Matthew-022

In the last message, we studied the words of the Lord Jesus in Matthew 10:34-36, and we saw what the Lord Jesus meant when he said, “I have not come to bring peace but a sword.” I already pointed out that the Chinese translation is not a translation but an interpretation, in that it doesn’t seem to say, “I brought a sword” but “I brought war.” And we saw that the sword is the cross, that the Lord Jesus brought the cross into the world. We also saw how the richness of the meaning could come to us from Scripture.

As I speak about the Chinese translation, I am often greatly disturbed by the lack of people today, who are competent to translate the Word of God. Unfortunately, the translators are often far more familiar with English than with Greek. So I take this opportunity to tell you that there is a new and good Chinese translation of the New Testa­ment, published by the Bible Society, and I have met the translator, Xu Mu Shi.

Why do we still have to take up the cross?

Let us now turn to our text, Matthew 10:37-39.

Verse 37: “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me” is connected with the Scriptural teaching on worthiness, and we have already expounded this. Today, we wish to continue expounding on verses 38-39: “And whoever does not take his cross to follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses it for my sake will find it.”

In the previous message, we saw the wonderful vision of the cross of Christ. We saw how only through his blood that was shed on the cross can sin be cleansed, and we have our salvation. But how can that cross save me?

We say by faith, but what does faith mean? “Faith” is a much over-worked and over-loaded word, and most people are very vague about its meaning. If the cross of Christ saves me, why does Jesus go on to say, “Unless a man takes up his cross and follow me he cannot be my disciple” (Mt. 10:38; Lk. 14:27)? How do you put these two things together? Is it his cross that saves me, or do I also have to take up my cross?

He doesn’t say, “As long as you believe in me, you can take up or not take up your cross as you like.” He said, “Whoever does not take up his cross cannot be my disciple.” We have also seen before that “disciple” does not refer to some select group of people in the church. Followers of Christ were simply called “disciples” before they were called “Christians.” Only later at Antioch, as we see in Acts 11:26, did the disciples come to be called “Christians” by the world.

If this is the case, we are caught between the cross of Christ and the cross that we are to carry. Exactly where do we stand? Today, we are generally told that it is the cross of Christ alone that saves us, that we are saved solely by his death, so it is only his cross that matters. If his cross saves me, why do I have to take up the cross? We have no more use for the teaching of Jesus where he tells us to take up the cross. Little wonder that the preachers today don’t know what to do with these verses. If I ask you this question individually, how would you answer me? If I am required to take up my cross and follow Jesus, doesn’t it follow that it’s my own effort in carrying the cross that is saving me? Are we saved by God’s grace, or are we saved by my effort of carrying the cross? Which?

Notice, the Lord Jesus also doesn’t go on to say that it doesn’t matter whether you carry this cross or not, because you can only be a disciple of Jesus if you carry this cross. If I can only be a disciple of Jesus by carrying this cross, it also follows that I can only be saved by carrying this cross. So then, am I saved by the grace of Jesus’ cross or by my carrying my cross? Or am I somehow saved by both? Or is grace not grace unless I also put something into it? But how can grace still be grace if I have put my own effort into it? This question is difficult, isn’t it? How do you answer it? When you study the Bible, don’t these questions ever come to your mind? And if they come to your mind, what answers do you give? Or do you evade the questions?

Today, we are told that grace is God’s free gift in which you do nothing, and pay no cost. But if you do nothing and give nothing, how can you be required to take up the cross? For taking up the cross is to give everything – your whole life to die on the cross. People did not carry a cross for physical exercise in those days. So what are you doing carrying this cross? As I have said before, you are carrying the very instrument of your execution. Are we saved by Jesus’ death or my death? If I am to take up my cross then that is my death. In the end, am I saved by both Jesus’ dying and my dying?

How superficial is the thinking of Christians today! Why aren’t these fundamental questions about salvation being answered? For the sake of our eternal salvation, don’t we have a right to know the answer to these questions? Shouldn’t it be the responsibility of every pastor today to answer these questions? Should they not be telling the people what this means when Jesus makes this requirement for our salvation? What then is the answer? How do we figure this out? I am almost tempted to leave the question at this point and walk out and let you struggle about it until next week, so that having struggled and sweated over this, you will come back and say, “What is the answer? I have thought about it and I’m still trying to figure it out.” Now I will still leave you to ponder the question while I press on with the exposition.

