Mat. 16:24 ... "Then Jesus told His disciples, 'If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross, and follow Me'."
Jesus wants us to be His disciples, but we can gain that privilege only by the terms that He prescribes. That is the point He is clearly making in this statement. And yet, it is common for people to want to become Christians by setting the terms for discipleship themselves. They tell Jesus, in attitude if not in words, "I will be Your follower, but You must let me ... ." Then they state their reservation -- the practice, habit, trait, association, or whatever -- that they intend to carry from their worldly life into Christianity with them. "I will be a Christian, Lord, but You must let me dress as I please." Or, "I will be a Christian, Lord, but do not make me give up this specific kind of entertainment." Or, "I will be a Christian, Lord, but I must be allowed to schedule the use of my time to meet my own needs."
It is commonly accepted in certain areas of life that we must yield ourselves to conform to specific required norms. For example, when someone joins the army, he must dress and groom himself by military standards. Likewise, he has to accept the regimentation of behavior, mandatory scheduling of his time, and orders about where he will be stationed and the job he must do. One who joins the army does so with clear understanding about such conformity, and so he resigns himself to the mold into which he is cast. Thus Paul reminded his younger assistant, "No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him," (II Tim. 2:4).
Although people understand what is required when one enters a worldly army, they find it difficult to believe similar conditions must be accepted when one enters the spiritual army of Jesus. They think they can become Christian soldiers on their own terms, assume immediate command as an officer, and determine the nature of their conduct and service for themselves. However, this self-determination is not permitted by Jesus, and those who dare exercise it anyway are deceived and proceeding into a zone of spiritual danger. Jesus declares that "if anyone would come after Me," he must meet three essential criteria.
First, he must deny himself. He has to accept it that he will surrender his will to the will of his commander, who is Christ. He must build the same attitude that Jesus Himself expressed to God when He said, "Not as I will, but as You will," (Mat. 26:39). The person with the attitude, "Well, no matter if the Bible requires this, I am going to do something else!," is not yet ready to be Jesus' disciple. In the army this is called insubordination and is punishable by court martial. The Lord will similarly deal with such insubordinate attitudes among those who wear His name.
Second, a disciple of Jesus must take up his cross. The cross is a symbol of suffering. Jesus suffered considerably -- from physical pain, from humiliation, and from being separated from His Father while He hung on the cross for our sins. He requires us, in turn, to endure some suffering for His sake. We must suffer loss of time, personal ease and comfort, and worldly involvements, along with the abuse of an irreligious society, to help promote His kingdom in the world. So Christians are ordered to "share in suffering as a good soldier of Jesus Christ," (II Tim. 2:3). One who thinks he can be a Christian and enjoy the best of two worlds is one who is not taking up his cross.
Third, a disciple of Jesus must follow His instructions to follow Me. This means he must follow Jesus Himself rather than someone's construction, or interpretation, of Jesus. Jesus' instructions to His disciples are not cryptic, but clear enough to be generally understood. It only involves reading the New Testament regularly and carefully with an open mind. The true message will come through to the reader well enough that he can follow his Master and please Him. Orders from everyone else must be disregarded, (Jno. 10:4-5).
