“And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or Father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life.” Matthew 19:29
Many Christians have lost everything including their lives because of the gospel. Paul, who sacrificed more than most people, was scourged five times with thirty-nine stripes each time. He was beaten by rods three times and stoned once. He was shipwrecked three times and he had no food and water on many occasions. His level of sacrifice is probably beyond any human who ever lived other than Jesus.
A slave mentality thinks God used Paul in great ways because of the degree of sacrifice he endured. This mentality thinks God will also use us like Paul if we sacrifice and suffer for the gospel. Since most of us will never sacrifice or be persecuted the same as Paul and the disciples, we struggle with condemnation not feeling as close to God as they were.
God used Paul in a great way not because of his sacrifice and suffering but the level of grace he walked in. 1 Corinthians 15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am.
The Father and grace are one. Why? Because grace is Jesus Himself! John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
Titus 2:11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.
Our level of sacrifice and persecution do not determine our status with the Father. Servants believe they are closer and more acceptable with God if they sacrifice more. Can we imagine children thinking that if they sacrifice and suffer it would draw them closer to their father?
Do we suffer persecution? Yes,but we suffer because of the gospel, not for the gospel. Our persecution is a result of preaching the gospel not something to earn God's approval with.
2 Timothy 3:12 Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.
Notice the verse does not say, “To suffer persecution will cause us to live godly in Christ Jesus” No! Persecution results from living godly in Christ Jesus not to gain position to become godly in Christ Jesus.
A slave cries out, “I have sacrificed all because of that I follow you.” A child cries out, “Jesus! You sacrificed all because of that I follow you.”
My wife and I regularly travel around the world evangelizing and holding crusades. Because of this, we do not have a permanent home. We homeschooled our kids, sold many things such as our house and business to help support the gospel. These sacrifices will never earn us favor or status with God. We did this because of the gospel, not for it. Just as our ministry and gifts serve people, likewise, our sacrifices are for serving people.
Only when we receive the Father’s sacrifice for us who is Christ can we effectively serve and sacrifice for others. How can we give and serve others without receiving first? In other words, if we had a well and wanted to give water to others, we must receive water first from that well. Imagine if the well functioned the opposite way; instead of the well giving us water, we had to provide water for the well. Likewise, let’s not attempt to provide God with our dead sacrifices, this will only drain life from us. Let's receive life-giving water from Him! Just as a well gives an unlimited water supply, how much more our Father in Heaven.
As Children of God, our sacrifice is never to obtain the Father's approval. Why? Because Jesus' sacrifice was more than enough for us to be approved by the Father. What I mean by the term "sacrifice" is an attempt to sacrifice to obtain what Christ's sacrifice has already obtained for us. To enter the world of self-sacrifice towards God is to enter the world of religious slavery. For many years I was in that world and will never return again. What father would demand his child to sacrifice for him? No, it’s the opposite; it’s the father who sacrifices for his child.
Our Sacrifice Is For People
How we relate to people is different from how we relate to the Father. Many times we mix this up and get this out of order. The correct order designed by God is to receive from the Father first and then we give, serve and sacrifice for people. The incorrect order is to demand and receive from people then give, serve and sacrifice for God. This is how insecurity is created.
We are not designed by God to live for the approval of others. The love and acceptance that people give can never fulfill us. We are design by God to love people but not be loved by them for our fulfillment.
John 15:13-14 Greater love has no one than this than to lay down one’s life for his friends...
In this verse, Jesus is referring to Himself as the friend who laid down His life. Notice we lay our life down for people, not for God. 1 John 3:16 By this, we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
In the New Covenant this is the order of how it should flow. As we receive from the Father we can now give to people. Because of this order, it’s impossible to burn out in ministry because we receive an abundance of power from the Father. When we minister to people it’s an overflow of receiving from the Father. When this order becomes the opposite way by sacrificing and giving to God we become like a slave. Slaves or servants have trouble receiving from God because they believe God demands them to give, serve and sacrifice for Him.
Because of this, the soul of the servant or slave is empty of life. They have to rely on people for their source of spiritual and financial security. Eventually, their entire ministry becomes a destructive demand instead of a restful supply if not corrected.