Three verbs in connection with “to take”

I would like to clarify the meaning of the Lord Jesus’ words when he says, “Unless you take the cross you cannot be my disciple.” If you study the whole panorama of the teaching of Jesus in connection with taking the cross, you will notice he uses three different verbs in Greek.

1. To take hold of the cross

First, in Matthew 10:38, the Lord Jesus says, “take” the cross, and the English correctly translates the Greek word lambano as “take.” For instance, if I give you something, you take it. So with this word, the Lord Jesus is saying, “You need to take hold of the cross.” It is quite correct to say that it also means to accept it. The first step is we take hold of the cross.

2. To lift up the cross

A few chapters later in Matthew 16:24, we notice that the Lord Jesus uses the word “take up” the cross, which the English again very accurately translates another Greek word, airo. This word airo, is not just to take hold of as lambano in Matthew 10:38, but airo means to lift up the cross. Now we see a progression from taking hold to lifting up to put on the shoulder.

This word airo in Matthew 16:24, to take up and put the cross on your shoulder is also used in Matthew 27:32. There we read that Simon of Cyrene was conscripted by the Roman army to lift up and put on his shoulder Jesus’ cross, because Jesus was too weak after the beatings and sufferings from the night before to lift up his own cross.

3. To endure the cross

Finally, in Luke 14:27, we see a third different Greek word, bastazo, which speaks about the suffering of the cross. There the Lord Jesus uses bastazo, “to endure” the cross which the English translates as “to bear.” Here is a further step. First, you can just take hold of the cross, but you must take the next step to put it onto your shoulder, which is no great problem if you are strong. Thirdly, you endure (bear) the suffering of the cross.

For example, bastazo is used again in Matthew 20:12, “to bear” the work and the scorching heat of the day, which means to endure, to suffer from the work and the heat. This same word is also used in Matthew 8:17 to speak of the fact that Christ “bore,” that is, suffered for our diseases both spiritually and physically, not just carried our diseases on his shoulders. Matthew 8:17 is a quotation from the well-known passage in Isaiah 53:4, that Christ suffered for us: he “bore” our diseases.

You see a progression in the teaching of the Lord Jesus about our carrying the cross, and how do we understand it? The Lord Jesus says, “You have to take three steps to be my disciple. The first step is you take hold of that cross. The second step is you put it on to your shoulder. And the third step is you go to Calvary as I went.” It is so beautiful because that third word was used exactly of the Lord Jesus in John 19:17, “he went out, bearing (bastazo) his own cross to the place called the Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha.”

Three steps to become a disciple of Jesus

How shall we understand this? We see therefore that there are requirements for becoming a disciple of Jesus. There are three stages in this taking up the cross. Then at what step do we become a disciple? At step one or at step three? Do we become a disciple only when we suffer with him? No.

At step one of taking hold of the cross, the condition of discipleship is already fulfilled. You must at least have the willingness to take hold of, to accept that cross, with the intention of going all the way to Calvary. For the moment, you have taken hold of the cross; you have accepted the cross. You are on the road to dying. You are on the way to losing your life.

Secondly, lifting up the cross indicates that I am willing to make it my own because I want to be Jesus’ disciple. You are not even on the road to salvation until you are willing to lose your life. We will look at what that means in a moment.

By this time, you are saying, “This is so tough!” And you can see why there are not many preachers who would like to preach this. Isn’t it so much easier to preach: “You have nothing whatsoever to do on your part. Everything is free”? This is easy! I wish I could have the privilege to be a salesman of a big auction saying, “Three cents and you’ve got the whole thing!” But I ask you, would I be true to my Lord Jesus’ words? I can let the world say what they like about me, but I must be faithful to the Lord Jesus’ teaching.

