Every disciple of Christ has a cross and must count upon it.
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(cf. Phil. ii. 7, 8). If self-denial be a hard lesson and against the grain to flesh and blood, it is no more than what our Master learned and practised before us, and for us, both for our redemption and for our instruction; and "the servant is not above his Lord"'.
All the disciples and followers of Jesus Christ must deny themselves. It is the fundamental law of admission into Christ's school, and the first and great lesson to be learned in his school, to deny ourselves. It is both the strait gate and the narrow way. It is necessary that we may be able to learn all the other good lessons that are taught there. We must deny ourselves absolutely. We must not admire our own shadow, nor gratify our own humour. We must not lean to our own understanding, nor seek our own things, nor be our own end. We must deny ourselves comparatively. We must deny ourselves for Christ, and His will, and His glory, and the service of His interests in the world. We must deny ourselves for our brethren and for their good. And we must deny ourselves for ourselves, deny the appetites of the body for the benefit of the soul.
(b) Let him take up his cross. The cross is here put for all sufferings, as men or Christians: providential afflictions; persecution for righteousness' sake; every trouble that befalls us, either for doing well or for doing ill. The troubles of Christians are fitly called crosses, in allusion to the death of the cross, which Christ was obedient to. It should reconcile us to troubles and take away the terror of them, that they are what we bear in common with Christ and such as he has borne before us.
3. THE Cross oF DISCIPLESHIP
Every disciple of Christ has a cross and must count upon it. As each has his special duty to be done, so each has his special trouble to be borne, and everyone feels most from his own burden. Crosses are the common lot of God's children, but of this common lot each has his particular share. That is our cross which Infinite Wisdom has appointed for us, and a Sovereign Providence has laid on us, as fittest for us. It is good for us to call the cross we are under our own, and entertain it accordingly. We are apt to think we could bear another man's cross better than our own. But that is best which is, and we ought to make the best of it.