Seed for Sept 9

Jesus said, “If any man would be my follower he must take up his cross and follow me.” Does that mean that we are to wear some sort of cross around our neck like many suppose? Does it mean we should be dragging a cross, with a wheel on the back, across the Nation? Of course this is silly, but what did Jesus really mean?

The following verse gives us clue to His meaning: “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.”
So taking up our cross has to do with our dying. So now let’s see what Jesus was really saying. If you want to be my follower, you must take up your cross (instrument of death) and follow me, to death burial and resurrection. That is the key to this verse. We are to follow Jesus to death, burial and resurrection, that we might have new life, resurrection life. On the other side of the cross everything of the “old creation” dies and all that remains in a new Creature in Christ. Unless we lose our lives, unless we die, we cannot be His follower. If we want to continue to live as the “old man, from the old creation” we cannot be His follower. Whoever loses his life for Christ finds it. Be blessed.

Billy and Jan Wells