Thirdly, enduring the suffering of the cross means that I am willing to experience the cross in my own life. It’s great that I can be saved just by believing that so long as Jesus suffered, I don’t have to suffer anything. That kind of preaching of salvation suits me fine. Isn’t that what we have got used to? “Jesus suffered everything for my sins, therefore I have nothing to suffer. That’s just nice!” But I hope you are still thinking about the question I put in your mind right at the beginning. If this is the case, why is it also required of us to suffer? How about we just forget that Matthew 10:38-39 ever existed in the Bible? How about we just forget that Jesus taught this, and taught it so many times, much to our inconvenience? Then it’s just nice! We could stop at Christ died for our sins. But how inconvenient that I am stuck with having to expound it when the Lord Jesus goes on to say, “Unless you are willing to experience the cross in your own life, to lose your life, you cannot be my disciple.” The cross must not only be something that Jesus suffered, but it must become something truly yours in your own heart.

Exactly how do we suffer the cross in our own experience? If you are being mocked for being a Christian, don’t you suffer with Christ? He was also mocked. If your family rejects you because you are a Christian, don’t you experience the cross in your own life? You have taken one small step forward in experiencing the cross. When you witness to others for Christ and they reject and scorn you, don’t you immediately begin to experience what Jesus suffered? But the cross goes on. There is much more ahead of you. When you give up your job, your profession to serve him, and people mock you; or if they don’t mock you, but you suffer a tremendous financial loss, don’t you experience what Jesus was suffering when he turned his back on the world?

Jesus chose the cross

Just from the purely human point of view, if you consider Jesus with his abilities, it would have been no problem for him to be king of Israel, or king of the world for that matter. Jesus could lead the crowds. The multitudes followed him in the thousands wherever he went. If Jesus wanted to lead a rebellion, he would have a whole army behind him instantly! When you study the kind of person Jesus was, he could have taken whatever he wanted from the world. At a word, he could have conquered Jerusalem. The crowds were waiting for him to say, “Draw your swords! We are taking over Jerusalem!” He could have led delighted thousands into Jerusalem shouting, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD!”

The brilliance of Jesus’ mind is just incredible! We have spent most of our lives just trying to catch a glimpse into the depth of his thinking. Notice the power of his mind when questioned by these Pharisees, “Shall we pay taxes to Caesar or not?” (Mt. 22:17) What would you have answered? You would probably have been at a total loss, scratched your head, and put your hands in your pockets. I’m not sure what I would have answered if caught in that situation. Jesus just looked at them, and with one slicing word, he cuts through the entire situation. They were silenced, and did not even know what to say after that. The sheer human brilliance of this man is just startling! There was no one like him! The crowds said, “No one has ever talked like this man!” They were fascinated by the power of his speech. When the rulers of the nations sent the guards out to arrest him, what happened to them? They stood in the crowd listening to his preaching, forgot what they came for, and went back empty-handed. (Jo. 7:32-48)

So we can see the power, the brilliance of this man, but he did not want the world. This man could have had the world at his feet where no ruler in any of the nations at that time could compare with him in stature. When you look at the history of the day, the kings and leaders of the various nations were small men. A man like Jesus would have dominated the whole scene if he wanted to, but he did not want the world. At the temptation, Satan had already offered him the world, but Jesus didn’t want it. What did he want? He wanted the cross! You will say, “Can you believe that?” A man who could have the world asked only for one thing: to have the cross. He who could have all that life in this world could offer, only asked that he might lose his life.

Yet never forget the power and the stature of this man. When he stood before Pilate, the Roman governor, the most powerful man in Israel at the time, he made Pilate look like a child. When you read the scene of the judgment, you wonder who is judging who. It looked more like Pilate pleading for his own life. And when he stood before Herod the king, he ignored him as though the king were nobody, because with one glance, he looked into Herod’s heart and knew that there was no need to waste his words with this man. The only way to help this man was to bring him down to the level where he belonged: to prick the bubble of his great conceit.

When you look at Jesus as he walked through the Gospels, you are startled by the magnificence of this man. I say again, he who could have the world turned his back on it. What have you done when you turn your back on the world? You have learned to take the cross. You are learning to experience what Jesus was experiencing. Speaking reverently, Jesus was no fool in turning his back on the world. He was looking for that which is eternal. Those of us who have turned our backs on the world are looking for that which is eternal. So we see what it is to experience the cross in this way.

