Luke 9:23 – “And He said unto them all, If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.”
You can go to any youth group in America today and you will find discipleship programs coming from the majority of them, and rightly so. But the sad fact is that many do not properly understand what true Discipleship really means.
WHAT IS TRUE DISCIPLESHIP?
What is a disciple? A disciple, simply put, is a follower of Jesus Christ. But more importantly, it is a person who understands that their Faith in Jesus Christ and Him Crucified is the answer for all of life’s problems. He understands that there is no other means by which he can have a proper relationship with God. He also knows that Faith in the Cross of Jesus Christ gives us the ability to live a holy, righteous, victorious life, free from all sin and guilt. Likewise, true Discipleship is teaching people to place their Faith in Christ and the Cross, and not in Law. You cannot separate the Disciple from the Master, Christ, and you must never separate Christ from the Cross. Many youth groups today are preaching and teaching a Cross-less Christ, which will bring problems unparalleled to the Believer.
SANCTIFICATION
Frankly, many understand the Cross in regards to our Salvation, but they do not understand the Cross relative to Sanctification, i.e., our everyday Christian living. And not properly understanding the Cross as a part of our everyday living, such a person tends to go toward Law, for that is all that he knows. In other words, the flesh always gravitates toward Law; it cannot gravitate toward the Spirit. This is where most youth groups get it wrong. They teach that you must do certain things, such as, reading the Bible, praying, witnessing, abstaining from all appearances of evil, etc., etc., and that will give you victory over sin.
As good as those things are, they will not give you victory over sin. Now, I must stress, and I encourage all young people to do these things, but do not place your Faith in the doing of these things. But rather place your Faith in the Finished Work of Christ, and those things will automatically come into play. The only thing, and I mean the only thing, that will give you victory over sin is your Faith in the Cross of Christ.
THE CRITERIA FOR BEING A TRUE DISCIPLE
Christ, in Luke 9:23, gives us the criteria for being a true Disciple, which are as follows.
1. DENY YOURSELF: The first thing that Christ demands is the denial of self. What does this mean? It does not mean asceticism, which means the practice of self-discipline and a refusal of all forms of indulgences, but rather means the denial of one’s own ability or strength. In other words, it is a refusal to trust in our own abilities or things that we do to provide victory over sin. We must understand that we cannot save ourselves from sin, nor can we free ourselves from sin. We have to look to Calvary, and what Jesus did there to break the sin cycle in our lives, and to keep that cycle from ever restarting.
2. TAKE UP YOUR CROSS: This speaks of Christ being the Source of all Blessings, and the Cross is the Means by which we receive those Blessings. It means to place your Faith exclusively in the Cross of Christ, which will then guarantee the help of the Holy Spirit to bring about the victory one needs in one’s life. No matter how big the problem might be, or how dire the situation might look, the Cross is able to meet that need. Do not look to the problem, look to the Cross! Do not look to the situation; look to the One Who can provide a way of escape! Do not look to the “Red Sea,” but look to the One Who can part the waters of your life! Jesus Christ and Him Crucified!
3. DAILY: This is the most important part. We must look to the Cross every single day and renew our Faith in what Christ did for us at the Cross, for Satan will ever try and move our Faith away from the Cross of Christ to something else, and that could be anything, just as long as it is not the Cross. Satan knows where your Victory lies and he will stop at nothing to see that you fail.
THE CROSS IS THE ONLY WAY THAT ONE CAN BE A DISCIPLE OF CHRIST
Let it ever be understood, the only way that one can be a true Disciple of Christ, is to place our Faith in the Finished Work of Christ, and leave it there. Jesus said in Luke 14:27, “And whosoever does not bear his Cross, and come after Me, cannot be My Disciple.” Now, those are strong Words, but I remind you that these Words came from Christ Himself, not me.
So, what is true Discipleship? True Discipleship is teaching someone to place his or her Faith in the Finished Work of Christ, and that Alone. To teach something else is to teach Law, which God can never accept (Rom. 6:1-14; 8:1-2; I Cor. 1:17-18, 23; 2:2; Col. 2:14-15).
In Him,
Pastor Gabe
