“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?” (Matthew 16:24-26)
What did Jesus mean when he said those words? What does it mean to be a Christian?
In The Theology of the Cross: Reflections on His Cross and Ours, Professor Daniel M. Deutschlander wrote this helpful explanation:
Self-denial will always be difficult, will always be a struggle. Hence to undertake such is to take up a heavy, flesh-ripping, backbreaking cross. For what is it that everyone wants by nature? What is it that is at the very heart and core of each one of us? Each wants to save his life and not to lose it. And to fallen man the essence of saving life is not merely the continuance of bodily functions. It is rather that one’s own will be done. To do the will of another or to have one’s own will denied is to lose life. (p. 13)
What self-denial and cross-carrying look like will vary from Christian to Christian. But at the heart of Christian discipleship is this: We follow our Savior Jesus.
There are no harder words for me to pray to God than “Not my will, but your will be done.” There are no harder words for me to live than “Not my will, God, but your will be done.”
I’m a sinful, selfish man. On this side of heaven, I will always be a sinful, selfish man. And yet, by God’s grace alone, I am also a redeemed child of God—purchased and won by the precious blood of Jesus on the cross and made alive in him.
This is the paradox of being a Christian—we are both sinners and saints at the same time.
In our moments of self-denial and cross-carrying as Christians—in both our struggles and our failures—God is at work. He teaches us to look away from ourselves and, instead, to fix our eyes on our Savior Jesus and what he has done for us.
We don’t save our lives. And if we try—whether by holding on to our sinful desires or trying to earn heaven for ourselves—we’ll fail. Miserably. We cannot save ourselves.
Dear Christian, Jesus has already saved our lives.
By his perfect life of self-denial and cross-carrying (literally!) and by his innocent suffering and death on the cross, Jesus has rescued us from sin, death, and the devil. His triumphant resurrection assures us of his victory. Our sins are forgiven. We’re God’s dearly loved children. Heaven is our home.
Now Jesus calls us—as new creations in him—to serve others and to live for God in all we think, say, and do. To lose our lives for him and find them in him and what he has done for us.
That is what it means to be a Christian.
Follow the apostle Peter’s dramatic transformation in Peter: Theologian of the Cross. Discover what it looks like when God calls you to deny yourself and take up your cross and follow him. Wherever you are, whatever you’re going through in life, God is working on you, making you into a theologian of the cross.
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Alex Brown is the marketing and content copywriter at Northwestern Publishing House and a 2023 graduate of Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary with a Master of Divinity degree. He enjoys reading, writing, and spending time in God’s creation with his family.
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