Paul and many godly men of tremendous ability chose the cross

As Paul said in Philippians 3:8, “I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish.” When you study the letters of Paul—another man who could have gained the world, and how he could have gained it—you immediately realize you are up against a very powerful mind. All through history, people have described Paul as a genius, which is such an understatement. If you have tried reading Paul, you will know just how difficult it is to wrestle with the speed and power of his mind. He was another man who could have had the world but he chose the cross.

When I read the history of the church, I saw many men of tremen­dous stature and ability. By the time we come to the Twentieth Century, we have John Sung, and some other men of his stature, who could also have had the world but chose the cross instead.

Some people have said the same thing to me: “If you go out in the world, you could really be somebody. If you stay in the church, you’ll be a nobody.” I too, in my small way am content to choose to embrace the cross: to take hold of it, to lift it onto my shoulders, and to learn in a small way what it is to suffer and experience the cross in my life. But that is nothing very glorious. You don’t have to look at Paul or John Sung, at whom people say, “Wow! They are so wonderful!” What are we doing? We are simply doing what the Lord Jesus told us to do if we desire to obtain the life which is everlasting. And we do this by giving ourselves over to God to become Christ’s disciples.

The Lord Jesus is calling for soldiers of the cross

We have to confess that all of us are weak, therefore there are problems in the church, and sometimes I get discouraged when I consider these. When I read for example, that when soldiers charged at the enemy’s stronghold in a war, sometimes they argued among themselves as to which one had the privilege to take the explosives to attack that pill box. For them, it was an honor to be the first to go. When I read these things, I feel ashamed of the Christians. When there is a job to be done, if there is some suffering to be endured, the Christians always want to be the last. “You go first.” How many Communists joined the Party at the cost of their families, professions, and property? They gave up everything for the sake of the Party. But today, there are Christians who think that it is already fantastic when they give up their jobs for the sake of Christ, not to say give up their lives. It seemed that the Communists took these things lightly and turned away from them. I think that they are closer to the spirit of Paul than the Christians today. They suffered the loss of everything and counted them as rubbish!

I think every Christian should read the account of The Long March, (二萬五千里長征), the 8,000-mile march that the Communist army endured. In that march, you were not putting on your knapsack to go on a picnic, but going over mountains, rivers, snow, ice, cold and heat! Out of the whole army that started out, only a handful arrived at Yan An. The majority died on the way, either killed in fighting, or being frozen, diseased, or starved. But have you heard any complaints? Read the account of The Long March until the tears run down your face, until shame fills your heart and you will think, “What kind of a Christian am I?” These people left behind their wives, their children, their loved ones, their fields, their homes, their property, everything, to go on the march and lost their lives in it. And where are the Christians today? What we have in the church today are Christians, who are looking for their places in heaven that cost them nothing! They are annoyed at anyone who tells them that there is a cost to enter the heavenly kingdom.

When Garibaldi led his troops to battle, there was a young man who said to him, “If I join your army, what have you to offer me?” Garibaldi said, “I offer you blood, sweat and tears. Do you want to follow me? That’s what you will get.” It sounds different from the preachers today. “Follow me and there is peace and joy.” Surely, you will have peace and joy, but first, the blood, sweat and the tears. You will have peace only in that order. No wonder Garibaldi led forth an army that won the battle. I never forget these incidents whenever I speak about the Lord Jesus’ teaching on the cross.

So what does this teaching of the Lord Jesus mean? I say to you on the authority of the Lord’s teaching, if you think you are going to get to heaven and it’s going to cost you nothing, then take my word for it, you will never be there. This is what the Lord Jesus is telling us in this passage. Haven’t we got ears to hear? As I have said, I am going to preach the Lord Jesus’ teaching, and it doesn’t worry me even if nobody wants to come to this church. I must be faithful to his teaching.

