Take Up Thy Cross! A Call to Intimacy; a Command for Salvation

The most sincere, important, and central question that mankind has ever asked is “what must I do that I may obtain/inherit eternal life” (Matthew 19:16, Mark 10:17). Our great God and Savior Christ Jesus is loving, generous and completely willing to answer this question; for this is the most proper question to ask Him. But His response, surprisingly enough, deviates almost completely from that of the modern Evangelical Church. In fact, if you were to give the same answer as Jesus did, you would probably be labeled a heretic (being told that you are preaching a gospel that is works based) or at best told that you do not have a proper understanding of Biblical salvation texts.

What is it that Jesus says? “[I]f you wish to enter into life [eternal life, a personal relationship with God], keep the commandments.” He goes on to say, “If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me” (Matthew 19:17, 21). Mark makes Jesus’ words more clear to us in his parallel of this account. After the young ruler confesses to have “kept all these things from my youth up [all the commandments that is]”, Jesus responds to him, “One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me” (Mark 10:20-21). Though it seems clear that this man did not have a proper understanding of his sinful state, what is more alarming from this passage is Jesus’ clear command for what the man must do to receive eternal life. Jesus said he must follow all the commandments and sell all that he has and follow Christ. Clearly nobody can keep all the commandments, for “whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all” (James 2:10). And Paul clearly says, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). So for our purposes, we will concentrate on Jesus’ final statement, “Go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”

The first reply that many people in the modern evangelical church will give is: “Well, this is merely a call to a deeper relationship with God.” This is true, to an extent, because this is clearly a call to a deeper relationship with God, since the rich young ruler (and all who are asking how to obtain eternal life) does not have a relationship with God to begin with. Even more than this, however, this is clearly a command that a person must follow to “inherit eternal life.” Many people will then ask: “Well, how does this jive with Ephesians 2:8-9: “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast”? Jesus clearly cannot be contradicting Scripture and proper salvation doctrine, (or soteriology), but this is clearly a command that must be followed for a person to receive eternal life—or be “saved” as Paul puts it. A fundamental problem arises. What does Jesus mean here?

Well, the best way to read this is literally; that what Jesus says is exactly what He means. Jesus elaborates (though in a different context) upon what He means in Luke 14:25-33.

Now large crowds were going along with Him; and He turned and said to them, “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 carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.”

The first thing that occurs is that a person comes to Jesus. In other words, they seek Him to find out how they can “inherit eternal life.” Jesus knows that the people who are going along with Him are thinking that very question and He answers it before they can ask. His response, they must hate all their family and friends, and even (also) their own lives (all that they have and are.) How are we to interpret such a passage? That Jesus is actually saying that they are to hate (not as in the absence of love) but as to count them as loss—they are to be hated as drawing the person away from God, as part of the person’s sinful life. The apostle John records, “He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal” (John 12:25). To gain eternal life, a person must hate his/her life—for the sinful life will only lead a person in the ways of sin—in fact if they love their life, they will desire to keep on sinning, and a person cannot serve two masters—a person cannot serve God and his/her own sinful pleasures.
Jesus goes on to say that a person must take up his/her own cross and come after Him. A person must be willing to be identified as the wretch of society and take all the scorn that comes with it; otherwise that person cannot be a disciple of Christ. A disciple is a follower of Christ. Only disciples of Christ will ever see the kingdom of heaven. If a person does not identify with Christ, he/she will not be admitted to heaven: Jesus says, “Everyone who confesses Me before men, I will confess him before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 10:32-33).

At this point you may be saying, “What you are saying is just confusing me more and causing me more frustration over these texts and how this relates to being saved by grace through faith.” Do not fear, I am getting to the point of clarifying how this all relates together.

Jesus then tells the people to count the cost—are they willing to follow Him no matter what comes their way? Jesus makes it clear that a person must “complete the tower” so to speak—otherwise it would be of little use if any at all. It is the same way with our lives; if we do not continue to the end, we will not be rewarded with eternal life: or as Jesus says it, “He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments” (Revelation 3:5). It is necessary for a person to finish the race of life.

