Christianity

Take Up Your Cross and Follow Me

/ Neal Embry / Leave a comment

Matthew 10: 38 says: “And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.”

If you’ve grown up in the church, I feel it’s safe to assume you’ve heard this verse.  It’s one of the most well-known passages, and one of the most used. And yet, up until recently, I’ve always felt uneasy with it.

Maybe it’s because in the context of Matthew 10, Jesus is giving this command to His disciples as He’s telling them that they will be persecuted for His sake.

Maybe it’s because when Jesus says persecuted, at least in this context, He doesn’t mean having the liberal media “attack” you, or having your TV show cancelled, or even losing your job because of your faith in Him.

Maybe it’s because Jesus tells them they might die. They will suffer. They’ll be beaten.

“Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake.”–Matt. 10:21

Jesus tells them like it is. And then He tells them, right after telling them to take up their cross, that they must love Him more than they love their family.

And we read this passage and weep. We read this passage and realize we aren’t as committed to Jesus as we should be.  We make plans to share our faith more, to be bolder about what we believe, to spend more time with Jesus, etc.

None of these are bad ideas. We should share our faith boldly, we should spend more time with Jesus, and we should care about glorifying Him in everything we do.

However, as I read this passage and I look at Jesus, I’ve realized something:

I will never take up my cross and follow Jesus until I am resting in the truth that Jesus first took up His cross for me and followed the Father to Calvary to atone for my sin.

When Jesus calls us to take up the cross, He’s not telling us to pick up a lot of self-discipline and be better Christians.  He’s calling us to see what He has done, how He picked up His cross and paid for all of our sin. Then, and only then, will we find the freedom, because we’ve been forgiven by God, because we are righteous before Him in Christ, because we are dearly beloved children, to take up our cross daily, declare Jesus as Lord over all of life, and give our lives to His glory, whatever that may mean.

When Jesus calls us to die to self, we must remember that “He became sin who knew no sin so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Dying to self isn’t a way to get God to approve you. Dying to self is a sign before God and men that you understand what Jesus did for you–that He denied Himself so that we may be saved, that we may trust in His finished work and be forgiven and righteous, completely free from any effort on our part–and that dying to self is the ONLY proper response to this great King.

When we repent of our sin, we declare that Jesus is Lord, and that we are not. And we place all of our hope for salvation in the finished work of Jesus Christ alone. We have trusted Jesus to make us new, laying down our rebellion to begin to walk with Him, trusting Him alone. And as we do that, we see that what we have in Jesus (new life, forgiveness, eternal hope, righteousness, love, honor, purpose) is more than enough. Then, and only then, do we find the freedom, true freedom, to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength.

You see, what’s happened is that we’ve taken the commands of Christ and we’ve separated them from the work and person of Christ Himself. And when we do that, we run the risk of creating a new law for ourselves, rather than truly love Christ and surrender our lives in joyful, God-given gladness for the sake of the gospel.

Jesus never calls us to do anything He has not already done.  He is not some distant boss that is afraid to get His hands dirty.  He is the divine King, who surrendered His rights for our sake.  He is the Son of God, giving up His eternal home in glory to live amongst sinful men and die for their redemption.  He is the coming Lord, who reigns in our hearts and shows us the best way to live, the only truly God-honoring way.  He is our Friend, who loves us dearly and gives us joy in His presence.

We cannot and must not separate the commands to follow Christ from the gospel.  Jesus commands us to follow Him because “It is finished.” Following Jesus is never about adding to His finished work.  It is responding to it. It’s turning from an old life of sin and rebellion to gladly receive Jesus as Lord, as He reconciles us to God, showing us how to do what we were made to do: enjoy God’s presence and reflect His holiness. It’s turning from self-righteousness to lean wholly on the perfection of Christ alone. It’s turning from guilt and shame to rest in the finished, perfect, once-for-all sacrifice Christ made on our behalf.

And from this salvation, having been made a “new creation” in Christ, reconciled to God, forgiven of our sins, having a new life with our Lord, we go forth and proclaim His name to a lost and dying world.

No matter the cost.

Lord, may our hearts be led by you and you alone.  May we remember what you have done for us in taking up your cross and dying for our sins, and rising to be our eternal Lord.  May we make much of you for all eternity. May our faith be strengthened by the truth of the gospel.

God bless,

Neal

 

 

 

The Gift of Salvation

/ Neal Embry / Leave a comment

I do apologize for such a long absence to those who read my blog. I have been busy, with a lot of good things, but busy nonetheless. But I’m ready to start blogging more regularly, so let’s get started.

I wish it was Christmas time. It still feels like July in Alabama, and I’m ready for colder weather. But more than that, I’m ready for the season…because at this time of the year, if only at this time, we seem to understand the nature of gifts and grace and love. We see it, we show it…why? Because it’s Christmas..cheer up! No one’s sad on Christmas. At this time, we remember God’s “gift” to us–His Son Jesus.

