“And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:27) There is a cross to bear if we would be a disciple (learner, follower) of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is not the cross that He bore. He bore that cross, the cross upon which He bore the sins of His people in His own body, alone. There He suffered the abandonment of God the Father because of those sins being laid on Him. No true disciple of Christ will ever have to bear any part of that cross. “It is finished,” was the good news that He announced to believing sinners. The cross which His disciples are found having to bear is the cross of identification. When we profess faith in the Christ of the Bible who is the Christ of free grace, sovereign election, particular redemption, imputed righteousness, effectual calling and keeping grace, our cross will often prove to be the persecution that all must face who follow Christ in truth. The “world” that He said would hate us is most often the “world” of false religion. This persecution and pressure may often come from those dearest to us. I say this because of the words that Christ spoke just prior to the ones first mentioned here. Those words in Luke 14:26 are these: “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.” Is Christ contradicting His own words elsewhere telling us to “hate” those whom He has also told us to “love?” No. The “hate” here is spoken of in a comparative way. It is a warning to us concerning any and all who would come between us and the Savior. This is what He means in Matthew’s gospel:
Matthew 10:35 For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
Matthew 10:36 And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.
The favor and approval of the dearest to us must be given up and turned away from if we have to choose between them and Christ. He is to be preferred, loved, obeyed, honored and served above all. This will only be done by those who are born of God and possess true faith in Christ. When Christ asked the early disciples, “Will ye also go away?” By grace they responded, “Lord, to whom shall we go, thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” To love any above Christ is to make them idols and God will destroy all idols. “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.” To be ashamed of Christ’s words, His gospel of free grace is to be ashamed of Him! “Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” (Mark 8:38) Hear Christ: “How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only?” (John 5:44) Bunyan’s Pilgrim stopped his ears to the luring cries of family and friends and fled the City of Destruction, crying, “Life, life, eternal life.”