The second cross

“People are not willing to pay the cost. There is another cross”. These are the words spoken in a dream I had which I mentioned previously here and here.

Jesus spoke clearly about the cost required to be His disciple and then he walked that very journey himself. I have not heard this mentioned very often, yet it is intricately entwined in the maturing life of every believer. Do we find ourselves woefully unprepared for the journey at hand because we are oblivious, or have not even considered the cost required?

What is this cost?

Jesus must hold our greatest love and affection. All other affections are like hate in comparison.

Luke 14:25 - Now great crowds accompanied 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.“

We must be willing and ready to accept a death sentence from the world. That could be abandonment, rejection, false accusation or even physical death.

Luke 14:27 - Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

We need to weigh and count the cost, evaluating our resources to see if we have enough to complete it. Where do we get our resources from? It is not by might, not by power, but by His spirit. We need a correct understanding of all that is available to us in Christ, by the spirit. If we think it is in our own power and strength, we will find ourselves without enough to complete what is required of us.

Luke 14:28 - For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’

We need to weigh and assess, soberly, the warfare against us and not be ignorant of the enemy’s schemes.

Luke 14:31 - Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.

We need to be willing to give all of ourselves.

Luke 14:33 - So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

How do we walk this journey?

This is the view the mature should take, a desire to know the power of his resurrection and participation of his sufferings [Phil 3:10, 15]. Our mind needs to be set on the things of the spirit, not on earthly things. [Phil 3:18, 19]. To receive our full inheritance, to share in his glory, we also share in his sufferings. [Rom 8:16, 17]. We should not be surprised by the difficulties that come our way to test us as though something strange were happening to us. [1 Pet 4:12]. But we are to rejoice as we participate in the sufferings of Christ (not those caused by ourselves or by partnering with the enemy), so that we may be overjoyed when His glory is revealed. [1 Pet 4:13]. We count ourselves blessed if we are insulted because of Christ, for His glory then rests on us. [1 Pet 4:14]. If we suffer as a christian, we are not to be ashamed [1 Pet 4:16], but we are to commit ourselves to our faithful creator and continue to do good. [1 Pet 4:19]

This is how we triumph over our enemy, receive our inheritance and walk as disciples [Rev 12:11]. If Jesus instructed us to take up our cross daily, then we are fully able to do it by his spirit. He doesn’t instruct us to do something that he has not given us the power to fulfill.

As a closing thought on this weighty topic, I have wondered if the degree to which we are able to love is connected to the degree to which we are willing to pay the cost, for to love costs us. It costs time, energy, vulnerability, the exposure to potential pain and loss. In the words of T. Austin Sparks:

I close by reminding You of this other word which the Apostle addressed to those Corinthians - "I wrote unto you... not that ye should be made sorry, but that ye might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you" (II Cor. 2:4). You cannot have love without suffering. The two things go together; and mark you, your willingness to suffer, your attitude toward suffering, will prove your love for the Lord. Many people are not experiencing the sufferings of Christ because they have not enough love for His people. If you really have a heart love for a child of God, you are going to suffer for that child of God. If you have a heart love for the people of God, you are going to suffer for the people of God. If you have a heart love for a company of the Lord's people to which He has joined you, you are going to suffer for that company. If you have a heart love for your Lord, you are going to suffer with your Lord when you see His Name dishonoured and His interests reversed. Our love is the measure of our suffering. If our suffering is little, it may be the great wrong is that our love is too small.