The Paradigm of the Cross, Part 3 | Christ, His Cross, His Church

Luke 9:23

Matthew 16:13 and following. “Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that the Son of Man is?’ And they said, ‘Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Simon Peter replied, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’

“And Jesus answered him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven, and I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.’ Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ. “From that time, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, ‘Far be it from you, Lord, this shall never happen to you.’ He turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan, for you are a hindrance to me, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.’ Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.’”

 All right, first two concepts of this paradigm: Discipleship demands divine regeneration, and that joins us to a religious institution called the church. Third concept, number three, discipleship demands penal substitution. Discipleship, number three, discipleship demands penal substitution. In verse 20, he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one he was the Christ. His intent, here, is not to shroud the truth, but just to avoid the popular uprising, something driven by emotional zeal, those who wanted to make him king by force prematurely, again driven by a theology of glory that says, “What’s glorious to us is power. Overthrow the Romans. So let’s, let’s get you going in this.”

So he says, “Don’t, don’t tell anybody I’m the Christ. Not yet. Now’s not the time.” Jesus is following God’s agenda, not a human agenda, not a human timetable. He knows he’s heading for the cross. Verse 21: “From that time Jesus began to show his disciples he must go to Jerusalem, suffer many things from the elders, chief priests, scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”

Many of the time viewed Jesus’ dying on the cross as a tragic failure. It was an utter failure. They were blind, as they were to the Law’s demand for perfect righteousness, that there had to be a spotless sacrifice who would die for the sins of the people. They didn’t realize that. Even Peter, verse 22, he’s still functioning under the paradigm of a theology of glory. “Peter took him aside, began to rebuke him, saying, ‘Far be it from you, Lord, this shall never happen to you.’”

A judgment is at the heart of a very similar sentiment today. I hear it come up here and there. A few years ago, there was a celebrity who posted this blasphemy online, said “Jesus was a loser, a failed carpenter. He’s a Savior because he was crucified? I like people who weren’t crucified.” Why would he say that? You know, he’s actually not any distant from the opinion that Peter showed on this day. “Far be it from you, Lord. This shall never happen to you.” “I’m not following a crucified man.”

The blasphemy does shock us, doesn’t it, when it comes from a celebrity today posted online. When it comes from Peter, we’re like, “Ah, Peter, there he is, sticking his foot in his mouth again.” It’s more than that. Why would, why would he say that? Why would this guy say that? Because “the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.” That’s why Jesus turned to rebuke Peter sharply in verse 23: “Get behind me Satan. You’re a hindrance to me.” “You’re a hindrance. You’re not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man. Get your theology straight, Peter. Be God-centered in your theology, not man-centered.”

Peter made a wrong judgment because he’s operating under a false paradigm, one that affects and afflicts every single one of us. It’s the paradigm of a theology of glory. I mean, he had yet to learn the theology of the cross because the cross hadn’t happened yet. Okay, we’ll give him a break, there. Trueman writes this: “Divine power is revealed in the weakness of the cross, for it is in his apparent defeat at the hands of evil powers and corrupt earthly authorities that Jesus shows his divine power in the conquest of death and of all the powers of hell. So when a Christian talks about divine power, or even about church or Christian power, it is to be conceived in terms of the cross, power hidden in the form of weakness.”

He goes on to say this: “God’s wisdom is demonstrated in the foolishness of the cross. Who would have thought? Who would have thought of the foolish idea of God taking human flesh in order to die a horrendous death on behalf of sinners who had deliberately defied him? Or God making sinners pure by himself becoming sin for them? How does that make sense? Or God himself raising up people to a newness of life by himself submitting to death?”

Truly none of this, I’m not quoting Trueman now, but truly none of this is coming from the mind of men. None of that has come from the mind of men. Penal substitutionary atonement, the death of God’s only beloved Son, only begotten Son, incarnate in human flesh, suffering the wrath of God not for his own sins, but at the hand of God suffering for their sins? That’s not the wisdom of this age. It’s not the wisdom of the rulers of this age. These are “things which eye has not seen, ear has not heard, has not entered in the heart of man, namely, all that God has prepared for those who love him.”

So discipleship demands divine regeneration, religious institution, penal substitution. All of us enter through the cross into the church because we are born again. That is the paradigm. And here’s a fourth concept in the paradigm, number four, discipleship demands full submission. Discipleship demands full submission.

This is what the life of discipleship looks like, because we have been born again, because we are members of Christ’s church, because we have been forgiven. Matthew 16:24, “Jesus told his disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me,’” not “‘if anyone would come after me,’” but the verb there is, “‘if anyone wants to come after me,’” “wants,” present tense of the verb thelo, “wanting, wishing, desiring, habitually all the time.” This refers to someone who knows who Jesus is, that he’s the Christ, the Son of God, and he has an abiding, continual desire and longing to seek him and want him and follow after him. That’s what he’s talking about. This willingness is evidence of divine regeneration.

