Today we continue our exposition in the Word of the Lord, and we come to the fourth of a series of messages. Clearly, if you have missed some of the first three messages, or missed all of the first three messages, you will have a slight disadvantage. But let me somewhat sum up the matter for you.
In our first message, we looked at the Lord's teaching concerning John the Baptist in Matthew 11, in which He said that the least in the kingdom of God is greater than John the Baptist. In the second message, we were examining why it is that today we do not find this spiritual greatness in the churches. When we look around in the churches, we see mostly spiritual mediocrity. Nothing of the glory of God, or very little of it, to be seen. We see only defeat, spiritual failure. And we saw that the problem was that self, the self-centered principle in men, had not been dealt with even among Christians. Most Christians are just about as selfish as any non-Christians, and perhaps even more selfish than many non-Christians. And so long as this self has not been dealt with, this power of God will never be our portion. It will be something that we'll hear about, but never experience.
Now last week, in the third of these messages, we looked at the Lord's teaching one step deeper, when He came up with these stunning and rather difficult-to-swallow words, in which He said, "He who does not hate father, mother, husband, wife, children—whoever they may be—cannot be my disciple." And we looked at the meaning of the word "hate" in this context. And we saw how difficult it is to hate what we love. It is easy to hate what we hate, but difficult to hate what we love. And since we love our parents, since we love our families, our children, since we love ourselves, to hate what we love is almost beyond conception. And yet, we discovered that this is exactly what Abraham did in offering up Isaac, his only son, to God. That he was able, sacrificially, to hate what he loved when called upon to do so by God. He offered up Isaac, irreversibly, unconditionally, to God, as he drew his blade, his knife out, to slay his son. And the word "slay" means literally to cut the throat of a sacrificial animal. He lifted his blade up to slash across the throat of his only son, his beloved son.
And at that point, of course, you know that the angel of the Lord intervened and stopped him there. From henceforth, Isaac was not to be a physical sacrifice, but truly a spiritual sacrifice to God. From that point on, never again did Abraham regard Isaac as his personal possession. He had offered him to God already in his heart, because the intention precedes the action. God allowed him to go so far to confirm the depth and the fullness of his sacrifice. He had in his heart already given up Isaac. Hence, the cutting of his throat sacrificially would have only been a ceremonial move. The decision had already been made. From henceforth, Isaac was a spiritual sacrifice, whether or not he was a physical sacrifice. In this I need to say that unless you are a spiritual sacrifice, you would never be willing to be anything like a literal sacrifice. Spiritual sacrifice precedes any other form of sacrifice in the spiritual life.
And today we come, as we continue to examine the roots of spiritual power, how God's purpose may be fulfilled in us, that each one of His people become greater than John the Baptist. We come to the third aspect: the meaning of the cross in our lives, the cross in the life of the disciples. For this passage, we read now in Luke chapter 9, verses 23 to 25. Luke 9:23-25. And if only we can take the Lord's word and apply it into our lives, so we shall find that truly He can make us to be greater than John the Baptist.
Luke chapter 9, verses 23 to 25: "And Jesus said to all"—please notice that the words are not addressed merely to some disciples. It is addressed to everybody. And that means you, and it means me. "And Jesus said to all, 'If any man would come after me'"—again, any man would come after me—"let him deny himself and take up his cross daily." Please notice the word "daily." "And follow me." This is not a one-time action, not a once-for-all action. It is a daily, continuing process. "And take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake, he will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?'"
The cross. Unless you take up your cross every day—who said that salvation was a once-for-all thing? All you have to do is take up the cross once and then maybe you can drop it by the wayside and carry on without the load of the cross and you are still going to be His disciple? No, no, no. Unless you take up your cross daily and follow me, you cannot be my disciple. "If anyone would come after me," that's the way it's going to be.
