Give Your All and Live Free

Romans 12:1  I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

What makes something worth dying for? What makes a person willing to expend their life for someone or a cause?

We may love our job, but would we die for it? We may love giving to a charity, but would we die for it? Most people would not die for their job or for their favorite charity or many other things for that matter. Then where does it cross over into a passion so deep that we would literally die for something instead of sacrificing principles and saving ourselves?

John 10:11
I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.

17-18
Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.
No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.

Jesus was willing to die for the people of this world. Evidently he saw the worth of mankind as more than his personal convenience. The Lord was convinced that the cause of salvation was worth everything he would be called upon to endure and even death when required.

Paul had a similar view when it came to dying for something and/or someone.

Philippians 1:21-24 (KJV)
²¹ For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
²² But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labour: yet what I shall choose I wot not.
²³ For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better:
²⁴ Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.

Notice he says that if he remains alive it is beneficial for Christ but if he chose to die it would be gain to himself. Paul was willing to die for what he believed in and ultimately he did just that. He was equally willing to live inconvenienced if it meant the Philippians would receive benefit.

This really comes from being so persuaded that the person and cause is of such worth, that dying for it/them is a contribution and not personal loss. It’s something bigger than yourself, and you are a part, not the whole. In other words, the person or cause doesn’t exist exclusively for you, but you exist for the person and/or cause.

Luke 9:23-24 (KJV)
²³ And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.
²⁴ For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.

Jesus requires us to pick up our cross and follow him on a daily basis. This means we must believe this is a cause worth dying for. I have to believe it’s bigger than me and I’m a part of something larger than myself. When I lay my life down, I have not lost, I have  gained. 
 
The cross is synonymous with self-denial. Why is it so important to deny myself? If we don’t deny ourselves, there will be a day we deny Jesus.

Mark 8:38 Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.

Self-denial is a call to inconvenience. Christ did not call us to a life of convenience but to his bidding for assistance in the completion of his plan. That plan may include hardship and everything contrary to a world-defined successful life. Their definition of success which includes financial windfalls, positions of popularity, and perpetual comfort may not be what is experienced by a Christian. 

What does picking up your cross mean?

It means removing ourselves from the throne of our lives and installing Jesus as first place and absolute ruler in our hearts. 

What actually is your cross?  

When God’s command crosses your will, there is your cross.  A cross is what you would rather not do. It's being with people you do not want to be with, giving or spending money you do not want to spend, interruptions or a rebuke you do not want to respond to. 

In other words, I must be willing to die to anything deemed important in my life that keeps me from God, and I must be willing to do anything God asks of me.


We often speak of and trivialize "our cross" as the need to put up with an in-law, a leaky roof or sputtering car, but it is much more than that.  It is living in this world as a Christian when others around you are not.  It is denying yourself in order to serve God.  Your cross is whatever it is that attempts to stand in the way of you following Jesus, remaining true to God, and pursuing his truth.

What is self-denial? . . . To deny self is to say no to every wish that comes out of the personal life. To deny self is radical.  It goes down to the roots of things. A man may practice self-denial all his life and never deny himself. A man may practice self-denial in this and that respect, and all the while his self–centeredness is strengthened. Jesus did not say exercise self-denial in externalities. He said deny self, have done with choosing, wishing, planning, arranging for self.  Choose no more, will no more, except to will that God shall will...I deny self when I hand over the keys of the citadel to the king and say, Enter and reign in every chamber of the being, in all possibilities of the soul (G. Campbell Morgan, The Westminster Pulpit, (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1954) Volume I, pp. 43-44).

 If you want to determine for yourself what things in life are worth dying for then simply consider your ideology and the weight of the values you hold contrasted with the consequences and implications of death.

-Reuben Egolf