Further evidence becomes manifest over time, following Christ as his disciple. And it’s in the manner that he commands, not in any old way that people want to interpret him and say, “Well, I kind of live my Christianity this way. I kind of live my Christianity in that way. I like to go fishing because God’s on the lake, you know, so I like to experience God in the great outdoors, in the wilderness, hunting. I get a lot of God out there. It’s a lot of worship time.”

Here’s, here’s what Jesus says. Here’s how discipleship looks. It’s not pleasuring yourself through whatever activity you, that you like to do. Self-denial, cross-bearing, lifelong obedience: that’s Christianity. That’s Christian discipleship: self-denial, cross-bearing, lifelong obedience. The verbs, “Let him deny himself, take up his cross, follow me,” all imperatives, all commands. These are the demands of discipleship. “So if anyone wants to come after me, he must,” he has to, there is no way around it, he has to “deny himself, take up his cross.” “He has to do that and he has to follow me.”

So discipleship demands, I can’t see any way around it, full submission to Christ, and it looks like this: permanent lifestyle of self-denying, permanent lifestyle of cross-bearing, permanent lifestyle of Christ-following. That’s the pattern. That’s the paradigm. That’s the final element in the paradigm of discipleship. It’s a life reconciled to God because it’s grounded in the penal substitutionary atonement of Christ. It’s a life lived in the context of the local church, the religious institution Christ bought and paid for. It’s a life that started with divine regeneration. And so all this self-denying, cross-bearing, Christ-following is not of man’s own doing. It is by the power of God so that no one can boast.

First, Christian discipleship is a life of self-denying. This is about the nature of discipleship: self-denial. The verb can mean “to create a distance.” And in this case, it’s about putting distance between oneself and one’s self. It’s basically blowing yourself in half. The verb can also mean “to refuse to pay attention to,” or “to disregard” or “to renounce one’s own interests.” That’s the idea here. So basically, to deny yourself means to live a life of saying “no” to yourself. Your self looks at yourself and says, “No.” That’s what Jesus is calling his disciples to do. That’s how he wants us to live. As a basic, fundamental, defining aspect of living our lives, Jesus wants us to walk day by day saying “no” to self.

Now why would anyone want to do that? “To treat the self as a negligible quality, that should never enter into consideration,” in the words of one lexicographer. To the ears of our modern, secular age, of our postmodern times, where everything is about the subjectivity of the self and “my truth” and “your truth” and “his truth” and “her truth” and “she truth” and all those things, to the ears of our modern age, to suppress oneself is rank heresy, Exhibit A in all that’s wrong with religion. Stifling. Self-denying: that’s terrible.

In fact, many today see the denial of the self as actually, as actually harmful. In fact, there are some people who are telling their children, who are confused because of all this gender stuff going on, and they tell parents who say, “You, no, you’re fine, you are a boy, you were born a boy, you’re still a boy. You were born a girl, you’re still a girl,” and people come in from the outside in the school systems and say, “That’s child abuse. Take those children away.”

But a lifelong practice of self-denial is the most basic, most fundamental pre-commitment of the Christian life. It is the defining mark of discipleship. Self-denial means we crucify all self-centeredness, mortify the flesh. We set aside every supposed claim to self-promotion, every self-perceived right. It’s the starvation of the flesh. It is the end of you, in order that God might have his way with you. You want that? Because if you do want that, could be evidence of regeneration, could be evidence you’re truly born again, that you’re truly a part of his church, that truly the penal substitutionary of Christ has covered all your sins. This is good news for you.

If you don’t want that, if there’s something in your spirit that says, “I, I think that’s too far. I think, I think, preacher, you got a little carried away with yourself. You’ve gone from preaching directly into meddling.” If that’s rising up within your heart, you need to check yourself and realize that that is a demonic impulse that’s coming from the enemy himself, the one who wants to mangle your soul. Don’t trust him, don’t listen to him, don’t believe that.

Second, Christian discipleship is a life of cross-bearing, cross-bearing. This is about the extent of discipleship. “Okay, so I’m going to deny myself, but to what extent? I mean, how far does this really go?” It’s to the point of death, even if it means death by crucifixion on a cross. The verb here refers to cross-bearing, refers to picking something up, here the very implement that results in your death, in this case the patibulum, the cross-beam of the cross. It’s not just to pick it up, but it’s to lift it on your shoulders and then to carry it from one place to another, to take it from where you are now today. And Luke 9:23 adds this very important word “daily,” so daily keep carrying this patibulum to your place of execution.

Again, this is, this is about the extent to which you must die to self. One commentator put it this way. He says, “Let the disciples take up the position of the man who is already condemned to death. Hence the saying refers not so much to literal martyrdom as to the attitude of self-denial which regards its life in this world as already over, already finished. I am dead, buried in Christ. I’m done. It’s not, it’s the end of me, it’s the end of self. It’s the attitude of dying to self and sin, which Paul demands.” End quote.

