The standard..

[Proeliator]

Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? "For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and will then repay every man according to his deeds. "Truly I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom." NASB Matthew 16:24-29

The standard of being a disciple. Now, many churches say that discipleship is the key to survival for the church of today. So how many of us can truly live up to this standard then?

 

[JimfromOhio]

To me, Jesus is saying that He cannot do our repenting for us. He died for our sins, now that we are to allow the Holy Spirit to convict us to pick up the cross. "Salvation is free, ... but discipleship will cost you your life." (Dietrich Bonhoeffer) A disciple must understand that God is both holy and loving; that I am a sinner, are made in the image of God; that Christ's death was the substitute payment for my sin; and that because of Jesus' payment, I am granted access to the heart of God.

Luke 14:27 And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. Luke 14:33 In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.

The whole of Scripture teaches salvation by grace through faith, but at the same time, the first and initial act of obedience in the early church, the first and initial act of obedience was the public confession of that faith. Repentance basically means at salvation, we repent of our sins which is a willingness in our hearts to want to turn away from all our known sins and give them to Jesus. Christians are quick to learn that sin is destructive and besides that they don't want to offend their Loving Father. Biblically, a person who repents does not continue willfully in sin. Repentance is a turning from sin, and it always results in changed behavior (Luke 3:8). While sorrow from sin is not equivalent to repentance, it is certainly an element of scriptural repentance (2 Corinthians 7:10).

There will be a lot of people who will claim Jesus as Lord of their lives, but won't truly repent of their sins and won't submit to the commands of the Word of God in reference to the habit pattern of their lives.

 

[mlqurgw]

To deny yourself is to look to Christ alone. In Him is all we need. We find nothing in ourselves except sin and we must come to Him acknowledging that fact. The most difficult thing for a man to do is rest in Christ. We constantly need to do something. That is reliance on self. To take up our cross and follow Him is to walk by faith. It is simply looking to him always and in everything. Dicipleship isnt so much denying your lusts but denying your righteousness.

 

[Proeliator]

So then I completely mistake this whole set of verses is what you mean?

 

[mlqurgw]

So then I completely mistake this whole set of verses is what you mean?

Yes I think so. If we begin to understand that almost everything Christ said was in reference to religious ideas and dealt with religious things then it becomes clearer. We are naturally self- righteous and will cling to it with all our might. We must give it up. That is what it is to deny self. I am certainly not saying that we don't need to war against the flesh, certainly we should and do. But that isn't what Christ is talking about.

BTW; You are not alone in this mistake.