Now why does He make this requirement? We want to speak about the cross and power. The power to save. The power to communicate life. What is salvation about? Just so that we can save ourselves? Not so in the Bible. And this is the point that I would like to show you today. That in the attempt to save yourself, you will lose everything. "He who would save his life will lose it. But he who will lose his life for my sake and the gospel, he will save it." Yet are you not trying to do that very thing? You are trying to save your life. You are trying to save your soul. The word "soul" translates the Greek word which simply means "life." In the very attempt to save your soul or your life, you will lose it. Yet many Christians don't understand this thing. So Christians become as selfish as anybody else.
We shall deal with this under the classical Western system of three points. And so the first point I would like to talk to you about is concerning the cross and power—the power to get God's work done. Let me start by reading a passage with you from 2 Kings. This passage I find to be quite a curious one. And what does this incident mean concerning Elisha? 2 Kings, chapter 13. Reading from verse 20. We will read verses 20 and 21. A very unusual incident is here recorded. And what is the meaning of this incident?
2 Kings, chapter 13, verses 20 and 21: "So Elisha"—that great prophet of God, that mighty man of God—"Elisha died and they buried him. Now bands of Moabites"—Moab, as you know, is on the east side of Israel. It's a neighboring tribe, mostly of nomadic type. Nomads are people who look after sheep and travel around with them. "Now bands of Moabites used to invade the land in the spring of the year. And as a man was being buried, lo, a marauding band was seen and the man was cast into the grave of Elisha. And as soon as the man touched the bones of Elisha, he revived and stood on his feet."
This is a very interesting incident here. Many times I've been trying to picture this incident in my mind. Now you need to know something about burial systems in Israel, otherwise you have great difficulty understanding this passage. Because if Elisha was buried and had already died for some time, since only his bones are here mentioned, how come his grave was still open and somebody got thrown into his grave, you see, by mistake or rather in the rush of the moment. Now, those in the first team who have been to Israel will find the situation much easier to understand, because burial took place in caves. Not like here, you dig a hole in the ground. You bury in caves, usually in the rocks. And what happens is that you have niches inside the caves. When you go in, there is a chamber and then another chamber inside, and some have many chambers going on and on. We even visited one that goes around in a circle. And along the side, on the rock walls, you have niches where these people were buried. Their bones were placed into these niches. Or sometimes you have a whole shelf and the person was laid on the shelf there.
Now clearly, these people were burying this man—and whoever this man was is not mentioned, since he appears to have been of no particular significance himself—he was being brought into this cave, the burial cave, and the people were carrying him in, and then there was news of Moabites coming. And so, while they were proceeding perhaps to an inner chamber to put this man in his own proper shelf, they realized if they go much further in they won't have time to get out before the Moabites come. So they found whatever shelf was nearest, long since forgotten that was Elisha's shelf, and stuffed him in there in order to make a quick exit. But what it says here is, when this man touched the bones of Elisha, he revived and stood on his feet.
Now I don't know what was the greatest shock for these people, whether it was the Moabites outside or this man suddenly risen from the dead. These poor people were terrified from within and without. Certainly to see a man resurrected was probably more frightening than the Moabites outside. So you don't know whether to go back or to go out, caught in between the two situations.
But why does the Bible record this thing? What's the point of all this? Why do we have to know this? Of course the whole point is to tell us something about Elisha. This whole section has to do with Elisha. And to tell us this amazing fact, that this mighty man of God, Elisha, who through his whole life had been a ministry of the word of God with such power that life was being channeled through him to others all the time—this is what being saved is about. It is to become a channel of salvation to others. And all through his life, that is what Elisha was. He channeled God's life to other people, in fact physical and spiritual. But now this great servant of God had died and he had been buried and more or less forgotten over there. But God vindicated His servant again, that even in death He was able to communicate life. Isn't that remarkable? Even in death He communicated life. There is where the Lord wants to bring this point to us: that every true servant of God is meant to be a channel of life. And this is so vividly illustrated by the fact that God continued to work with power through His servant even after His death.
Of course these things still happen in another way. Often when you read a book that is very helpful to you spiritually, the person who wrote that book may have been long dead and gone. Yet though he is dead he is still speaking to you through the printed page, which is no more alive than the bones of a dead man when you speak physically. Yet that dead page in front of you, physically dead, is bringing spiritual life to you. So that person who had died long ago, his ministry continues to bring blessing. So it is with every true servant of God. Whether in life or in death, Paul says, we continue to serve Him. We continue to glorify Him.