God is raising up soldiers for the cross to be sent out into the world. Are the Christians we have today going to preach the gospel to the people in China? Are you? Your life doesn’t match up to theirs, so how are you going to preach to them? Are you going to China with chewing gum and chocolate bars? And are you going to bring your waterbed with you so you can sleep comfortably at night? Isn’t it true that so many missionaries have made themselves ridiculous in China by doing exactly that? Some of them brought their refrigera­tors and air-conditioners into China. Of course, I am not by any means saying all missionaries are like that.

I always remember that missionary in Hong Kong who invited me to his apartment, and wanted me to admire the beautiful apartment that he had obtained on the mountain with a tremendous view of Kowloon. Then he showed me around his home saying, “This is my new fridge. And this is my this and my that.” Now if he were living like that in the United States as an American, that is no problem to me. The only thing that turned my stomach was that his window looked straight out into an area where all the refugees were living in their tin huts. Did he come out to preach the gospel living like this? It is understandable if other people lived like that, but not if he is a missionary living among those who will see his fridge and his nice apartment.

So you and I are going to preach the gospel in China, and we will take our fridge and our freezer, and I’ll bring the church car into China, if the church allows. People see us saying, “Here I come! To China with love! That is, my love for material things.” I wonder how many of us will really make soldiers.

You must take up the cross to understand the cross

We must experience the cross. When the Lord Jesus said in Matthew 10:38, “He who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me,” he is saying, “Unless you take up your cross and experience it, you cannot be my disciple.” He wants us to know what he is talking about. How many Christians know what he is talking about? You have suffered nothing! You don’t know what the cross is about!

When you go to China one of these days, you are going to find it is not you preaching the gospel, but the Chinese brothers and sisters there who will be doing that. When you hear the brother and sister expounding the Bible, your eyes will begin to open. You are going to say to yourself, “How does he have this kind of understanding into the Word of God? He has not been to seminary, but look at the way he expounds the Bible!” I am the least among those brothers and sisters preaching the gospel. They can open the Bible to you in such a way that your eyes will truly open wide in astonishment.

How I long for the Bible studies I had in China! How that brother, Henry Choi opened up the Word of God bringing out the riches of the meaning! At one time or another, I have sat under most of the famous professors of theology who have ever walked in the Twentieth Century so far, and most of them are alive today. When I go to the theological libraries and pull out books, I say, “I’ve heard this man before, and I’ve heard that one too.” But I would rather sit at the feet of that brother in China. Those brethren there will teach you what the Word of God means. You don’t have to bother with the theologians. Do you know why they understand the Word of God so well? Do you know why they know what the Word of God is talking about? They have learned in the college of experience. Do you know what is experience? Experience is suffering with Christ. When you have experienced a bit of suffering with Christ, you are then begin­ning to be qualified to preach the gospel.

I am sure you have listened to many pastors who have come out with a Masters degree or a doctorate in theology. Was there anything worth listening to? Did the Word of God cut into your heart? Was there any power in the message? You know what the answer is. There was nothing. But why can’t they, who have so many degrees, set the Word of God alight for you? If you want to preach the gospel, learn in the school of suffering with Christ. If you haven’t taken up the cross and experienced it, you don’t have the qualification to preach the gospel.

The brother in China is probably not as intelligent as this man with a Master’s degree in theology. When he talks to you face to face, he is unpolished. After all, he has not been in all these institutions of higher learning. He may be crude and coarse when he expresses himself, because he doesn’t know the smooth and refined way. His personality may not even be outwardly as nice as the man with a Master’s degree. So from the point of view of the world, he is not the better man by any means. There is only one thing that makes the difference. The cross in his life! He may have a very rough person­ality, but he has a genuine love. If you are in trouble, you can be sure he will never let you down.

Going to a seminary does not put any cross in your life. It makes your head bigger. Far from carrying the cross, you carry an academic gown. It is beautiful! Ours from London University is scarlet and purple, with white silk lining. You almost look like a king! And how many preachers carry their academic gowns into the pulpit, instead of the cross! How gladly you put on your shoulders the glory that the world has given you. And the moment we put on this gown, we suddenly feel a cut above the rest of mankind.

