How the Christ Defined the Christian

Jesus defined Christianity, not with attractive words like a salesman but in dictatorial and perhaps repulsive terms: “If anyone wants to follow Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and journey with Me.”¹ Despite His clarity on the matter, we tend to describe Christianity as a belief, or list of beliefs. N.T. Wright in Simply Christian says it “is all about the belief that the living God, in fulfillment of his promises and as the climax of the story of Israel, has accomplished all this—the finding, the saving, the giving of new life—in Jesus.”² To J.I. Packer, “True Christians are people who acknowledge and live under the word of God.”³ Yet the King consistently defined Christianity by what we do, not our beliefs about Him or Scripture. He called it self-denial, daily dying, and walking in union with Him. If we want to see His Christianity transform our neighborhoods and nation, we must use His definition of a Christian in our teaching and actions.

Before He defined Christianity in Luke 9.23, King Jesus promised His own self-denial, physical death, and rejection by the theologians of that day, the scribes. After defining it, He elaborated on the self-denial that He required and then concluded with a promise that some of His followers would see His kingdom’s glory and power before death. Six other passages record His definitions of true disciples, and He defined it every time as dying-to-self with Him. We find His six other descriptions in Matthew 10.24-39, and 16.21-27 (especially v. 24), Mark 8.31-38 (especially v. 34), Luke 14.26-33, and, finally, John 8.28-31 and 12.23-26.

We who claim Jesus need to quit blaming our nation’s problems on those who openly reject Him, and focus instead on doing what He demanded. Our nation will continue declining if we who should be its salt, light, and city-on-a-hill keep obsessing over the specks in other people’s eyes instead of denying ourselves, embracing our crosses daily, and living as symbiotic branches of the Vine, producing the fruit of His life in our thoughts, speech, and interactions.

Living out Luke 9.23 will not only embody Christianity but also portray Jesus to a world that needs to see Him in us. Someone dear to me, who’s not a Christian, discovered that Christians will make financial sacrifices for others (unlike his non-Christian friends) when he campaigned to aid a rescue operation for victims of sex-trafficking. Christians reaffirmed their abnormal charity to him years later when complete strangers spent most of the day helping him with car trouble on the side of a highway and chose not to use it as a religious sales opportunity. They testified to Jesus by sacrificially loving and serving. He now tells his children when there’s an emergency to find a church, because he knows first-hand how Christians love and serve complete strangers. He hasn’t yet “made a decision” for Jesus in response to such love, but he lives in the American South, so he’s heard other invitations to the King demands more than a decision; He demands self-denial, daily dying, and union with Him. The more we embody His definition of Christianity, the more appetizing He will appear to others through His body.

 

A CROSS-EMBRACING RITUAL

In my experience, Christians often get stumped by Luke 9.23. When I point to it as an absolute requirement, longtime and sincere church attenders have asked me what denying-self is and what Jesus meant by “take up his cross daily.” I believe it’s our approach to the book of Romans as a getting-into-heaven guidebook which hinders our understanding of what Jesus demands in Luke 9.23. If we viewed Romans instead, as a guidebook for growing spiritually, then we might notice the ritual it presents for taking up our crosses daily.

Romans 5.9 through 6.10 gives Scripture’s longest explanation of how the cross works, the only place where Scripture says “saved from wrath.” It uses words like justify, righteousness, grace, crucify, and reconciliation (or “atonement”). Romans 5.19 plainly states that just as Adam made humans sinful by his disobedience, King Jesus makes humans righteous by His obedience. Then 6.2-10 says that baptism joins people to His cross and raises them to walk in “newness of life,” having crucified the “old human” in order to disable the capacity (or “body”) of sin.⁴ Yet we still struggle with sin; so, immediately after Scripture’s longest explanation of the cross, verse 11 tells us how to take up our crosses daily: 

“You, therefore, reckon yourselves also to be dead to sin yet living to God in King Jesus our Master!”

Perhaps this command can be obeyed by just thinking about Romans 6.2-10 or by repeating verse 11 to ourselves. It seems more likely, however, that the King’s ambassador to Rome expected the Romans to pray frequently through Romans 6.11, telling God that those things are true, that authentic Christians have been immersed into King Jesus, joined to His death, and born of the Holy Spirit to live for God as new creations. Therefore, we can deny our old selves which Roman 6.6 calls “the old human” and live for God’s desires instead of our former desires. Our King’s definition of Christianity in Luke 9.23 invites us to consider how Romans 6.6 clarifies that His cross is our own and invites us into the ritual that Romans 6.11 commands:

“… he must deny himself daily, take up His cross and journey with Me” (Luk 9.23)

“… our old human was crucified with Him so that the body of sin would be disabled” (Rom 6.6)

“… reckon yourselves to be dead to sin yet living to God in King Jesus our Master” (Rom 6.11)

 

JOYFUL HUMILIATION

The crowd had to be shocked when Jesus commanded His followers to take up their crosses and lose their lives. They would have thought of how conquerors and governors crucified rebels to deter others from rebelling. But Jesus didn’t threaten rebels; He demanded crucifixion of His own followers—not just any death, but a public execution designed for maximum humiliation.⁵ In God’s kingdom, we cannot run from humiliation; we either embrace it as the King required or prove our pretention.