Now there is another thing to notice. We have just noticed that Elisha, this mighty man of God, was a channel of life. And certainly he was not greater than John the Baptist according to the words of the Lord Jesus. But so great is the power of the Lord to communicate life. So let's compare it for a moment with Elisha that we have just talked about.
In 2 Kings chapter 4, some chapters before this—2 Kings chapter 4, verses 32 to 37—we read about the Shunammite woman's son. And in that section we read that Elisha came to the Shunammite woman's son who had died and raised him from the dead. Now that incident you can read for yourself. It will take too much time to read through the whole incident. But perhaps when you go home you can read this. What happened? How did Elisha raise the dead, this dead boy? Very interesting. He stretched himself out upon the dead boy, completely stretching himself upon this dead boy until this boy came back to life. With this physical contact, giving himself totally, covering this boy completely, until the boy came to life.
Now the Lord Jesus Himself—just to show you how much greater is the power of the Lord Jesus—three times in the gospels it is mentioned that He raised the dead on three different occasions. If Elisha had to stretch himself out upon the dead, in fact the Lord Jesus didn't even have to touch the person. One word of command, the dead rises. The first instance, of course, is in Luke chapter 7 verse 14, which we don't need to read now. Luke 7:14 has to do with the widow's son, the widow of Nain. And when the first team we were traveling in Galilee—Nain is in Galilee, of course—we visited Nain. And I think this passage will have special significance as you can still see the little hill in the Galilean countryside where Nain was situated. And you remember that the Lord Jesus walked into Nain and the funeral procession was going by. The mother was brokenhearted because that was her only son, which meant also not only she had lost her dearest and best, but she would from henceforth have no more livelihood. There was no social welfare service in Israel, you know. When your dear ones die, you are condemned to hunger and to destitution, perhaps even begging on the streets. But the Lord Jesus saw the funeral procession and He stopped it and He told the young man to rise, and the dead rose.
On the second occasion, only in the next chapter, Luke chapter 8 verse 54, it refers to Jairus' daughter. And again Jairus' daughter was raised. In this case He did hold her hand and commanded her to rise, but of course, as shown in the previous case, He didn't really have to touch her at all. He raised her from the dead too.
The third occasion is very well known, of course, in John chapter 11, when the Lord Jesus raised Lazarus, again with simply a word of command, without any physical contact. Here we see the power of the Lord—greater than John the Baptist. And then you remember how we saw that the Lord Jesus said, "Greater works shall ye do when I go to the Father, because I will work through you." And we see that exactly in Acts chapter 5 verse 15. In this case there is not even a word being said. Not only no physical contact—there is not even a word being said. Let me read to you Acts chapter 5 verse 15—a power to communicate life and healing.
Acts 5:15: "So they even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and pallets, that as Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on some of them." Verse 16: "The people also gathered from towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all healed." Peter's shadow just passed over them. They just wanted his shadow—never mind, he never said a word, he didn't touch them, he didn't say a word. His shadow passed over them. They just liked to have his shadow. The power of God bringing life and healing through His servant, just through the shadow. That is the greatness of God working through His servant.
And then the same is true of the apostle Paul. Acts chapter 19 verse 12. We read that there too. Acts chapter 19 verse 12. We start from verse 11: "And God did extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that handkerchiefs or aprons were carried away from his body to the sick, and diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them." Just a piece of handkerchief, just a piece of cloth from Paul's body somewhere that had been in contact with him, touched the sick or somebody possessed with an evil spirit, and instantly they are healed.
You see the power of the Lord Jesus. Now Peter has no power. Paul has no power. You remember Peter, when he healed the crippled man, the people were all amazed. He said, "What are you looking at us for? We have no power of ourselves. We didn't heal the man. It is God who healed him through us." Paul has no power. It is simply God's power working through him. It is the power of the Lord Jesus. "Greater works shall ye do" in the ministry of the Lord Jesus—not even that happened in His ministry, but now we see it happening through Peter and through Paul.