So what is your individual cross that you’re to take up daily? What does it mean to take up this cross and carry it daily? The cross you bear is not your difficult marriage. That may be the context in which you bear your cross, but it’s not the cross itself. The cross you bear is not your weight problem. It’s not your unreasonable boss. It’s not your disability. It’s not your bad golf game. It’s, again, perhaps the context of cross-bearing, but not the cross-bearing Jesus speaks of here.

Here’s what he’s saying. As you pursue the will of God every day, you entrust yourself to the good providence of God. You walk according to the will of God, and that may and will promise to you, it will result in the hatred of the world. When you do what God says, when you do his will, when you walk in righteousness and all that’s good and holy and right and pure, you know what it’s going to get you? Not commendation, but condemnation because the world hates God. So if you do that, they’re going to hate you, too. But on you go, walking daily toward that which results in what you know to be further rejection, further condemnation, and in extreme cases may even result in your death. More likely, and perhaps more difficult, it’s going to result in a long, slow death, a death to self.

So, eager to carry your cross daily, to embrace the rejection and condemnation, you recognize that God is actually using these things to further crucify the self, and so you rejoice. The long, slow, daily march following Jesus Christ to the place of execution means a long, slow death, a happy death of the death of the self. It’s the end of you, and you’re happy about it.

Listen, if that is in your heart, now, if that burns with desire and joy and, and rejoicing, listen, that is not your work. That is God who’s done that in you. He’s put that in you by the new nature to want that. Again, if anything is rising in your heart to oppose it, be on your guard. Check that.

Self-denying, cross-bearing. Finally, third, Christian discipleship is a life of Christ-following. The first referred to the nature of Christian discipleship. The second was about the extent. Here’s, this is about the purpose of Christian discipleship. You can’t follow Christ wherever he leads if the self is prominent and constantly getting in the way, if your self is always offended at everybody, if you can’t, if you got such thin skin and you can’t handle stuff, if you’re just so sensitive that everything stresses you out and you’re filled with anxiety.

You know what? You need to die to self. Christ-following, following Christ wherever he leads means you get out of the way. Jesus said, “I came that they may have life and have it,” what, “abundantly.” What is abundant life? It’s to live in obedience to Christ’s commands and follow his example and live as he lived. And you know where that took him? Death on the cross. But it’s to be free from the cruel tyranny of the devil. It’s free from the fear of death. It’s free from every anxiety, walking in a new way of life in the freedom and the fullness of the Father’s love for us and our love for the Father.

And you’ve got to ask: Christ went to the cross. He went to his own death. And did he go there begrudgingly? Did he whine and complain? He was happy! Was there ever a happier, more joyful, more contented, more fulfilled being than Jesus Christ? No. And if not, then perhaps we ought to take a page out of his playbook, live as he lived, walk as he walked, pursue daily obedience to his commands, which are commands based on the Fathers’ will. It’s not to gain the Fathers’ approval, by the way. It’s because we already have the Father’s approval through Jesus’ perfection.

Denying the self, taking up our cross daily, following Jesus Christ as Lord: To those who follow a theology of glory that does not sound like their best life now at all. But to those who are truly born again, to those who love, serve, and submit to sound, faithful local churches, to those whose hearts are full of joy and gratitude because they cannot get over the fact that Christ died for them, man, you can spot them every time. They live a life of self-denial, cross-bearing, following and obeying Christ because that is living their best life now and forever. Living that way, these are the true practitioners of the cross of Jesus Christ, and they have embraced not a theology of glory. They’ve left that behind. They’ve embraced the theology of the cross. Let’s pray.

Our Father, we are so grateful for the glorious revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ, how he came in human flesh, and though you, being invisible, are unable to be seen by the eyes of human beings, he himself is seen in his fleshly existence, in his incarnation. And yet, the more we look at him, the more we gaze, the more we see something so glorious, something so majestic, something so holy, set apart. There is only one like him.

And Father, because of your work of regeneration, causing our eyes to be opened, O, Father, we want him. We want Christ. Because of his work on the cross, O, Father, we want forgiveness more than anything, that we can be reconciled to you and have nothing plaguing our conscience any longer. We’re willing to do whatever it takes to get it. In fact, we are so willing to have your atonement, atonement and his atoning work covering us and his righteousness covering us like a garment.

O, we would leave self behind. That’s the last consideration. We rejoice to be members of a church. We rejoice to follow him as Lord, denying self, taking our cross daily, and following him. We, we rejoice to see the wisdom in your commands that you give us. We rejoice to see the goodness in everything that you command, because your commands are not burdensome. They are filled with glory and joy and peace. We thank you, Father, for your goodness to us in Christ, and it’s in his name we pray. Amen.