That is exactly what Paul says: “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ” (Phil. 3:7). He doesn’t want to have his academic gown because it’s a hindrance to him. What he wants is the cross on his shoulder. However, Christians say, “This is too extreme! You can have both! Put on the academic gown, and hang the cross on your chest, especially if it’s a golden one. That cross is both smooth and just the right weight to carry.”

I have been to the seminary, but I learned relatively little there in terms of spiritual understanding. My training in preaching the Word of God was in China where I learned to carry the cross, to endure the pressure the authorities could put on me; to turn my back on the world that was against me; to experience that God can turn the rumblings of the stomach into spiritual music. Without the school of the cross in China, I would not be preaching the gospel today. I would not have a gospel to preach. I would not understand the meaning of the cross because I have never experienced it. I would not know what Jesus is talking about if I had not been through that school. So it’s not because I am better than anyone else. More likely, it’s because I am worse than everyone else that I needed to learn the meaning of the cross in my experience more urgently.

To know the meaning of spiritual life, you must want to make the cross your own

Is the cross a reality to you? Is it something that you know for real in your own life? If you have not experienced the cross, it will mean nothing much to you. How many times have you heard the preacher talking about the cross? What does it mean to you? It won’t begin to be meaningful until you make it your very own. The spiritual principle here is this: If you want to know anything of the meaning of spiritual life, you must be willing to make the cross your own.

To take up the cross as the Lord Jesus says in Matthew 10:39 is to lose your life as far as this world is concerned. I have lost my life as far as this world is concerned. I have no future in this world. I will never become the great general that I once thought of becoming when I was a non-Christian. And when I was at university, I was given the chance to progress towards the lectureship, maybe one day to be­come a professor, but I turned my back on these things. I will never become a professor in this world. I will never become a chancellor in the universities of this world, not because someone might not offer me that position some day, but because I have resolved in my heart that I don’t want it. Who knows? Maybe one day someone will say, “Would you like to be Chancellor of the university?” But I intend by the grace of God to keep my vision clear, having put my hand to the plough not to look back again, but to keep going on the road of the cross.

As far as this world is concerned, I have lost my life. I will never become general manager of some great firm. I have counted these things as rubbish. What for? That I may win Christ! That I may take hold of him! As Paul said, “To be found in him. Not having any righteousness of my own, but now to be clothed with his righteous­ness.” (Phil. 3:9)

What does the Lord Jesus mean when he said, “He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it” in Matthew 10:39? The principle is exceedingly simple. You never get something for nothing. If someone tells you that you are going to have eternal life and it costs you nothing, don’t believe a word of it because in the spiritual life, you never get something for nothing.

In Luke 14:27, which we have read about taking up the cross, the Lord Jesus said, “Before you become a disciple, go and count what it costs to be my disciple. How much is it going to cost you?” The Lord Jesus never entices us into the kingdom with false pretext, and I thank him for that. He said in verse 33,

This same verse in the New American Standard Version reads,

“All” includes your possessions, your self will and desires. This verse is expressing exactly the same thing as Matthew 10:39 but in different words:

Do you want to gain spiritual life? The principle of the spiritual life in Matthew 10:39 is: you will never find life unless you lose your life. You will realize that the more you lose in this world, the more you will gain in terms of eternal life. This is something wonderful! Read for yourself to consider whether this is the Lord Jesus’ teaching. I don’t want to give you my ideas which are worth nothing. All I want you to do is to consider the words of Jesus, because his words are the words of eternal life.

Taking up our cross is the condition for receiving God’s eternal life

Let us consider the question we asked at the beginning: Are we saved by his cross or by our cross? Have you found the answer? We saw that we must take up our cross. And so is it me gaining eternal life through my cross, through losing my life? What is the answer in your mind? Is it “he who loses his life for my sake will earn it?” The Lord did not say you will earn it. The beauty of the Lord Jesus’ teaching is that never one word is out of place. As we look through and compare the Lord Jesus’ teaching, we find that it says, “He who loses his life for my sake, will find eternal life.”