Where is the secret of this power? There is, from the Lord Jesus to the apostle Peter to the apostle Paul, there seems to be an increase of power—greater works. But since that time it has all been downhill. Down and down and down, until we hit rock bottom and right past the bottom. We are in a bad way. What happened? This is the reason for these series of messages.
The cross is the whole secret. Paul has this power why? Because he says, "God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." He doesn't glory in anything else. He doesn't boast in his degrees, in his knowledge, in his eloquence, in his skill, in his long record of success. He's not interested in any of this. "I glory in one thing," Paul says, "the cross, the cross of Christ." Now there's the difference. That's why he has power. That's why the church has no power.
Now let's look at this situation. Let us remember this: God wants us to be a channel of His life and of His power—not so that we can feel good, not so that we can feel that we are something, but so that we can become nothing but a channel of life and power, saving power of God to others. Unless you're willing to become nothing but that channel, you'll never be anything more than nothing spiritually.
Now this is the point. The second point that I would like to touch on very quickly is this. You have heard the word "power" being used again and again, and the word "saving" and "salvation" and "life," and you say, "It seems to me"—and I have touched on this a moment ago—"it seems to me that Christians are motivated by much the same selfishness as the non-Christian. I mean, you want to be saved because you want to get to heaven. Well, the non-Christian wants his heaven on earth, and you want your heaven in heaven because your heaven in heaven is more permanent than the heaven on earth. But whatever the case may be, are you not motivated by the same desire for heaven, whether it be on earth or in heaven? You are motivated by the same desire to get yourself saved, motivated by the same selfishness, is it not?"
Now up to a point there is truth in this contention. I look around and I see many Christians who are really motivated by nothing much more than selfishness. They don't care about anybody else. They only want to get themselves saved. "So long as I can get to heaven, I don't really care about you lot. But if you lot getting saved may help me somewhat to get to heaven, well, I don't mind that either." So where is the difference? Is it not equally selfish? Are we not motivated by the same thing?
On the other hand, shall we say that it is better to have no desires? Is it somehow more desirable to desire nirvana, non-existence, a place of no desires? Is that somehow more spiritual? So we need to have some desires, hopefully good desires. But it seems that all good desires carry with them a certain degree of selfishness, because if you desire something good, you desire it for yourself precisely because it's good, you want to have it, and therefore because you want to have it, is that not motivated by some kind of selfishness?
Now there is truth in this. There is no doubt there is truth. When you look back and ask yourself, why did you want to be saved in the first place? Surely it was motivated by a desire to have eternal life. You don't want to perish. You want eternal life. And is not this very desire for this good thing, eternal life, motivated by a desire for the self to preserve yourself, and therefore is that not selfishness? One has to say there is truth in that. There is truth. We were motivated by a certain degree of selfishness when we first became Christians. I think it is hard to deny this.
But this is the point. If we stay at that level, in the very attempt to save our souls we will lose it. That's where the cross and self come in. The more I contemplate the wisdom of God, the more I am amazed. You see, what God does is this. Remember our passage in Luke chapter 9. What did it say? "He that would save his life will lose it. He that will lose his life for my sake and the gospel will save it." You see, the amazing thing about the cross is this: God takes your very selfishness and uses that selfishness to destroy the selfish self. I wonder if you followed that sentence. Not as complicated as it sounds. This is the thing: God takes the very selfishness in you and uses that selfishness to destroy yourself, the selfish self. It's really amazing. Why? Because you want to be saved. But the Lord says, if you want to be saved, you will lose your life. Therefore only in the way of losing your life will you be saved. So you discover that in your very desire to save yourself, you've got to lose yourself in order to be saved.
