Luke 9:22-24 (NIV) -”And he said, ’The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.’ Then he said to them all: ’Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.’”

“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.”

Traditionally, the way we have come to understand this passage is that we are to follow Jesus’ example by living a cruciform life, just as he exemplified upon the cross. The issue with this passage however, is that Jesus is saying this to the disciples before he has gone to the cross. These instructions to take up your cross is a pre-crucifixion statement. This means that the disciples who are hearing Jesus say this wouldn’t have been able to make much sense of it. Surely for us in 2017, as we know how the story ends, can recapitulate the event of the cross with God’s wisdom and purpose of salvation. However, that was not something that the disciples would have been privy to at that time. Perhaps what this passage shows us is: the cross of Christ, and subsequently the cross that all disciples are to bear, was not a form of punishment created by the Romans, with Jesus just happening to be caught in its horrors, and as a result having become the symbol of our gospel. Rather, the salvation that was to occur on the cross was conceived and purposed by the very saving God who said in Ephesians 1-that before the creation of the world, He purposed us to be the object of his affection and salvation. Hence, the cross was always intentioned and purposed before creation as the suffering through which we would know God’s grace and rescue.

Today, consider this: the cross has been purposed before the creation of the world, for we have been chosen before the creation of the world to be the object of God’s salvation-and that is only through the cross. Let’s worship Him, who knows all things, does all things, and whose purpose will always be accomplished!

Today spend time in worship with this song: The Cross Changes Everything-Matt Redman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkZkeyu6a3k

-GK