Galatians 1:10 For do I now persuade men or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ.
In this verse, Paul explains it's impossible to be a bond-servant of Christ for people if we need approval from people. When we become a child of God and accept the Father's approval, we no longer need people's approval. Why would we need people's acceptance when we have all of the Father's approval? Only when we receive approval from the Father can we serve people. We can only give what we have already received. The sacrifices we encounter in ministry are not to gain approval from God. The sacrifices in ministry are a part of how we love and serve people!
Acts 20:3... And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive."
This verse is not referring to our relationship with Christ but to people. Regarding the Father, it's the opposite: it's more blessed to receive than give. Luke 12:32 “Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom."
What Does It Mean To Take Up Our Cross?
When Jesus was on His way to be crucified we observed In the book of Matthew that Simon of Cyrene was the one who carried the cross ( see Matthew 27:31-32). But In the book of John, Jesus was the one who carried the cross(see John 19:16-18).
Mathew mentioned Simon carried the cross but John mentioned Jesus carried the cross. Who bore the cross Simon or Jesus? It was both of them! Why did Simon help Jesus carry the cross? Because Simon represents all of us and the cross we bear. There is a cross we also take up when we accept Christ. The cross we take up like Simon had the opposite experience than what Jesus experienced.
The cross of Jesus was a place where He was beaten, suffered, sacrificed, and died. Simon did not suffer or was beaten nor died on the cross. This represents that the cross of Jesus was a place of death so our cross can be a place of life.
The cross of Jesus was a place of suffering, so our cross would be a place of wholeness! The cross of Jesus was a place of curse, so our cross would be a place of blessing! The greatest exchange in history took place! On the cross He forever traded places with us. 2 Corinthians 5:21 For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
The cross is not a place of slavish demand but it's a place of life-giving supply! Taking up the cross has a whole new meaning when we understand this. We must never take Christ out of the cross. When a slave sees the cross they see themselves and their sacrifice. Why? Because for them, they always have an awareness of self-sacrifice.
In the Old Covenant it instructs only to offer animal sacrifices, which is a foreshadow of Jesus. Today when we hear the word altar, we never think about Jesus but ourselves being on the altar. Why? Because of our religious flesh wanting to take the place of Christ. We have developed a slave approach to God offering ourselves on the altar apart from Jesus. What I mean by being apart from Christ is that we are the object of sacrifice not Christ.
In the New Covenant, the way we offer ourselves unto God is in Christ, not outside of Christ. The cross is a place of supply for a child of God. For slaves the cross reminds them of what they must do. For a child, the cross reminds him of what Jesus has done!
What About Denying Ourselves?
Luke 9:23 Then He said to them all, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.
I remember in my earlier years as a Christian I listened to many teachings about two crosses, one for me and one for Jesus. I thought, How do we deny ourselves? How do we die daily? Is it fasting? Is it prayer? Is it lying face down on the ground shouting "I must die"?
I heard one sermon taught how we must pray for one hour a day to take up our cross daily and follow Jesus. All doctrine must lead to placing our faith in Christ as a child, not ourselves as a slave. Colossians 2:6-7 As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.
Notice in this verse it says as you therefore "receive" not as you therefore "achieve". Our religious flesh wants to sacrifice itself to replace Christ. It has no intention of just simply receiving.
The book of Romans helps clarify what it means to take up the cross. Romans 6:4-5 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so, we also should walk in the newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection.
At the cross we have been united in Christ's death. When Christ died we died. When Christ was resurrected we were also resurrected. These are not two crosses, one for us and a different one for Jesus. There is only one cross. Through faith we were united in Christ's death and resurrection.
For a slave the cross is a place of self-sacrifice trying to please their master. For a child of God the cross is a place of identity and unity with Christ.
Notice in the following verse we deny “self”. Luke 9:23 "let him deny himself then take up the cross."
Self is at the core of self-righteousness. What this verse means is we must deny our self-righteousness, self-sacrifices and self-performance to obtain the promises of God. We received all that God has through the cross, not through self-sacrifice.
