"Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me."Matthew records Jesus saying something like this twice, and Mark once.
So what is Jesus asking of us? Should all Christ followers be crucified?
Or is this another image of what it means to make Jesus Lord? Deny oneself - allow God's will to be done instead of our will. The type of cross or sacrifice will likely be different, but it will be something that fits into God's grander plans that we don't see clearly.
And then we see Jesus model this attitude for us before he takes up His cross.
Luke 22:42
"Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done."And Paul explains this further in Romans 6. When we are baptized with Christ, we are united with Christ in His death and resurrection. We go with our sins to the cross with Christ. Our selfish ways die, and we find new life with Christ.
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Once we get a grasp on the Gospel of the Kingdom, we discover that Paul and Jesus were not at odds with one another as it may sometimes seem (I know that I have wrestled with seeming contradictions between the things that Jesus said and the things that Paul and others said).
Paul unpacks (especially for the Gentile believers) the things that Messiah both said and did.
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