The Roman Empire had more painful means of execution, such as slowly roasting as a human candle, the torment of the “breaking wheel,” and being sewn into a leather bag which was thrown underwater with an animal inside that bites and claws frantically for air while man and beast asphyxiate together.⁶ Rome refused to humiliate its citizens with crucifixion, so they mercifully beheaded Paul. Only the empire’s lowliest offenders would hang naked just inches above the ground to receive the spitting, hateful stares, and taunting of all who passed by them at almost eye level. 

Real Christianity has no room to claim, “You can’t talk to me like that.” Real Christians demonstrate humility daily, deny themselves, and journey with the wrongly accused King of Kings who said, “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master. It is satisfying to the disciple to become like his teacher, and the slave like his master. If they called the master of the house Be’elzeboul, what more could they call the servants of the house?”⁷

 

STRENGTH FOR LUKE 9.23

King Jesus required something humanly impossible in Luke 9.23 but also pointed us to relying on God to empower it. Our old nature cannot die to self and does not want to. Yet the more we contemplate Jesus’s way of life, the more we will seek our Father’s will and lay aside our desires, just as He said of Himself: 

“Truly, truly I say to you, the Son can do nothing from Himself unless He would see the Father doing something; for whatever He does, the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son and shows Him all He does,”⁸

and:

“I seek not My own will, but the will of the Father who sent Me.”⁹

His obsession with the Father’s words, desires, and actions may seem naive for us to practice in real life; but the King said no one enters His kingdom without becoming like a little child.¹⁰ From toddlers to fourth graders, kids generally trust their parents to help them get through life. The toy industry makes millions selling pretend kitchen appliances and home improvement tools, because parents use real ones. Little children obsess about being like their parents, and most of them trust their parents to help them become like them. If we want to follow Jesus, we have to ask our Father and trust our Father every day to help us do what He does. He is willing, and His strength is sufficient for our weaknesses.

 

BLASPHEMOUS CHRISTIANITY

A blasphemous Christianity would take the name of Jesus in futility (in vain). Where the Ten Commandments say, “You shall not take the name of Yahweh your God in vain,” it doesn’t mean, “Don’t cuss.” Taking His name in vain means identifying with Him and claiming to be His people without reflecting His life and mandates. The New Testament often warns about the grave danger of claiming Jesus without reflecting Him, sometimes openly calling that blasphemy. First Timothy 6.1 commands workers to “count their masters worthy of honor, so that God’s name and His teaching would not be blasphemed.” Titus 2.5 warns wives against blaspheming God’s word by their behavior. And Second Peter 2.2 says that when Christians follow false teachings, “the way of Truth will be blasphemed.”

Arrogant “Christians” blaspheme Jesus’ humility. Self-serving “Christians” blaspheme His self-sacrifice. When we push our will on others or demand to be heard, we blaspheme the name of Him who wanted only His Father’s desires. In John 8.28-29, the King of kings declared: 

“When you lift up the son of man, then you will know that I am and I do nothing from Myself, but I say these things just as My Father taught Me; and He who sent Me is with Me. The Father did not leave me alone, because I’m always doing the things pleasing to Him.”

That passage continues: “While He was saying these things, many trusted in Him. Therefore, He said to the Judeans who trusted in Him, ‘If you remain in My word, you truly are My disciples.’”¹¹ That last sentence is John 8.31, which does not define Christianity as believing the Bible. It starts with “Therefore,” demanding that we take it in context. We stay in His word (also meaning “logic”) only if we at least try to do His word–what He had just said: “I do nothing from myself, but I say these things just as My Father taught … I’m always doing the things pleasing to Him.” Real Christians stay in His word, the word He spoke in verses 28-29 about denying self-will in order to do God’s will. Preachers commit malpractice who abuse John 8.31 to claim that Jesus defined Christians by their beliefs. Peter has been proven right; when Christians follow such false teaching, “the way of Truth will be blasphemed.”¹²

 

NEIGHBORHOOD AND NATION

Ideas have consequences. If we want our nation to turn to Jesus, we must portray the Christ and His Christianity to the nation, embracing His definition by obeying Scripture’s demands in regard to the cross. So, we should pray through the commands in Romans 6.11, 13, and 19. We should also ask Him to deliver us from temptation (as He commanded) and tell Him frequently that we trust Him to train us in nonstop prayer. If we accepted the Christ’s definition of the Christian, we would probably pray through passages like Luke 9.23 regularly and frequently. The more we ask God to empower self-denial, the more we will practice it and start enjoying dying daily.

Romans 8.26 says even praying correctly is impossible without God’s help. The Holy Spirit will help us pray though, when we depend on and ask for His help while praying. Imitating our Heavenly Father, we can forgive others like He forgives. We can serve and bless people who hate us, because our Heavenly Dad keeps their hearts beating all day long and gives them sunlight, rain, oxygen, and crops. In love, He serves His haters even while they use His name as a cuss word. We are the ones who commit blasphemy when we claim the name of Jesus without living in humble, sacrificial, self-denying love to the benefit others.

If we’re honest with ourselves, nonbelievers are correct to reject so-called “Christians” who blaspheme that name by living for self-interest instead of self-sacrifice. Real Christians look like Luke 9.23 and therefore rejoice at the privilege of rejection for His name’s sake. When we have no will but the Father’s will, we reflect His deep humility and show the world that He’ still alive. If they reject us, let them reject us for living out His life, not for blasphemously plastering His name over an arrogant, self-serving, mockery of Christianity as mere beliefs in our heads.

“If anyone wants to follow Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and journey with Me.”¹

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