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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Matthew 16:24 - 16:25
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Taking the cross:
v. 24. Then said Jesus unto His disciples If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.
v. 25. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his life for My sake shall find it.
This is practically a repetition of Mat_10:38. What Christ had stated there He found necessary to emphasize here once more. Denial of self, of all self-righteousness, of all selfishness, is natural for a Christian that partakes of the spirit of Christ; taking up the cross, whatever of burden, whatever of trial and persecution and trouble and labor and peril and death the heavenly Father may see fit to impose—that is the cheerful burden of the Christian, because it means following Him. He who aims to find in this life, in this world, all that his heart desires, will, by that fact, lose the real life in and with Christ. But he who will cheerfully give up all that this life, this world, may offer and give him, for the sake of Jesus, his Savior, will find true, abounding, everlasting life in the Redeemer. "Therefore one must describe exactly what it means to take the cross upon one. To take the cross upon one means: for the sake of the Word and the faith voluntarily to take and to bear the hatred of the devil, of the world, of the flesh, of sin, and of death. Here it is not necessary to choose a cross. Just begin the first part of the life and deny thyself, that is, rebuke the righteousness of works, and confess the righteousness of faith, and immediately the other part will also be there, namely, the cross which thou then shalt take upon thyself, just as Christ took His upon Himself."