Bearing The Cross

"Come down from the cross!!"

The world will say, come down from the cross!!  They told Jesus to.  Surely they will tell His saints to come down from the cross, "Don't deny yourself and take up the cross!!  You can follow Christ without taking up this cross you are bearing!  You don't have to bear His reproach!!"   

No!  Bear His reproach!  He says, he who comes after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross!  Follow Me!!  This is what Jesus says!!  If you do not you cannot be His disciple!  These are not my words, these are the Lord God's words.

The world compelled Simon the Cyrene to bear His cross with Him, only because they didn't want to help Him.  I wonder if Simon was willing or did it grudgingly.  If he just did it by force or if he wanted to help Jesus?  

We are called to take up our cross, to be reviled and hated, as Jesus was.  The Lord called the disciples, saying, "Leave your net, follow Me!!" and "forsake your father, follow Me!"  This was just the beginning of Jesus' call to bear the cross!  Leave your job(the net) and forsake your family(father).  Wow.  Jesus is pretty radical!  He calls His disciples, "forsake all", even relatives. That is an intense calling He has.  

They told Jesus, if you are the chosen of God then get off the cross!!  Thinking Jesus used His power for His own purposes, when really Jesus submitted to the Father in all things!  Telling Him then to get off the cross because you are chosen of God, is ridiculous!  This is the reason He was chosen of God!!  This is the purpose in which He was chosen for!  To bear this reproach!  To take away the sins of those putting Him there on the cross!  He was chosen to bear this cross for them who be-railed Him.    

Those who killed the Prince of Life, God was merciful and loving, calling them to repent and be converted, those who put Jesus on the cross, it was well known we put Him there and He died for this very reason!  For sin.  The sin of unbelief in the Son of God!  He wanted to and still does want to blot out our sins, and give us times of refreshing from His presence.  This is the sin, that they believed not on Him!  But if we forsake our sin and seek Him He will cover us with this blood that was shed that we so railed Him for!  What a merciful God!

For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.  But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.   And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:

Christ endured the cross for the joy that was set before Him!  This is why we can endure the cross, because of the joy set before us, the end our faith the salvation of our souls.  Like Moses, we need to have respect unto the recompense(the repayment) of reward, far outweighing all in this world!  The reproach of Christ is of greater riches than the treasures in Egypt.

Why bear the cross?  Because this is the cross my Savior bore.  I must be with Him outside the camp.

Matthew 27:40; Mark 8:34; Matthew 27:32; Matthew 16:24; Matthew 4:19-22; Luke 9:62; Luke 14:26; John 12:25; Luke 6:22; Matthew 10:22; Luke 23:35; Acts 3:15,19; John 16:9; 1 Corinthians 1:17-18; Galatians 6:14; Hebrews 12:2; Hebrews 11:25,26