painful and humiliating. We aren’t promised an easy road.
In fact, we know it will not be easy. “Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin” (I Pet. 4: 1 ESV).
Did you catch that last part? If we don’t suffer, we are still sinning. If we suffer, we are a true disciple.
When we take up our crosses, we take up our ministry. Each of us has been called to a ministry to serve God. We are all called to be priests.
We are to share our knowledge with others. What? You don’t feel like you know enough to share with others?
But as disciples we are commanded to grow in grace and knowledge (II Pet. 3: 18).
That shouldn’t be our excuse. We should share what knowledge we have and be working to gain more.
We are working toward gaining sanctified ability – being equipped by God in order to complete the ministries He has for us.
So, we might not have the ability right now, but God is working on us to get us to have that ability.
That job description is for everyone. It doesn’t make exceptions. We are all called to be ministers.
We aren’t saved just for ourselves. We are saved so that we can further God’s kingdom.
That isn’t going to be easy. In fact, some days, it is really going to feel like hanging on a cross.
We aren’t called to do the easy stuff. We are called to persecution and being in the world but not of it.
Yeah, it is going to be a daily exercise. That is understandable.
We are called to completely submit our lives to God, not just on Sundays and Wednesdays. We don’t get a day off from being His child.
But then God provides for us daily. “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (Mt. 6: 34).
Elaine-speak. God will provide us what we need for the day.
How do we know? “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (Lam. 3: 22-23 ESV).
We want to be very, very careful if we choose to reject a cross God has placed on our road. Remember, the cross is a sign of salvation. We’re talking about the surety of our salvation.
There is no better way to be sure of our salvation than by accepting the cross God gives us to bear.
Following Him
We get surety in our salvation when cheerfully follow Jesus.
If we are going to follow God, that assumes that He will lead us. We know that He will.
God doesn’t offer us the Plan of Salvation, say “yay!” when we accept, and then ride off into the sunset to be seen no more.
God never leaves us. He, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit live in our hearts. He takes a very hands-on approach to our lives.
God leads us through His Word. “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Ps. 119: 105 ESV).
We have a guidebook all written down so that we can follow it. It leads us to God.
Yes, there are a lot of laws and commandments in it that we need to follow. Those show us the character of God – the character that we need to make our own.
We have to follow God so that He can sanctify us and change us to be like Him.
God leads us through the promptings of His Holy Spirit. “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come” (Jn. 16: 13 ESV).
That means we have to listen carefully. “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” (Ps. 46: 10 ESV).
Did you catch that? We have to be still because God isn’t going to beat a drum to get our attention. “And after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper” (I Kgs. 19: 12 ESV).
The prompting of the Holy Spirit is a gentle whisper, as soft as a breeze.
We have to be in tune with it to catch it.
It is easy now with the digital tuners on radios. Remember when we had to spin the dial and get it just so to get the station to come in clearly?
We’re in control of the dial, and no, it isn’t digital.
That doesn’t mean the radio station isn’t there. God is there. He is expecting us to turn the dial, not just mindlessly go to the correct frequency.
God leads us to how we are supposed to be. “He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way” (Ps. 25: 9 ESV).
Sometimes, I think we are too concerned about the where we are going. We have to be more concerned about the how.
Yes, we are going to what is right – the laws and commandments written in God’s Word. But we have to be changed by the journey. That is why we have to fiddle with the radio dial.
Making the Connections
Self-denial and cross-bearing should be, as Thompson said, the directive of our lives. Think about it.
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Salvation is the foundation. None of the others – denying ourselves, taking up our crosses, and following Him – are wanted – or even possible – if we don’t have salvation.
Salvation is all about self-denial. We must submit to God rather than lead with our pride.
It isn’t about us. It is about what Jesus has done for us.
Because of that, we then follow Jesus. That is sanctification.
How Do We Apply This?
- Work out our salvation.
- Know that taking up our crosses has an element of self-denial.
- Be cheerful in taking up our crosses and ministering for God.
- Follow Christ’s example.
- Accept that we can’t choose our own crosses.
- Take up our crosses, not kick them out of the way.
- Don’t run away screaming when we see our crosses but endure.
- Don’t exit the Sanctification Road because we see our crosses as roadblocks.
- Don’t pick up a cross that isn’t ours.
- Don’t flat out refuse a cross because we can’t be children of God without it (Heb. 12: 8).
- Submit to the cross willingly regardless of how heavy it is.
- Navigate the Sanctification Road.
- Follow God’s laws and commandments.
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Father God. We want salvation because it restores us to You. We want sanctification because it makes us as You are. Help us grow in grace and knowledge until we are perfected. Amen.
What do you think?
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