Reflections
If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. (Matt. 16:24-25)
If I am saved — if I am raised in Christ — it is only because I have taken my place in His Cross. That is a once and for all and forever reality. But here we see the working out of that finished reality. We have to progressively relinquish all that is contrary to Christ to find true life in Him. In order for this to take place, we have to bear the Cross God brings into our lives. This will look different for each believer but accomplish the same purpose. And God Himself will initiate our Cross – He alone can do this.
The Cross is the instrument of death, and because it is death to the only life we have ever known, it will seem like a terribly negative proposition. But in reality, the Cross works freedom from all that keeps us from experiencing Jesus Christ. God’s goal is not to deprive us. It is to make us able to receive and live in all that He is.
God never tells us to fix ourselves. He never tells us to cure what ails us. But He does tell us to do one thing — the only thing we can do: He tells us to bring ourselves, with all of our sin and failures to the Cross. In short, we are to relinquish the one thing we do possess – ourselves — which is dead and corrupt.
Whatever It Takes
I beseech you, brethren, because of the mercies of God, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. (Rom. 12:1)
There is no other place God will bring us if we want to walk in the Truth and come into the fullness of Jesus Christ except what is described in Romans 12:1. However, you will note that the tone is not morbid or depressing. Rather, it is positive — Paul’s appeal is, “because of the mercies of God,” and not because of some threat of punishment if we don’t obey. This is because Paul is describing a practical means of losing our lives in order to find Christ as our life.
If we were to take this verse and restate it as a prayer to God, it might read, “Lord, do whatever it takes to bring your will to pass in me — do whatever it takes to bring me into the fullness of Christ.” That really is, “presenting yourself as a living sacrifice.” Do we want the glory of God and His purpose in Christ enough to ask God, “to do whatever it takes to bring it to pass?”
What will it take? The details will vary with the individual. But the basis will be the same — it will take a work of the Cross and the loss of myself to Christ, that I may find Him. This is the altar upon which I am to present myself. This is a prayer God will always answer. I must then believe and obey when God does begin to answer.