Oh, the wisdom of God is unbelievable. It is incredible. More and more, as you study the teaching of the Lord Jesus, you begin to see, as Paul says in Romans chapter 11 verse 33, "Oh, the depth of the wisdom of God." He knows that we are selfish. He knows that we will come to salvation only because we are motivated by the selfish desire to be saved. Sure. Where did you go to a gospel meeting for? Because you wanted to go there and give yourself at the gospel meeting? Because you brought all your money to give to preaching the gospel? Of course not. You went to the gospel meeting because you wanted to see if you could get something for yourself. Your motive was purely selfish. You wanted to get something for yourself—get eternal life. Or maybe the motive was not even as high as getting eternal life. Maybe it was to get a husband or a wife or a boyfriend or girlfriend. Was not even as exalted as getting eternal life. You went there out of a selfish motive.
But as you sat there listening to the gospel, hoping that you finish sooner so you can talk to the girl or the boy you wanted—and you, "So long-winded man, when can I—let's get to the refreshments," you see—so you went there really because your mind was not on the gospel. Your mind was on this boy or this girl or whatever other reasons brought you there. But week after week the gospel began to hit you. And gradually you began to forget more and more what was the original reason you came. And the gospel began to grip you. The word of God began to grip you. And this has happened again and again. And eventually you came with a selfish reason, true, but God got hold of you, didn't He? You see, God uses the selfish self and uses that very selfishness to destroy self, to bring in a new kind of person.
Now that's a long process. I don't mean it all happens in five minutes. It's a long, long process. But eventually God gets through. And gradually you see the selfishness is disappearing. Gradually you see that person who started out so selfish learning to give himself more and more. And it is in the very process of giving that God's life comes to you.
So this is the second point I just want to touch on very briefly. We start with selfish reasons, and I don't think any honest Christian would deny this. But God in His wisdom uses the cross, and through that very process, using your selfishness, destroys the self and brings forth a new Christ-like person.
I was an utterly unbelievably selfish person. But I'll be honest with you—I was absolutely selfish. I mean, all the days when I shared with you my military ambitions—sure, I was thinking about the glory of China, but in the glory of China I was thinking a great share of my own glory was to be in it. There would be me there with my armies, me with my glory. And as China was raised to glory, so would I, because after all, I would be the key person in this matter of glorification in those selfish dreams of mine. And when I came to the gospel, was it not for selfish reasons? Certainly, certainly it was selfish. I was seeking some kind of direction and meaning in life that was more enduring than these transient dreams. I was seeking something for myself that was eternal and lasting.
But God used the selfishness. And now I can hardly believe it when I search into my heart. I have to say honestly the Lord has so changed me that I can't believe what He has done in me—that I can genuinely love other people with something beyond my dreams, something that I didn't even want in those times. Who wants to have the desire to live for other people? Forget the other people, it's me. And yet God over the years changes you so that you really care for other people, you really love other people, you are really willing to lay down your life, pour out yourself for them. And you don't even know why this change came about, because God in His wisdom through the cross has done this amazing thing in my life. And He will do it in your lives too, because only so we come to the path of power, which is the first point.
Let's come to the third and last point quickly. And I'm hoping—I'm trying to keep my message very simple, because some people said, "Wow, last week's message is so full of exegesis, so complicated, so this is for highly trained people, not for the likes of us, we can't understand this kind of message, it's too difficult to cope with." So I'm trying to make it simple.
And so the third point is this. The first point we have seen is the cross and power. The second is the cross and self. The third is the cross and saviorhood. What do I mean by this? The Lord Jesus says you must take up your cross every day if you are going to be my disciples, and then He immediately goes on to say that that means losing your life, because in the process of losing your life you will gain it. But if you try not to lose it, that's exactly when you will lose it.
Now here I would just like to focus the whole question by using another question: the door.
# The Meaning of the Cross in the Life of the Disciples (Part 2)
Think about it for a moment. If Christ died on the cross for my sins and your sins, if Christ through the cross completed His atoning work for all of us—which indeed He did, and we thank God for it—Jesus died upon the cross in order that you and I may have eternal life, that we may be saved. But that raises the question: since He died and His atonement is perfect, then why do I need to carry the cross? Why do you need to carry the cross? You can say He carried it already. So what's the need of Him carrying the cross and I carrying the cross? What's the point of us both doing this? I mean, it's enough that He carried the cross. You say, "Thank You, Lord Jesus. Well, it's so kind of You. I really am touched by Your love for me. And there You are, You've carried the cross. I am really touched. I just thank You for it."