Consider this word “find” for example, in the Parable of the Hidden Treasure. (Mt. 13:44) This man was digging in the field and he found the treasure in the field. Did he earn it? He could never have earned the value of that treasure, but he found it. Finding it is another way of saying that he got what he could not have earned.

Now let us consider: Can we earn eternal life? You can never earn God’s eternal life. What price can you put on eternal life that you can earn it? Could you buy eternal life for 1,000 dollars or 10,000 dollars? You could not buy eternal life even if you paid 10 trillion dollars! The worth of eternal life is immeasurable. It is God’s life. Unless God gives you his life, you can never have it. We only receive eternal life as a gift of God through Jesus’ cross.

So why does the Lord Jesus talk about our cross? Our cross is the condition for receiving God’s eternal life. Our cross is not a means of earning God’s eternal life, but it is a means for you to fulfill Jesus’ teaching of God’s requirement for receiving his eternal life. How great is God’s wisdom when you consider his requirement as taught by the Lord Jesus!

You take up the cross to destroy the foundation of sin in your life

You will ask, “Why does God set this condition that we take up our cross?” It’s because that is the only way you will truly be saved. Unless the cross comes into your life, you will most certainly return to sin. The reason why God wants you to experience the cross in your life is so that the foundation of sin in your life will be destroyed. That is the meaning of those remarkable words that the apostle Peter said in his letter, “he that has suffered has ceased from sin.” (1 Pet. 4:1)

It is not surprising that when you ask the seminarians to explain this, they are in total confusion. They have no clue what this means. But if you ask a simple Christian in China, he will tell you immediately what it means. How well he understands! You will understand the Bible by the time you have suffered, not just by reading commen­taries. If you live the life, the Bible is so clear to understand, but the man who is dependent on commentaries has a hard time. Now we can see why the Lord Jesus taught God’s condition. God’s wisdom is so perfect!

God’s gift of eternal life is free, but there is a condition

You would say, “Why don’t you give it to me free requiring no conditions? That’s how it’s normally preached anyway.” These preachers think they are cleverer than God. They quote only one verse: Salvation is the gift of God. (Eph. 2:8) That is absolutely true, but it is the partial truth when the free gift is given with a condition attached.

For example, if I were going to put a gun in your hands, it would be irresponsible not to make sure that you are qualified to use a gun. I want to make sure that you are the kind of person who meets the condition before giving you the gun as a free gift. Or take another example, if I were very rich, and you have no money, do you think that I would not require a condition if I said, “Here’s $10,000. Take this free gift to you. You could never earn it but I give it to you”? Don’t you think that I might just as well be blindfolded so that whoever takes the $10,000 can have it? Certainly, I want to make sure that you know how to use this $10,000 in the right way, that you are not going use it to buy drugs or bombs.

God’s gift of eternal life is free, but there is a condition attached to it. Shouldn’t you expect God to do this? Shall God say to you, “Come and get eternal life! You can carry on sinning, but eternal life is yours anyway”? No, God would never do that! God says, “I give eternal life to you as a gift, but I want to make sure that you don’t go back into sin, which is what caused your death in the first place.” Only by having the cross in your life will that eternal gift of God remain yours, and not be ruined, polluted, or degraded by you.”

But preachers are not preaching this, so look at what is happening. Out of the people who turn to God, 70% have left the church within one year! By the second year, where are those who have become Christians at a conference? How many of those who turned to God are still Christians after one year? The preacher thinks he is cleverer than God, so he states the free gift without the condition. When you preach the gospel without stating the condition, only about 4% of those who profess to have turned to God at these conferences are left after three years.

Therefore, I hope you’ll now understand the answer to the question I mentioned at the beginning: If the cross of Christ saves us, why do we still have to take up our cross? The Lord Jesus teaches that God gives you eternal life as a free gift, but you must meet his condition. You must turn away from self, sin and the world which wants to suck you back into sin. Isn’t this perfectly clear? Doesn’t it express the wisdom of God in its perfection?

Finally, I ask you, God is willing to freely give his eternal life, but have you met that condition, even if you claim to be a Christian? Are you taking the cross as the first step, going on to lift up the cross in the second, and enduring the suffering of the cross in the third?