I am currently reading "Meditation of the Cross" by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. It is a painful book that is blowing my mind. One of the chapters is entiteled "Discipleship and the Cross". It is an excerpt from his book "The Cost of Discipleship".
What is being discussed is the role we play under the weight of the cross. More specifically Jesus words to His followers that we must deny ourselves and take up our crosses and follow Him (Mark 8:31-38). Without going into the entire chapter, we must realize that the suffering of the cross was a divinely necessary measure for us to experience the freedom that comes with Christ. As we find our freedom in the cross we must also lose our identity in it as well.
Bonhoeffer says this about self-denial: "Self denial means knowing only Christ, and no longer oneself. It means seeing only Christ, who goes ahead of us, and no longer the path that is too difficult for us. Again, self-denial is saying only: He goes ahead of us; hold fast to Him."
What if we denied ourselves in such a way that Jesus truly lived through us?
Heart and Soul,
BAG
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