The cross provided righteousness, blessing, healing, deliverance and life. Most of all, the cross provided the position of becoming a child of God ( John 1:12). So when we take up the cross, we take up and receive these promises that the cross provided for us! The cross of Christ does not take from us but gives to us?
Wait, I am wrong; it does take from us! It took our sin, bondage, death, disease, depression, torment, anxiety and curse. Wow! I want to take up this cross. This cross is not centered around us and is not demanding from us. This cross is centered around Jesus full of provision and life! Who wouldn't want to take up that cross?
We Are Crucified With Christ Not Apart
Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
Notice how Paul concluded this verse, "who loved me and gave Himself for me." When we read this verse and do not come to the same conclusion as Paul did, we can miss the impact the verse will have on our life. It's not about how we give ourselves for Christ through endless sacrifices but how Christ gave Himself for us with one sacrifice.
The opening of these verses said, "We have died to the law." Only when we have died to the law can we live unto God. When we died to the law, we died to the demands and conditions of it. Christ fulfilled and satisfied these demands and conditions of the law. Therefore all of the promises of God in the law are ours through Christ!
Coming under the law's demand is what makes a slave a slave. A child of God does not live by the sacrificial demands and conditions of the law. They live in their position by coming under grace because Jesus fulfilled the sacrificial demands and conditions of the law on our behalf. When we put our faith in Christ we have died to the law. Why? Because there is nothing left to fulfill in the law, Christ one hundred percent fulfilled its demands. (See Matthew 5:17).
All of the offerings, animal sacrifices, food offerings and sin offerings are a foreshadow of Christ. Paul writes towards the end of these verses, "I do not nullify the grace of God for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose." How do we nullify the Grace of God? It's when we try to become righteous through the requirements of the law. Many of us have misunderstood these verses regarding being crucified with Christ and dead to the law. We made it about our sacrifice rather than Jesus' being the center of the meaning.
When we try to fulfill the requirements of the law instead of allowing Christ to do it we nullify the grace of God.
Who Is The Living Sacrifice?
Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
This verse is not about our sacrifice separate from Christ's sacrifice but united with Christ. We need to understand this correctly or else we will approach God as a slave, offering ourselves without Jesus being our mediator. We are united, not separated from His sacrifice.
Our family conducts crusades in the Philippines, Honduras and Africa. We would never walk or run to arrive at those destinations. A better way to arrive there is by airplane. When we enter the plane we become united with it to carry us places we could never go to by walking or running. Likewise, in Christ we have been united with His death and resurrection.
We can now go further with our relationship with God that we could not go before. By being in Christ we are carried into a relationship with the Father. Now we can come boldly before the throne of Grace. When we approach the Father it’s as if Jesus Himself approaches the Father because we are in Christ. Because we are in Christ we can now present ourselves as holy, living and acceptable before God.
Who is living, holy and acceptable? It’s Jesus, and we are in Him offering ourselves unto God.
That is good news! In my earlier days, I remember giving my best to God. I would give my best time, best efforts in prayer, along with my best worship. I would pour everything out to my Lord and master. I would constantly pray, “take my will, cleanse me and also take all of me as a holy and living sacrifice.” I would never miss a morning sacrificing and paying the price to God.
To some degree I experienced the Holy Spirit but it was difficult to experience much of God's presence. For me, it would take at least thirty minutes or one hour to experience anything from God in prayer. I used to believe this is how we must crucify ourselves daily. I made myself spend time in prayer even though I did not want to and it was exhausting.
But when I understood God as my Father, my experience now is like heaven on earth! When I get alone with the Father in prayer I rarely pursue Him at first, sometimes none. I allow Him to pursue me! Why? Because He is not my distant Lord but my close Daddy. He pursues me because I am His Child. Can this be true? Yes!
If a slave wants to be close to their master it’s according to how much they sacrifice and commit to the responsibility of seeking him. If a child wants to be close to their father the responsibility of seeking is upon the father of being close to his child? The child simply allows the father to pursue him. Can we believe and see the upgrade regarding the New Covenant?
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