Finally Jesus says a most startling thing: “None of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions” (Luke 14:33). This is almost the exact same thing He told the rich young ruler he must do to “inherit eternal life.” A person cannot be a follower of Christ (so following Christ must be a reward in itself (c.f. John 17:3 for proof of that)) unless he gives up all his own possessions—otherwise known as “count[ing] all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:8). In other words, a person must submit their life to Christ in order to follow Him, in order to receive eternal life.

If a person is unwilling to submit to Christ as his/her master and king, then he/she is actually holding on to his/her life and is unwilling to submit to Christ as his/her savior as well. How is this a logical argument? If a person wishes to keep his/her life, in other words, to hold on to their sinful ways, then salvation (sanctification) is not occurring. God is the God of both justification and sanctification—He does both, not one without the other (c.f. 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8). In fact, Romans 6:22 says to the Roman believers, you have been “freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome [of sanctification], eternal life.” Justification secures sanctification; sanctification is the process that God completes in us. This process starts at the moment of genuine faith and continues throughout a Christian’s life, though not reaching completion until the afterlife. This allows us to grow in an eternal relationship with Him. Jesus says, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul” (Matthew 16:24-26, emphasis mine)?

If a person wishes to save this life, the next will be forfeited. Only by hating this life and submitting to God’s sanctifying work can a person be saved. No person can pay for his/her own soul, though if a person understands the true value of his/her own soul, this life is not really a loss to lose, but a gain, since we will be living for and gaining Christ, rather than remaining dead and darkened in our sin. How is all of this not man’s working? How can this not be seen as works that are added to faith?

A proper understanding of faith is needed at this point. James says, “Faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself” (James 2:17). What does he mean? True faith will by necessity produces good works. If I believed that the roof over my head was going to collapse, I would not continue to be present in this room, for fear of being crushed. The faith is that the room will collapse; the evidence of this faith is the work of leaving the room. But this does not fully answer how Jesus’ command to whole life submission is not a command to do works to “inherit eternal life.”

Jesus can give such commands because He knows the power behind the commands that He is giving: His own. What Jesus is saying could be conceived in this way: “If you have true faith in me—if you really believe in Me (see John 3:16 for why belief in Jesus is important), you will sell all that you have and follow Me. I have commanded you to do this, and so you will obey Me because you love Me and treasure Me (c.f. John 14:15)”. Jesus is not commanding for people to do legalistic works; to just do works to save themselves. He knows works will not save anybody. He is commanding them to “bear fruits in keeping with repentance” (Luke 3:8), as John the Baptist put it. Their works will follow and be in line with their faith.

Jesus is calling for genuine faith, not the production of works. Only from true faith will a person see Jesus as “a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid again; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field” (Matthew 13:44). When a person sees Jesus as a great treasure, or a “pearl of great value” (Matthew 13:46), then giving up this life for Christ is nothing to really give up at all. In fact, to lose this life is gain; since Christ is gained more and more as we are sanctified more and more. Loss becomes gain; the death and absolution of sin/sins is the furtherance of our holiness and joy! Thus it is only right for Paul to say, “work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12-13). We are to work out our salvation (sanctification) with fear and trembling—with seriousness and diligence, not giving in to the desires of our sinful flesh. Why are we to do this? Does this not sound like a works based salvation? It is not; because God is the one behind us who is energizing and causing us to will and to be sanctified—and it is all for His glory!

But one problem still remains; is not faith then a work—since it is something that man produces. The Bible is clear that we do not muster-up faith within ourselves; we do not produce our faith—our faith is not our gift to God. God is always the benefactor, we are always the beneficiaries. Romans 10:17 says, “faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” In Ephesians 2:8, it is only right to conceive when Paul says, “that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God” (emphasis mine), he is speaking of both grace and faith (both ‘grace’ and ‘faith’ are feminine in Greek, but ‘that’ is neuter singular, for Paul is referring to both as one gift, not just one or the other). So faith is part of God’s gift of eternal life (c.f. Romans 6:23). The writer of Hebrews says Jesus is “the author and perfecter of faith” (Hebrews 12:2). And in Philippians 1:29 Paul says, “To you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake.” God grants, or gives, Christians faith, or “to believe in Him”. And He also grants them to suffer—God is the power behind them to take up their cross and thus to accept the sufferings that He will inevitably cause to come their way.