Many Christians Are Afraid of These Two Verses Because of Their Hard Truths
Two Verses That Define What Christianity Is
Matthew 16 in verses 24 and 25: “Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, or in other translations, let him take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wants to save or find his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
This is a passage that often she defines what CHRISTIANISM is all about. Narrow gate, narrow way, and Cross!
Many Christians, are afraid of these verses or the way Christianity is presented through them. As a Christianity of renunciation, self-denial, narrow gate and many Christians, even in the church, have difficulties to live with this statement and this statement that is correct and true. After all the Christian life is a life of renunciation and the Cross. But people are living some years congregating, and living with that statement, but they don’t live with it harmoniously. They don’t accept it in totality, but they also don’t leave the gospel, nor their congregations. But they go on to live a bitter Christian life.
Some people who do not have the mind of Christ, that is, are not spiritual, obviously will not understand the gospel; “for the word of the Cross is foolishness to those who are lost, but to us who are saved it is the power of GOD.” And the Christian who is not Christ-minded has difficulty understanding. And even the Christian who is more spiritual and has been on the Christian path for some time, also sometimes questions, perhaps internally, why there are so many demands, so much pressure, so much burden that is placed on those who are converted.
Where am I going with all this?
“It is that we have been living in a time, that there are many Christians who live Christianity as if it were a BURDEN!”
Christianity because of the statement of these two verses, for some becomes a burden, a weight, labor. You have people who feel condemned for being a Christian. It is a condemnation, she is condemned to be saved, she is condemned to go to eternal life, she is condemned to have the spirit of GOD. Because of how she expresses Christianity, it is so bitter, it is so disdainful that it seems as if she has been condemned. Because GOD decided to touch one, two points in her life, (this here leaves, this here cannot, this here is a sin). There are even Christians blackmailing GOD, all because of these verses and they say: “I don’t like this Christianity anymore, if it is like this I will give up before this dictator GOD, egocentric GOD, selfish GOD, executioner GOD, inhuman GOD, cold and calculating GOD, individualist GOD.
“If you think you don’t have that in the church then you have yet to meet many believers.”
They blackmail as if GOD needs us as if GOD needs someone as if GOD needs us for something. Except for that Revelation in chapters 21 and 22 says that GOD’s plan is already consummated, the future has already been established, nobody is going to change that, nobody stops GOD’s plan, nobody stops the church from moving forward, not even a disgruntled Christian.
We have to take up the Cross, that is what God offers us in the verses.
Do you know what these verses are showing us?
How merciful God is, how good He is, how generous He is, how much He is asking us to do something that benefits only us. Because there is nothing from man, which can benefit GOD!
“If someone wants to follow me: to be part of it, to be a Christian, born again, to make up the community, the Ecclesia, they have to follow it.”
Many people don’t like to follow, because the analogy of following here says: you will follow me, towards Golgotha. He’s saying it like this: follow me, where to? Leave the corrupted, degraded, and imperfect world, and follow me, because I will take you to something perfect, eternal, and blessed. This is what He is proposing to the church.
