(Matthew 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23)

What did Jesus mean take up your cross"?

LUKE 19:11,22

LUKE 9: 57-62

Therefore, Take up your cross and follow Me means being willing to die in order to follow Jesus. This is called dying to self. Its a call to absolute surrender. After each time Jesus commanded cross bearing, He said, For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self? (Luke 9:24-25). Although the call is tough, the reward is matchless

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But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ
I Corinthians 15:57

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The Bible is clear God had planned Christ's death before the foundation of the world. It was not an unavoidable accident. Peter affirms this truth in his sermon on the Day of Pentecost when he said, Him [Jesus], being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death (Acts 2:23).

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Galatians 2:20 Paul says I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

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