Lots of people in the world have no problem acknowledging that Jesus most likely lived on the earth, and will concede He was a great prophet and/or teacher who had many good things to say. And you will find no shortage of people today who profess to ‘believe in Him’, having no qualms admitting they believe He did indeed die on a cross and was raised from the dead three days later. These would be the same people who claim to ‘know’ Him and yes, even ‘love’ Him.

Interestingly, Paul spoke of those whose minds and consciences had been ‘defiled’, and while they might ‘profess to know God’...they would actually ‘deny Him...by their actions’. (Titus 1:15-16). Has you ever wondered how we do that, how we ‘deny Him’?

I’m always amused when I see a post on social media by people who will make mention of that scripture where Jesus talked about how if anyone ‘denies Him before men, He will deny them before His Father in heaven’ (Matt. 10:33); and then they promptly ‘go on record’ with a public declaration stating that they believe Jesus is the Son of God...as if that settles the matter and clears up any confusion of where they stand.

“Hey God...Did you see my post on Facebook today? I made it known that I believe in You and confessed You are Lord!”

I’m assuming they must sleep better that night after clearing that up for all the world to see, not to mention God Himself.

And yet, Jesus asked in one place- ‘Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord’...and not do the things I say?” (Luke 6:46)

We should all be familiar with His teachings where He wanted us to know that ‘IF’...we really loved Him...we would “keep His commandments” (John 14:15). And just in case there was any confusion as to what commandments He was talking about, you can review John 13:34-35 and 15:12 which explicitly states that we are to love others in the same manner in which He first demonstrated His love towards us, even while we were yet ‘sinners’ (Rom. 5:8).

But I will let you in on a little secret here- It’s not Jesus Himself...that most people have a problem with or take exception to, it’s His message pertaining to this ‘cross’ thing. In fact, Paul makes this distinction in his letter to the Philippians where he writes about those who have become ‘enemies of the cross ...of Christ’ (3:18). Everyone ‘loves Jesus’...it’s just that bothersome message of ‘dying’ and taking up crosses that becomes problematic for a lot of folks. And here is why it becomes ‘problematic’, nobody is going to heaven without first going to the cross. When Jesus said He was the ‘only way to the Father’, He wasn’t kidding (John 14:6).

Jesus did indeed...come to earth to show us the way to heaven, offering us eternal and abundant life along the way; but if you think you can get there without going to the cross first, like He did, you may want to dust that Bible of ours off and do some serious reviewing of scripture.

When Jesus talked about ‘taking up a cross’ and following Him, He was not suggesting we wear glittery jewelry in the shape of a cross, or get tattoos on our body, or start wearing fancy T-shirts with imprints of a variety of colorful ‘crosses’ emblazoned across them. He was pretty explicit in telling anyone who was interested in learning His way...that you would have to ‘die’ first (Luke 9:23), which is why He also exhorted us to first... ‘count the cost’. (Luke 14:25-33; Matt. 19:21)

That’s also why He wanted it known early on...that “not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord’, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.” (Matt. 7:21)

Can I just reiterate that ‘doing the will of the Father’ involves a tad more than simply ‘accepting Jesus as one’s personal Savior’ and then start going to church somewhere? I know that word - ‘doing’... can be a trigger for some folks, but I wasn’t the one who used that word there; Jesus did. And it cannot be said often enough nor loud enough these days, but there has been a whole lot of ‘theological smoke and mirrors’ used to suggest otherwise. But then, it’s not like we weren’t warned of that kind of deception coming in like a flood in the last days either. (2 Cor. 11:3-4; Matt. 24:4-5; 2 Tim. 4:3-4)

So what does scripture mean when it talks about the need or ‘requirement’ to ‘taking up a cross’ when following Jesus...or ‘dying to self-daily’...or ‘putting that old man to death’, as we read in our New Testaments? Those are really good questions to ask...and explore. Let’s begin with that exchange between Jesus and the rich young ruler found in Mark 10. This man came expressing an interest in receiving eternal life, perhaps joining the group and following Jesus Himself. But as we know, he soon found that the ‘price of admission’ was pretty steep, and that was a hard ‘I’ll pass’ on his part as he turned and walked away (21-22). We really don’t know what became of that man either.

But here is what we do know: Unless we repent (turn)...we will ‘all perish’; and that is clearly not God’s will nor desire for any of us (Luke 13:3,5; 2 Pet. 3:9; 1 Tim. 2:4). And if we do heed His loving words of warning, and make that ‘turn’, it’s nice to have a clear direction in which we are to ‘turn to’...which is why He invites us to ‘follow Him’ and even to ‘abide in Him’ (Matt. 4:19; John 15:1-8). He even throws in this free ‘gift of the Holy Spirit’ to indwell us and lead us into all truth (Acts 2:38; John 16:33).

Now this is where most of us come to a fork in the road, and one of those paths become quite ‘narrow’ and less traveled (Matt. 7:13-14). Do you know why that is? Take a look at Romans 8:13-14 and chew on that; I’ll meet you back here tomorrow, Lord willing.