And so good that we stopped the gospel there, as most preachers do. That's the end of it. That's the whole gospel. Finished. What is the whole gospel? Jesus died for our sins. Hallelujah. And indeed we can join with a hearty hallelujah in this. But our problem begins. If He bore the cross, what am I having to bear the cross for? Did Jesus somehow forget that He was going to bear the cross, and that somehow He needed some company in this business? Why does He ask us to follow after Him, and He is carrying the cross in front, and He asks us to carry the cross behind? Well, is His cross not enough? Surely His salvation, His cross, His atonement is enough. It says that it is a full atonement. The Scripture tells us that His salvation was enough.
What do we need to carry a cross for? Why this requirement? Why didn't the Lord Jesus say, "Okay, I have carried the cross. I have done it all. So from now on, you people just enjoy yourselves. I have taken all the suffering. There is nothing left for you to do. You just go to church, clap your hands, sing hallelujah, dance to the music." And what was that song? And then we all dance around. We have a good time. Because Jesus took the cross. That's the end of the work of salvation for us.
Now that sounds like the gospel we are very used to hearing. I mean, isn't that what every preacher is telling us? Every evangelist is telling us? So there are two crosses. One is His cross. One is my cross. Or rather many crosses. One is His cross, and one is the cross that each one of us has to bear. And bear it daily, it says here. Every day. So every day you get up and you have to lug this thing onto your shoulders and on you go towards Calvary.
Towards Calvary? Well, He's already been there. He's already done it all. What do you have to go to Calvary for? Well, I thought if you're following Him, presumably you go to where He goes. That's where He went. Where else are we going to go? If He went to Calvary, are we going for a picnic somewhere else? Calvary! To size you up, put you in shape again, you think? Otherwise you get flabby around the middle, you get weak. Every day you've got spiritual exercise to drag this cross along. Is that the reason why He wants us to bear the cross? Because we need some exercise? Maybe spiritual exercise?
What do we need the cross for? Well, this is precisely why, not understanding this thing, the church becomes powerless. We think that Christ died for me, I have nothing left to do, except to sing hallelujahs. And if that's not good enough, maybe I try singing it in tongues as well.
You know, I speak to this thing because there are many Christians who desire spiritual gifts for the same utterly selfish motives. A selfishness enough to make one sick. They want this experience and that experience simply to make themselves feel better. "I am a superior type of Christian. Have you spoken in tongues, huh? Ha ha, but I have. You see, you poor fellow are just a lower-class Christian. I am higher class. I speak in tongues. Oh, you spoke only once? Poor boy. I speak every day. Hmm, you heard tongues? Ha ha." I heard a pastor once get in the pulpit and demonstrate tongues in the pulpit. He said that, you see, speaking in tongues is very easy. So he started off talking in tongues. Well, I think that one I can manage too, if I have to give it a try. With a little bit of imagination, we can do that too. The question is, what are you proving? What are you proving to me? You're just proving that you're a superior Christian, or what are you proving?
And so there are people looking for the gifts so that they come out with a feeling, "Oh, I feel good." Now, don't get me wrong. I have nothing against tongues when it is rightly used. When it is used in such a way that it is a means of deepening our communion with the Lord, because that's the only thing it does. Rightly used, it has to do with a deepening communion with the Lord. But if we seek tongues merely for selfish gratification, that is utterly sickening. That's not the purpose of tongues. And one should not, at that stage of being a Christian, continue in that direction, because that's going entirely down the wrong road. The cross is there to destroy this kind of selfishness. And any Christian who has been a Christian for years and still betrays this kind of selfishness doesn't know what Christianity is about.
So we are back to the same question. Why did the Lord Jesus want us to carry the cross? Well, to understand this question, we have to understand the meaning of the cross. The cross has to do with sacrifice. Understand this word "sacrifice." Let me read to you Hebrews chapter 9, verses 14 and 26. Hebrews 9, verses 14 and 26. Verse 14: "How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" And then verse 26: "For then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the age to put away sins by the sacrifice of himself." So the previous verse speaks of blood. This one speaks about the sacrifice of Himself upon the cross. The cross is sacrifice.
