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Commentary on "Discipleship"
Day 4: Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Todays lesson in any other context would be a wonderful study. There is a quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer on the cost of Gods grace.
The only real problem comes at the bottom of the page with this question:
What is the cross that God has given you to bear?
This is just following an important statement by Bonhoeffer regarding the identity of the cross the Christian is called to bear.
Only a man . . . totally committed in discipleship can experience the meaning of the cross. The cross is there, right from the beginning, or he has only got to pick it up; there is no need for him to go out and look for a cross for himself, no need for him deliberately to run after suffering. Jesus says that every Christian has his own cross waiting for him, a cross destined and appointed by God.
If we ever identify the cross that we are to bear as something other than the very cross of Christ, we denigrate the cross of Christ. The cross of Christ may be manifested in each believers life in different ways, but the cross remains the same. I may be burdened with a disease, but that disease is not my cross. I may be burdened financially, but that financial crisis is not my cross. Each of these things in our lives that some Christians think of as our cross, is nothing more than an opportunity to glorify Christ in the midst of our sufferings.
The reproaches we bear from unbelievers, pointing out the foolishness of following Christ, is the suffering of which Christ spoke. But our circumstances are not to be confused with that.
Summary
- The cross that God has given us to bear is the cross of Christ.
- Our circumstances in life are not our cross.
- We have been crucified with Christ (Gal. 2:20). This is the cross that we bear when we become believers.
- Attacks from unbelievers, claiming we are foolish to believe in Christ is the suffering Christ foretold. Only in this way to we participate in the suffenings of Christ. This is the cross that we bear daily.
*All scripture quotations are from: The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. 2001, Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.
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