When Jesus’s earthly ministry began to draw to a close when the time for His crucifixion drew nearer, He began to speak to His disciples more often about the events that would shortly transpire, namely, His crucifixion, burial, and resurrection. Though they had been with Him on a mostly continuous basis for the last three years, and had seen many miracles performed and witnessed the power of His teaching, there still remained some uncertainty, on their part, as to just what He was all about and what was actually going on with all these things occurring around them. Does this sound somewhat familiar to any of us? I know it does to me. We try to live our lives according to God’s plan and purpose. We study the Bible, we attend church, we pray asking for God’s guidance in our lives, and yet, somehow things can appear unclear, doubtful, and produce unrest in our lives, even though deep down we know our Lord is full in control.

And My thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8 NASB)

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28)

As humans, we realize we cannot see the future (in an exact sense), but we know we have to live it. Therefore it is in our nature to want to have as much control over our daily lives as well as our future. If we did not care about what might transpire in our futures, and I mean if none of us really cared, then insurance agents and investment brokers and retirement planners would not exist. In effect, much of life’s activities as we know it today in our society would not exist, because we just wouldn’t care about tomorrow or what lies beyond.

Doesn’t that apply somewhat in a literal sense to people’s approach to their spiritual life? To their eternal spiritual life? Do they really care about tomorrow even though they know it exists or have they just chosen not to? Are they seeking an alternate path of spiritual “truth” or are they making a personal choice, one that is more comfortable and suits their own personal needs more easily? Hasn’t that been the way of men since Eve yielded to temptation and Adam joined her out of his own personal choice? Hasn’t it always been about personal choice, personal will and personal control for us all, in spite of our realization that path could possibly lead to our own personal detriment? It has. It does for me and I feel certain I am not alone in this. This is our human nature of sin that strives with God’s nature of righteousness and good.

Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to life, and only a few find it. (Matthew 7:13-14)

In Matthew 16:21, Jesus tells His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things, be killed, and be raised on the third day:

Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him saying, “Far be it from you Lord; this shall not happen to You!” But, He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.” (Matthew 16:22-23)

This seems to be quite a turn of events, for earlier in the chapter in verse 16 Peter had proclaimed that Jesus was “the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” Jesus responded in verses 17-19 that Peter was “blessed” and that “upon this rock” He would build His church. Also that Peter would be “given the keys of the kingdom of heaven.” Now in Peter’s concern for Jesus’s safety, he had become not a rock but a stumbling block to God’s plan for the redemption of mankind’s sins. Jesus used this entire situation to demonstrate two things. First, Satan will use anyone and any ploy in his attempts to derail the plans God has for us. So, in Peter’s declaration of his concern for Jesus’s safety, for His freedom from pain, and prevention of His death, he unwittingly allowed Satan to use him to get in the way of what Jesus knew He had to accomplish. In this, Jesus demonstrates the second point. When we realize that Satan is at work in our lives, trying to send us down an alternate path instead of God’s path, we have the power, through the authority of Jesus, to command him to leave us and get out of God’s way. So in effect, Satan is a stumbling block in his attempts to deceive us into not accomplishing God’s will for our lives. A stumbling block is any kind of device that is employed to trigger a trap and thus snare the prey. A good example would be the little metal plate where a piece of cheese is placed on a mousetrap. Once the metal plate (stumbling block) is depressed, the trap is thrown. In such a way, Satan’s deceptions and devious coercions trap us into his plans, not God’s. No matter how well meaning Peter was attempting to be, he was acting as a stumbling block, unknowingly thwarting God’s plan of salvation.

Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy (adversary) the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. (1 Peter 5:8 NIV)

Now the serpent (devil) was more crafty than any beast of the field. (Genesis 3:1 NASB)

The serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world. (Revelation 12:9 NASB)

As believers in Christ and children of God, we have been given the task to fully discern our choice of actions before we commit them, the intention being, will our actions help or hinder the promotion of God’s kingdom and His glory?

If we really just step back and analyze our situations, we can likely see that we spend a lot of unproductive time trying to use any method to solve our own problems and improve our situations. Granted, there are times when this tactic has been tried and been successful in past situations. However, we may try the same remedy in a situation where we are sailing in uncharted waters or one that seems similar to others in the past, but may not be exactly the same condition. A good example would be the symptoms of the common cold. We go to the pharmacy and stock up on our tried and true over-the-counter remedies. We may or may not have success with those so we try others, possibly with the same results and all the while we may be getting more ill in the process. Finally we give in and go to the doctor, who prescribes some medication that more often than not get us back on the right track. Lesson: go to the physician to get healed. He/she usually has knowledge of what kinds of “bugs” are floating around the population because they have seen many others with exactly the same symptoms.

