“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20 (ESV)
“A whole new generation of Christians has come up believing that it is possible to ‘accept’ Christ without forsaking the world.” –A.W. Tozer
Although Christianity is about having a new life in Christ, to a great degree much of Christianity is about dying. Dying to yourself, dying to sin, dying to this world, laying down your old life and taking up a new life. The gospel is a call to come and die, although that is not how it is represented most of the time in our culture.
Often, we think about breaking free and leaving behind things we don’t want in our life while we cling to the things we do want and we call this Christianity, but this is not following Jesus. Following Jesus is dying to everything you once held dear in exchange for Christ.
Jesus willingly was crucified for our sins and if we are to follow him, we too must submit to a willful crucifixion, not for our sin, but to be made in the image and likeness of our Savior.
Does this sound extreme to you? Well, listen to the words of Jesus himself as he tells a crowd what following him really requires:
“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14:26-27 (ESV)
If the only version of Christianity you have ever been exposed to is the self- centered, self-help, entertainment driven, “your best life now” version, then I am sure this may come as a shock to you. But I assure you that being a disciple of Jesus is an all or nothing proposition.
Much of American Christianity is like Disneyland: it’s fun, it’s entertaining and it’s all about you. But to be honest, if you read the Bible and take what it says at face value you find something much different. We see a suffering Messiah with his life aimed at a cross and a call for those who are his disciples to follow him and do the same.
“And he said to all, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.’” Luke 9:23-24 (ESV)
The words of Jesus are crystal clear: if you try and hold on to this life you will surely lose it. Some have made an art of twisting the Scripture to present a Christianity without self-denial, without sacrifice and without the death of our flesh. But in doing so we also have also created a Christianity without passion, without power, without depth and without beauty.
To minimize the sacrificial nature of what Christ did on the cross is to minimize the beauty and power of Christianity and the very character of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. For us to be like Jesus everything about our lives must be sacrificial to his kingdom purposes. This isn’t something that’s above and beyond, but merely our reasonable worship to the King of glory.
“‘All things are lawful,’ but not all things are helpful. ‘All things are lawful,’ but not all things build up. Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor.” 1 Corinthians 10:23-24 (ESV)
We must die to everything in our life and this world, and when I say everything, I mean everything. Some things will remain dead never to be regained, but some things will be given back to us as we learn to steward them in view of Christ. As we grow and mature in Christ through the power of the Spirit living in us, we will begin to judge all things by this measure: does this bring glory to Christ or does it detract from his glory?
Things that are sinful don’t need this consideration, they should only be rejected. Some things are not necessarily sinful, but they may be something that causes you or others to stumble. Anything that impairs or detracts from the glory of God in our lives should be discarded.
Often when we attempt to do this and have a harder time than we expected, it is because we have stumbled on an area of our life that is rooted in a spiritual stronghold that we didn’t know about. It might be a stumbling block for us that we didn’t even know was there, but even if it's not, God’s word is clear: if it’s a stumbling block for a brother or sister, it should be discarded as well because we are all part of the same body.
In Christ,
Pastor Joshua
Joshua West is a pastor, evangelist, and author. he is also director of the World Challenge Pastors Network.