By Peter Amsterdam
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In each of the three synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) we read of Jesus’ challenge to His followers to take up their cross and follow Him. In Matthew’s gospel, He said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 16:24–25).1
Christians today sometimes use the terminology of taking up one’s cross metaphorically, in the sense of having a long-term challenge, problem, or burden that they have to endure. One hears the phrase, “That’s my cross to bear.” However, in the context of what Jesus was saying to His disciples in this case, the challenge to “take up the cross and follow me” was a startling metaphor that meant that His followers needed to be willing to deny themselves (their self-will), take up their cross (embrace God’s will, no matter the cost), and follow Him.
While He was speaking to the disciples present with Him, He made the point that whoever follows Him would need to take up the cross and put God even before their own lives—meaning all disciples at any time. Jesus did not conceal the possibility of the rejection and martyrdom they could face in choosing to be His disciples, and many of His original disciples were martyred. Though most of us aren’t in situations where we may have to die for our faith, Christians in some places do face that possibility and have done so throughout history.
Given that most Christians do not face a threat to their lives or significant loss in following Christ, how should believers apply this saying of denying self and taking up our cross to our lives? We get some direction about this in the verse cited above when Jesus expressed denying oneself and taking up the cross for those who would follow Him.
Denying ourselves can be understood to mean setting aside our personal desires, ambitions, and goals, and being willing to seek God for His direction in our lives and follow His will over our own. This doesn’t mean that the Lord will never lead us to work toward our ambitions and goals. If we are constantly seeking God’s guidance, it’s very likely that His will and our desires will be in alignment. The concept is that we who follow the Lord need to look to God for our direction and place His desires above our own, so that if God’s direction leads in a way which doesn’t align with the direction we prefer, we are willing to “deny ourselves” in order to follow Him.
We can also find some additional direction on this concept of denying ourselves in the writings of the apostle Paul. He spoke of “putting to death” our sins, saying that as Christians we are to put aside those things we may desire to do that are wrong and sinful, and make the choice to do what is right in God’s eyes. “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you” (Colossians 3:5). “If you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live (Romans 8:13).
The call to be a follower of Jesus is a call to a whole way of life. It’s a call to rearrange one’s priorities so that God has first place in our lives. This doesn’t mean that we won’t have other loyalties, but our allegiance is to God first—above our own desires and will, our possessions, our loved ones, and even our own lives. This is not an easy path, but Jesus said it is the path which leads to life (Matthew 7:13–14).
Jesus gave us the key to being able to live our commitment to discipleship. As sinful human beings, none of us can meet the demands of discipleship all the time, and if we attempt to do so in our own strength, we can end up like the Pharisees whom Jesus routinely castigated for losing focus on what was truly important. They overly focused on rule keeping to the detriment of their relationship with God.
While Jesus taught that our commitment should be to God above all else, He didn’t want the application of that principle to degrade into meaningless rule keeping. His disciples were given spiritual rebirth through salvation and were filled with the Holy Spirit to empower them to fulfill His calling. Salvation changes everything. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Galatians 2:20).
The Holy Spirit dwelling within us is a manifestation of our being in Christ. “By this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us” (1 John 3:24). Paul wrote, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?” (1 Corinthians 6:19). The ability and grace to live discipleship comes not only from our desire and effort to live in a godly way, but from the power of God through the Holy Spirit.
In the Gospel of John, we read that the night before Jesus was crucified, He spoke at length with His disciples. Part of His discourse was about the help He was going to send them once He was gone. A review of this helps us to see the role of God’s Spirit in the lives of the first disciples and in the lives of disciples ever since.
The setting was Jesus’ last meal with His disciples before His arrest and subsequent execution. Once Judas had departed on his traitorous mission, Jesus told His disciples about the Holy Spirit, whom He would send to empower and aid them after He was gone. “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you” (John 14:16–17).
In the Gospel of Luke we read that Jesus told His disciples not to leave Jerusalem because “Behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). In Acts, we read that Jesus tells the disciples to “wait for the promise of the Father” so that they could be “baptized with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 1:4–5).
Jesus went on to say, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). In Acts 2, we read of the fulfillment of this promise on the day of Pentecost when “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:1–4).
The Holy Spirit was sent after Jesus’ death and was His constant presence with the disciples. The Spirit filled and empowered them, and it has done so with His disciples ever since. Undoubtedly His presence through the Holy Spirit gave them the strength and fortitude to fulfill their calling and live out their discipleship. Though the Holy Spirit was not with them in the flesh as Jesus was, the Spirit dwelt within them.
Jesus emphasized that it was through the empowerment of His Father and His Father dwelling within Him that He was able to do all that He did. “Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works” (John 14:10). It was at this point that He explained to His disciples that He would request that His Father would give the “Helper,” the Holy Spirit, to the disciples.
The Greek word paraclete is translated as Helper, Counselor, Comforter, or Advocate (depending on the Bible translation) and refers to one who is called to someone’s side, as an aid. Another usage is someone who pleads another’s cause before a judge, a counsel for the defense, an advocate and intercessor. In a broader sense it means a helper, someone who aids another. The idea of a paraclete in reference to the Holy Spirit can therefore be understood as an aid or an advocate who helps believers.
It’s interesting that elsewhere in the New Testament, Jesus is also called a paraclete—an advocate—for the disciples: “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate [paraclete] with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1). Jesus also indirectly referred to Himself as a paraclete when He said: “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper.” Jesus, who was the first advocate, told His disciples that He wouldn’t be with them much longer (John 13:33). However, He promised He was going to send another advocate, whom He described as “the Spirit of truth,” who would dwell within them (John 14:16–17).
When Jesus returned to His Father, He sent the Holy Spirit to those who followed Him during His time on earth, and to all of us who would follow Him in the future. The Holy Spirit, whom Jesus sent from the Father, does for us what Jesus did for His disciples. While the disciples were in Jesus’ presence, He taught, corrected, comforted, encouraged, and strengthened them. Through the Spirit’s dwelling in us, we too receive guidance, correction, comfort, encouragement, and strength.
Once Jesus ascended into heaven and was glorified, His disciples were given His continuing presence in their lives through the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit’s presence within us that makes it possible for us to be true disciples, to live according to Jesus’ teachings, and to love Him above all. It’s not something we can muster up on our own, but something we can do through the power of the Spirit of God, who Jesus sent to us from His Father.
Within the book of Acts, the manifestation of the filling or baptism in the Holy Spirit came upon some at the moment of conversion and on others some time afterwards, but in both scenarios, the Spirit was within them. Throughout the New Testament there are references to the Holy Spirit’s involvement in the lives of Christians, as we have received God’s Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:12), are led by the Spirit (Galatians 5:18), are helped in our weakness by the Spirit (Romans 8:26), and have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us (2 Timothy 1:14).
Not only do we receive the wonderful gift of God’s presence in our lives, we also have been blessed with His Word to guide us. We have the promise of His rewards for everything we give of ourselves and our lives for His name’s sake, and for the love we share with others. As we are faithful to love and follow Him, to invest whatever talents He has given us, and to do our best to be a witness for Him, we can look forward to one day hearing Him say, “Well done, My good and faithful servant. Enter into My joy” (Matthew 25:21).
Originally published October 2017. Adapted and republished May 2026. Read by Jon Marc.
1 For Mark and Luke’s accounts, see Mark 8:34–37, Luke 9:23–24, 14:27.