Doesn’t this apply to our spiritual well being as well? My vote is yes. Go to the Great Physician who promises to faithfully heal us from our spiritual ills, with the condition that we follow His instructions and are His prescribed remedies.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:13)

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)

Jesus has given us many, many teachings to apply to our lives in Him, to keep sin from taking too much of a hold and allowing us to fall under Satan’s power and his plans, rather than God’s teachings. But we read in Matthew chapter 16 one of Jesus’s most powerfully motivating instructions for staying on His path on a regular, daily basis:

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whosoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his own works. (Matthew 16:24-27)

If we look at this passage carefully, we can easily pick out some key points:

• Do we desire to come after Jesus? If you are a Christian, the answer is yes. If you are not a believer, it is vitally important that you make up your mind and heart to the affirmative on this point.
• Do we normally as humans want to deny ourselves? If we will answer truthfully, the answer is no. It is our human nature not to deny ourselves anything we want. Can it be done? Yes. Will we need help doing this? Yes. Where can we get help? Go to the source of all power — Jesus Christ.
• Do we desire to gain the whole world or at least as much control over our own world as we can? Yes. Do we want to lose our own soul, eternally, to hell and perdition, in the process? Believers — absolutely not! Non-believers: Again, you need to get real clear on how you stand on this vital point which affects your eternal destiny.
• What would we exchange for our own soul? The obvious answer to this should be absolutely nothing, under any circumstances.

In the above discussion, I did not list a vital key point in making this prescription for our spiritual health successful:

• In Matthew 16:24, Jesus says, “Let him (us) deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.”
• In Luke 9:23, the passage reads, “Let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”
• In Luke 14:27, Jesus says, “And whosoever does not bear his cross and come after Me, cannot be my disciple.”

Notice that in the words “his cross,” “his” is not capitalized. What does this mean? Take up Jesus’s cross? No, Jesus has already born His cross once and for all for us at Calvary. He did not even need to bear a cross and die for His sins because He was without fault or blame and sinless. He took our sin upon Him once and for all time and with His shed blood paid the sacrificial price to clear our debt of sin before God and clothe us in His righteousness. Amen!

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

No, we are commanded in Matthew and Luke to take up our cross, our own cross. Does this mean we can die for our own sin? No. Only Jesus was totally pure and spotless to fulfill that requirement. The God and Creator of the universe and everything it it, including you and me, did that of His own free will for us. Where was Jesus going when He bore His cross? To Calvary, the place of His death. He was carrying the instrument of His death with Him and allowed Himself to have His body nailed to that rugged device of pain and torture. He is asking us to die to ourselves daily, denying ourselves of our inclination to exercise our own free will in defiance, often unwittingly as Peter did, of God’s will and plans. This is a daily prescription for our spiritual health, for the well-being of our own soul and for placing ourselves in God’s favor each and every day.

In asking us to take up our cross daily, Jesus does not ask the impossible or the unreasonable. By taking up His cross, He has already paid the ultimate sacrifice with His life. Also, after paying the price of our sin debt, He remains faithful to us to aid us in our daily quest to follow Him.

Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. (Matthew 11:28-30)

For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome. (1 John 5:3)

The Old Testament requirement of living up to the code of the Mosaic law was burdensome with its exhaustive list of laws and rules to be observed and the multitude of sacrificial offerings that had to be made on a daily basis. The law was given not only to atone the children of Israel from their sins, but to demonstrate that there was no way humanly possible that man could live up to God’s requirements to achieve a state of righteousness. Jesus did not come to destroy the law but to fulfill it.

He has cleared the path for us. If any man does not end up in a state of God’s eternal redemption, it is because he chose to, not because a list of laws, impossible to fully comply with, was set before him.

Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. (Matthew 5:17)

Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we became conscious of our sin. But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the law and the prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement through the shedding of His blood — to be received by faith. (Romans 3:20-25)

Deny yourself, take up your cross, put on His yoke and daily venture forth. Time is short and stands still for none of us. Our Lord has called us all unto Him and He has work for us to do.

And He said unto them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” (Mark 16:15 KJV)

And how shall they preach except they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! (Romans 10:15)

Holding fast,

Mark

And this is the promise that He has promised us – eternal life. (1 John 2:25)

^{Photography by Alex Wong}