And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
Peter has just confessed that Jesus is the Christ. The Lord has answered by announcing His own rejection, death, and rising again. Then He turns to everyone listening and says what it costs to follow Him. Three things come in order: saying no to self, taking up a cross, and following.
The cross shapes the road
The words come straight out of the announcement of His suffering. One writer notes that Luke moves straight from Christ's rejection to a moral principle for the disciple.
William KellyLuke, as he usually does, ties Christ's rejection and death to a great moral principle: "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself." The Lord wants the cross to be real not only for the man, but in him too. It is a blessing to know what God has done for us in the cross of Christ. We must also learn what the cross says about the world and about human nature.
Coming after Him, not only to Him
This call goes to people who already know Him. One writer draws a line between the first step and the second, and warns that many stop at the first.
The Bible TreasuryTo come after Jesus is a hard task in itself. Anyone who does not know the Master might well shrink back from it. It is knowing the gracious and glorious person of the Lord Jesus Christ that awakens the sincere, whole-hearted response men ought to give to His call to follow Him... Many people know something of our Lord Jesus. They answered His invitation and came to Him in their distress, weariness and repentance. They found rest in Him and peace for their conscience — but they have never followed Him!
Denying self is not denying things
The phrase is often softened into giving up a few comforts. One writer shows how that softened version feeds the very thing it claims to cut.
Hamilton SmithPeople talk about self-denial. They even hold self-denial weeks, by which they mean giving up certain things for a set time to help a good cause. But this is the very opposite of denying self. It adds to self-satisfaction and lifts self up. Denying self is not just giving up certain things. It is denying the person who craves these things. Denying self is ignoring self altogether so that we serve others in love.
Two deaths: one inward, one outward
Denying self and carrying a cross are not the same act repeated. One writer on the matching account in Mark separates them.
F. B. HoleTo say "no" to yourself is to accept death inside, in your own spirit. To take up your cross is to accept death outside, at the hands of the world. That is what following Him must mean, since we follow the Christ who died, rejected by the world.
People often confuse that outward side with hardship in general — illness, money worries, difficult people.
Norman AndersonThe cross is not the ordinary trouble of everyday life, though the disciple will meet that too. Someone under pressure may say, "I have a heavy cross to bear." That is not the thought here.
Why Luke adds "daily"
The word does not appear in Matthew's record of the same saying.
Leslie M. GrantMatthew 16:24 does not include the word "daily." There the stress falls on the first decision. Luke stresses a daily practice.
That daily repetition is where the real weight falls — heavier, one writer argues, than a single heroic act.
W. T. TurpinIt has been well said that it is very hard to keep denying yourself every day, with no one knowing anything about it... A man might go bravely to death, once for all, to defend the truth. His name could be passed down for generations and a monument raised in his memory. But taking up your cross daily, denying yourself daily, is a very different thing.
Where the strength comes from
No one can work this up by effort or willpower. The strength comes from God, and it reaches us through love.
F. B. HoleWe will not find the power we need within ourselves, and we cannot work it up by religious exercises. It is in God alone. But it reaches us in a very simple way... Let the bright rays of the love of God break into any heart, however dark, and at once that heart knows a new driving power, and following Him begins.
Summary
- Come first. He calls people to come after Him who have already come to Him. Resting in Him for peace is the gate, not the road.
- Deny self. This is not giving up certain things, which can feed self-satisfaction. It is denying the person who craves them, and ignoring self so that we serve others in love.
- Carry the cross. Saying no to self accepts death inside. Taking up the cross accepts death outside, at the hands of the world. That is not the same as ordinary trouble.
- Daily. Matthew records the once-for-all decision. Luke adds the word that makes it a daily practice. Unseen daily denial tests a person more than a single heroic death.
- Follow. A rejected Christ shapes the path. No one generates the power to walk it. That power starts when the love of God breaks into the heart.