But I have to wonder…do we understand this gift from 8-5 in the middle of June? Does it mean as much when we get trapped in the day-to-day struggles of life? Do we enjoy God’s gift in the middle of October when we’re stressed out with school? I know it’s easy for me to forget.

I’ve been thinking more and more lately about the gospel (never a bad thing to have on the mind) and it finally hit me as I was going through some material for evangelism training at our Baptist Campus Ministries–salvation is a gift.

Now I’ve known this for several years, but I think, for the first time, I’m seeing the beauty and the majesty in that truth.

Gifts are received and enjoyed. They are not worked for, paid back for, or left to sit on the counter. I’ll briefly discuss all three of these misunderstandings about gifts as it relates to God’s gift to us in Christ.

When my mom buys me a gift, whether it be the latest Madden game, a new pair of jeans or a cell phone, she never once asks me to earn it. If I earned it, it’s not a gift! If I earn it, it is the result of my work, not a gift.

“Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due.”–Romans 4:4

So if we work for our salvation, it is not a gift, but what is due us. The problem with this is that we can’t earn salvation. Romans 3:23 tells us that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” We read God’s law and hear Jesus say that whoever has broken one law is guilty of trespass against the entire law. We are guilty before God, with no way to justify ourselves by our work.

Yet, God has given us a gift:

“And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.”–Romans 4:5

So..we don’t earn it. We believe and we receive. All we’re asked to do with a gift is to receive it with joy, thank the giver and enjoy the gift. That’s it. We don’t earn it.

And we don’t pay it back. How dare we think we have something to add to the righteousness of Christ? How dare we think we can make a better sacrifice than the death of the King of Kings? We cannot. We must not. If we do, we do so at our own eternal risk.

So we trust in Christ.

We also don’t leave the gift sitting on the counter. We don’t let our salvation become numb to us.

So how do we enjoy our salvation? We walk in it. If we have stopped trusting in our own righteousness and trusted in the righteousness of Christ for our salvation, we have been given righteousness (Romans 10:4–“For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness for everyone who believes.”).

Therefore, walk in righteousness! Don’t sin! Enjoy being righteous in Christ, and walk that out in this life. We will fail, and we’ll repent and turn back to Christ for forgiveness and rest in His perfection in the midst of our imperfections.

However, for those who trust and rest in Christ, we can confidently face temptation and sin and say, “I am righteous in Christ. I don’t have to do this. I enjoy following Christ and walking in His ways.” And we should grow in confidence in Him and walking in His righteousness throughout our lives.

We’ve been forgiven by trusting Christ to cover our sin and take them away through His cross. We’ve trusted Christ to apply His finished work to our lives so that we are no longer under the wrath of God, but under His grace. Our hearts have been changed in repentance and faith, to hate our sin and love God and to trust in Christ’s work.

Therefore, worship God! Therefore, forgive others! Therefore, pursue Christ to be more like Him and to have joy, not to earn acceptance! You already have it–in Him!

If you don’t have this gift, let me paint a picture of what Christ has done and what He offers.

Jesus is the Son of God, King of Kings, and eternally reigns on the throne. He needs nothing. He is completely satisfied and happy because He is holy, worshiped, adored and in a relationship with God the Father. We are dirty sinners, dead in our sins, not desiring God and choosing other things. But Jesus came, becoming a man, just like us. He lived a perfect life, completely obeying God, completely having joy in Him and Him alone, and then went to the cross having done nothing wrong. The King of Kings became the least of these so that He could take all of our sin, every single one, on Himself. He took the wrath of God and the death we deserved for our sin. He died. Then He rose again to show that for everyone who trusts in Him as the sacrifice for their sin, as their Savior, God no longer condemns them, but forgives them by covering their sin through the cross. So the offer is: Confess your need for Jesus. Turn against your sin to call Jesus Lord, trusting Him to take away the sin you now hate. Give Jesus your sin, trusting Him to cover it and take it away through the cross. Trust in Him to give you His righteousness. Walk now under the Lordship of Jesus Christ as you learn how to walk in the salvation you’ve been given.

The perfect King of Kings, Lord of all the universe, died to take all my sin, and gave this wretched dead man life and, more than that, righteousness before God. He led me to repent and trust in Him to give me new life and forgiveness. Now I’m accepted and seen as perfect in Christ! I don’t deserve this! And it’s still hard to believe. Sometimes I don’t feel that way. But my forgiveness and righteousness and salvation isn’t dependent on my feelings, but on Him in whom I put my faith. The object, not the strength, of our faith is what matters.

O Lord, may our repentance flow from a hatred of sin and a love for you. May we trust in your cross to cover every single one of our sins. That’s the only sacrifice we need. May we rest in your perfection to cover us before God. May we worship you and give you the highest praise. May we have confidence and assurance of our salvation because we are confident and assured of you and your resurrection. May we enjoy the great gift you give us. May we look forward to the day where we see you face to face, where the enemies of sin and Satan are no longer and our joy will be complete in you. May we love you more, Lord Jesus. Amen.