Now 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verse 31. Paul applies this kind of sacrifice to himself. 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 31. It reads like this: "I protest, brethren, by my pride in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die every day." Take up your cross daily. Paul was able to say, "I die every day." And then he goes on to say, because what he's doing here is he's saying, "I've risked my life every single day." I die spiritually. I am also in danger physically. As he goes on to say, he fought with lions at Ephesus and so forth. His life is in constant threat, in constant danger, in the ministry to which the Lord had committed him.
So the Lord Jesus' cross was a cross of sacrifice. What is the cross we carry? It is also sacrifice. Romans chapter 8 verse 36 reads the same way. Let me read to you Romans 8 verse 36. And this is what the apostle Paul says here: "As it is written"—he is quoting from Psalm 44 verse 22—"As it is written, 'For thy sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.'" The sheep to be slaughtered are the sheep to be sacrificed in the temple for sin.
He says much the same thing in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 11, which I will read to you quickly too. And this is what he says here: "For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh." And notice verse 12: "So death is at work in us, but life in you." Think carefully on these words. Through the death in us, life is coming to you. We die so that you can live.
Now that sounds pretty much like what the Lord Jesus is doing. He died so that we can live. Death was at work in Him so that life could be at work in us. Yet Paul is saying these words not in relation to the Lord Jesus, but in relation to himself and his co-workers, the apostles. "So death is at work in us"—not just in me—"in us." "But life in you." We die all the time. Can you understand this kind of language? Or does this language sound strange to you? Because unless you know what it is to be a living sacrifice, that Paul called every Christian to be, you don't understand this language.
Now think what is sacrifice. Sacrifice is not a matter of giving up this or that, and giving up a meal—sacrificing a meal. This is not the biblical language. Sacrifice is a matter of giving up life for some other person. What you give up in the Bible for yourself is not sacrifice. This is the misuse in the English language. In the Bible, sacrifice is always for somebody else. Take the sheep that goes to the slaughter, as Paul just quoted here: "We are like sheep." Is Paul dying for himself? No, Paul just said, "Death is at work in us, so that life can be at work in you." We die for you. That's what it is.
Every sheep that is taken into the temple to be slaughtered—do you think the sheep is being killed for its own sake, for its own sins, for its own need? Of course not. Every sheep that was being sacrificed in the temple was laying down its life for somebody else. That is the point you must understand. No sacrifice is rightly so called unless it is offered up for the benefit of someone else, whether it be offered up dead or alive. I say alive because you know the scapegoat was sent away into the wilderness. It would go into the wilderness, perhaps die in the wilderness. It wasn't actually slaughtered. So whether living or dying, all this—we always live as a sacrifice. We don't have to only die as a sacrifice; we live as a sacrifice.
So neither did Christ die for Himself. When it says that He carried up His cross, He didn't carry the cross for Himself. He carried the cross for us. When we carry the cross, then what do we do? We still imagine foolishly that we are carrying the cross for ourselves. If we carry the cross for ourselves, then Christ's cross was not sufficient for us. Then His death was not enough for us. We have to die for ourselves too. No, no, no. We have failed to understand a fundamental aspect of the Lord's teaching.
When He calls us to take up our cross daily, it is not for our own sake. He is calling us to join Him in the ministry of salvation. What does it mean? It means this: He dies for us so that we, having received that life, may pass it on to others, whether through life or through death. Do you understand what He is saying? If you want to be His disciple, the Lord Jesus said, that is going to be your mentality, or else you are never going to be a disciple at all. You are going to be receiving His life. You will receive eternal life by His grace. But you will only have it when you in your turn take up the cross for others. Do you understand His language?
That is what I meant in the second point about the wisdom of God. That in the very desire for you, that you desire to be saved, through that selfish desire He destroys your selfishness. Because He requires of you that if you want to be saved, then pass on that salvation to others. If you don't pass it on to others, you won't have it yourself either. No Christian sitting complacently in his church seat or in his home seat or wherever he is will ever be saved if he thinks he is saved by simply saving himself, and that's all that matters. That is why we are called to be a light in the world. That is, transmit God's light to others.
