The way many in the grace camp approach the Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me verse is with an attitude that says, Jesus carried the cross for me. Thats old covenant and doesnt apply to me! The error in turning this statement into a religious work is that it views the cross as a service to God instead of a service to the world. Denying yourself and embracing your cross is a picture of laying down your life for others, and doing so through a lot of suffering, and zero self-defense. A lot of people are fine loving others if it doesnt cost them much, or anything, Jesus told us to love others in a way that costs us EVERYTHING. And really, is there any other kind of love? (Unless youre J-Lo; her love dont cost a thing). Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me, is not an old covenant verse that references religious works. People seem to throw everything that requires something of them into an old covenant category of religious works, as some sort of loophole to say I dont have to do anything! Again, the cross is about service to mankind, not to God. Jesus didnt endure the beatings, the insults, the humiliation and execution as a religious work for God, He did it as a work of love for mankind. When He tells us to take up our cross and follow Him, He is telling us to endure the same thing, not as a religious work, but a work of love. You will never deny yourself as long as you think its your job to defend yourself; your ego will always mess things up. And if you dont deny yourself, you can never truly pick up your cross and follow Him. At best you will create a bunch of weird doctrines that make you feel better about being lazy and inactive. I get it. Take time to recover from the impossible demands we were given by church leaders, but dont give up completely and just decide to label every verb in the bible a religious work. Most of what Jesus said still applies to us ;).
Posted on: Thu, 14 Aug 2014 22:21:21 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015