Boldly Following

“And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” (Mark 8:34) 

The life of the Christian is described in many ways today – saying a prayer, walking down an aisle, or (my least favorite) “inviting Jesus into your heart.” These castrate the calling of Christ, leaving only a docile and domesticated Christianity which is good for absolutely nothing but making a mockery of Christ’s commands. These descriptions leave us with a Christianity without a cross which is nothing less than a Christianity without Christ. Today, let us return to Christ’s words and see what He actually calls us to. 

First, He says, “Come after me.” On the one hand, this implies that we are currently going a different direction than Christ. Our lives are opposite, backwards, at odds with Christ’s way. Isn’t this the repeated refrain of the Bible? Darkness and light, death and life, bondage and freedom, our way and God’s way? If on the one hand, coming after Christ implies a change of direction; on the other hand, it implies this change is challenging. When the Scriptures speak of coming after Christ, they use the language of exercise and of war. We are called to strive, to fight, to wage war. If Christ experienced much anguish bringing His sinless human will into conformity with His divine will, how much more anguish should we sinners experience (Mt. 26:39)? 

Second, Christ commands us to “deny ourselves.” Herein lies the crux of the matter. The flesh holds a grip on our souls like no other! Our sinful passions lead our members to be slaves of unrighteousness, exhausting our desires on every object of want and whim we feast our eyes on. You may say, “Zach, I’m not that bad.” But how many decisions do we make by leaning on our own understanding? How many pleasures do we enjoy for our own sake? How many daily decisions are driven by our own desire? In doing so, we deny God’s ways, God’s joys, God’s glory. We deny everything but ourselves! Denying ourselves is no half way measure. Denying ourselves means surrendering our all to Christ as both Lord and Savior. 

This leads to the third point; we are to “take up our cross.” This does not mean wear a cute necklace, nor a snazzy Christian t-shirt; rather, we are to put to death those sinful desires. Pulling teeth is more pleasant, for the desires of the flesh are great. Nothing short of a cross, nothing short of this bloody instrument of death can picture for us all that is needed in denying ourselves. Hence, our forefathers would call this “putting sin to death.” John Owen was noted to say, “Be killing sin, or sin will be killing you.” 

My friends, this is what it means to “follow Christ.” If we are to raise up a new generation of Christians marked for boldness and holiness, it begins with refusing to water down the call of Christ. To be frank with the full offer of the gospel, to count the cost honestly and openly lays the foundation for the next great generation of Christians. Today, more than ever, we need to do more than walk an aisle; we need to “come after Christ, deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him.”