Like being a picture of life in the Bible. I would like you to deeply understand this point very, very clearly. If you think you will be saved simply by believing in Jesus, you are going to get to heaven—you don't understand the Lord's teaching. Yes, indeed it is through faith. Indeed you receive His salvation. Indeed His salvation is enough for you and for me. We don't earn our salvation. But we must become channels of it. And unless we become channels of it, we will not have it. And in the process of being a channel of that salvation, we are giving ourselves out to others, just as Jesus gave Himself to us.
Salvation is not a piece of thing that you can sort of buy in the shop and pass it on. Salvation is something transmitted through your life to others, if it is correctly transmitted at all. If you think that salvation is a matter of taking a tract and going on the street and saying, "Hey, have you believed in Jesus? Well, here are the four points of the spiritual laws. Sit down here while I am talking to you, and listen well because your life depends on it." So you give him a lecture. You hammer the gospel into him. And he rejects it and says, "Go away." "You are not fit to be saved. You are not predestined to be saved. So get out of my sight." Or else you say, "I have pity on you. Maybe one day you will wake up." Whatever these attitudes—we don't understand salvation. Salvation is not a matter of just giving a tract. It is a matter of giving yourself. No, you don't give yourself—you have given nothing worth giving. You have got to pour out yourself for others. Jesus didn't just give us the Old Testament and say, "Read it and you will be saved." Then He doesn't have to go to the cross. He has to give His own life for our salvation. And the Lord is saying here, you also have to do the same. You have got to pick up this cross and give yourself on that cross to others. Only in losing your life—not losing your tract, not losing some money—losing your life. You see, there is a different orientation of thinking. Sometimes we are willing to give our tracts. We are even willing to print them with our own money. It costs us a few dozen dollars, maybe a few hundred dollars. That's okay. But giving self. Giving of your time. Giving of your whole being. Of your concern. Of your love. We can give a tract without any real love, you know. We treat them as an object of being saved. And we can count up on the statistics: "I saved fifteen people this year." You know, they are like sheep. I got fifteen sheep that I bought off. There is no love in this thing. Love is the giving of yourself, completely, to the other person.
And so with this we close. I'd like you to bear this in mind. Put in another way, it is this: we are saved in order to become saviors. Oh, you say, "Me a savior? Hey, isn't there something bad to use it? I mean, saviors are only Jesus, not me." But let me tell you that in the Bible the word "savior" is used of ordinary people like you and me. One example of this is in 2 Kings chapter 13 verse 5. 2 Kings 13 verse 5. Let me just read it to you, where God wants to call His people to become saviors. This is one of many examples, but I'll just quote this one here: "Therefore the Lord gave Israel a savior, so that they escaped from the hands of the Syrians. And the people of Israel dwelt in their homes as formerly." You see here the glorious word "savior" is used simply for a king of Israel who gained freedom for them from the hand of the Syrian army. You see the word "savior." God gave them a savior. We see the same thing in chapter 14 verse 27. And so forth through the Scriptures, the Lord looks for people through whom He can save others.
And it is people like this. So in this case, verse 27 of chapter 14, 2 Kings: "But the Lord had not said that He would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven, so He saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash." He saved them, yes. But through Jeroboam. And Jeroboam was not exactly a glorious character himself in later days, at least. He began well and ended badly like so many Christians. But God used him at that time to save Israel. He had them as saviors.
God is calling us to the same high calling. Paul says this is a high calling. Why is it a high calling? Not just because it is going upwards. It is a high calling because He has called us into the same ministry in which the Lord Jesus was engaged—the salvation of mankind. We touched on this point in spiritual direction, but I would like to show you how approaching the matter from a different direction, in the Lord's teaching, we come to the same conclusion. We are called upon to take up the cross, to be saviors just as He was. Only so can we follow Him as His disciple.
Let us be quiet before God in prayer.