Why is following Christ so difficult?

'Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.' These words of the Lord are bitter for the flesh, but they express in the clearest manner the seriousness of the situation. The decision to be taken has eternal consequences. This is why we must not look for a conflict between these verses and Matthew 11:30: 'For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.' The natural, unregenerate man is without strength; he is ungodly, a sinner and an enemy of God (according to Romans 5:6-10). For such a one to follow Christ is an indescribable hardship. This is why he needs the love, grace and mercy of God to draw him. In contrast, it is easy for the born again man to follow his Master. He has received a new nature from God, and this has the sole desire to do His will, although the old nature remains and continues to resist the new one.

Our Lord turns to the disciples and puts before them that not merely is He going to the cross, but they must be prepared to follow Him there. If I am to be in the true path of Jesus, I must deny myself and take up the cross and follow — not the disciples — not this church or that church, but — Jesus Himself. I must turn from what is pleasing to my heart naturally. I must meet with shame and rejection in this present evil world. If not, depend upon it, I am not following Jesus; and remember, it is a dangerous thing to believe in Jesus without following Him. Following Jesus maybe like losing one's life. At the present time much confession of Christ is, comparatively, an easy matter. There is little opposition, or persecution. People imagine that the world is changed; they talk of progress and enlightenment. The truth is, Christians are changed. Let us ask ourselves whether we desire to be found taking up our cross and following Jesus. "If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for My sake shall find it" (vers. 24, 25).

But, as we have seen, the abounding and activity of grace, so this induces necessarily conflict; as the rejection of Jesus involved rejection, the activity of goodness involved the sacrifice of all in a world in possession of the enemy - the cost of all that tied us to it, and the opposition of the prince of it. If one made inroads in his kingdom one could not keep its outward blessing if one made war upon him. Of this Jesus warns the multitudes. They followed Him as an easy thing, interested and attracted, but not knowing whither He went or whither it led them. He tells them plainly: You cannot follow Me without sacrificing all, life and all. There is the principle of the new dispensation and its grace; the world is all gone wrong. It is the introduction of an extraordinary power into it, this very grace. The world is adverse. These things are links to it by which Satan will hinder in the war - the heart's hostages in his hands; there must be entire and simple devotedness in the war. So it was in Jesus in the exercise of grace. Such was discipleship to Him, for discipleship, though every Christian is a disciple, and every disciple is a Christian, is more than a Christian. It takes up the Christian in his learning from and following of Jesus in His life and service. "Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit, so shall ye be my disciples," for He had borne much fruit. So far as His disciples in this service and following Him, this would be the result or the necessity, and at the commencement that His work and its efficacy might be presented in power and force, it actually involved all this. It always does in the service to which this applies. So far as that service goes the warfare always involves the same consequences, "So then," says the apostle, "death worketh in us but life in you." He was carrying about in his body the dying (nekrosin) of the Lord Jesus, that His life might be manifest in his mortal body; he could not follow Jesus in his service otherwise. Such was his advice to Timothy. No man goeth a warfare at any time, etc.; and whoever did not carry his cross, set out on a constant course of humiliation, shame, and self-denial, cannot be His disciple.

On the Lord's departure great multitudes go with Him, to whom He turns with the words, "If any man come to me, and shall not hate377 his own father, and mother, and wife and children, and brothers and sisters; yea and his own life too, he cannot be my disciple." They might have thought that at any rate they would treat the Lord better than His message — so little does man know of himself. The Lord would not permit that the multitude then following Him should flatter themselves that they at least were willing to partake of the supper, that they were incapable of treating God with the contempt described in the parable. So the Lord tells them what following Himself involves. The disciple must follow Christ so simply and decidedly that it would seem to other eyes a complete neglect of natural ties, and an indifference to the nearest and strongest claims of kin. Not that the Lord calls for want of affection; but so it might and must look to those who are left behind in His name. The attractive power of grace must be greater than all natural fetters, or any other claims of whatsoever kind, over him who would be His disciple. And more than this: it is a question of carrying one's cross and going after Him. "Whoever does not carry his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple." It is not enough to come to Him at first, but we must follow Him day by day. Whoever does not this cannot be His disciple. Thus in verse 26 we see the forsaking of all for Christ, and in verse 27 the following Christ with pain and suffering and going on in it.377a

The force of "deny himself" is hardly expressed by "self-denial," which is the denying oneself of something. What the Lord speaks of is not that but the denial, or the saying of "no," to oneself. Also, "take up his cross" does not mean bearing trials and troubles merely. The man who in those days took up his cross was being led to execution. He was a man who had to accept death at the hands of the world. To say "no" to oneself is to accept death internally, on one's own spirit: to take up one's cross is to accept death externally at the hands of the world. That is what discipleship must mean, since we follow the Christ who died, rejected of the world.

But see what the Lord asks the man to do who comes after Him. "Let him deny himself." When you have come to Christ, and have perhaps passed the first flush of the joy and rapture of knowing that all your sins are forgiven, that you have been accepted, and that, vile and sinful as you were, the Lord received you, and showered upon you the blessings of His love and His grace: I say, when the joy of this experience has for a moment subsided, then it is that many a person finds out, to his surprise, that he has a traitor within his own heart, that he has a foe within himself, and that he has within him what rises up day by day to impede his walk and service for the Lord Jesus Christ. The position then is that there is a voice within him that calls him to serve and follow Jesus Christ, and there is another voice which says, 'Take your ease. All is right with you for the heaven to come. You have eternal life. Rest on your oars. Do not struggle. What need to make such efforts? All will come right in the end. Take your ease.' Need I say what result invariably follows unwatchfulness? The man who does not watch and pray is the man who falls into temptation. He succumbs, and what a spectacle such a failure is? That is a man who has rested upon Christ, and there he is, back in the mire, so to speak.

The disciples are thinking, What is the meaning of this, that this lovable character is driven away, and can't come to God? Well, the very grace that has come to seek and save drives away the natural heart because it can't bear it. It detects the heart, and must claim it for God both as Creator and Redeemer. They were still looking to tack the new thing on to the old, looking for the glory in a carnal way. The Lord says, "You must take up the cross and follow me. If you follow me, I can give you the cross; that is all I have to give you now." He takes the lowly place as to man and the world; death was all He had for those who followed Him. (vv. 38-40.) "Can you drink of the cup that I drink of?" They say, "Yes," deceiving themselves. He says, You will (not atonement, but suffering) - you will have to suffer if you take up the cross and follow me really. You shall be like me, and close to me too; but what you must reckon on is the cross, if you are going to glory. "If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour." Not that there is not joy, "a hundredfold now in this time;" but He says, "I must have your hearts. I have to die, and if you are going to follow me, the road I am going is to the cross, that is the path I am going to the glory." Are you ready to take up your cross, or have you a question if the cross is right, or if there is any other road? The Lord knew none, and I know none.

There is another point. If we were perfect, all would be simple; but we have a great deal to learn and to detect and correct. At this time the Lord set His face steadfastly to go to Jerusalem, and the disciples want to know the meaning of it. "The Jews sought to stone thee, and goest thou thither again?" "As they followed they were afraid." Not only will and lust were detected, but they were afraid of following Christ. Don't you know what that is? The instant you are following Christ there is the consciousness that the world is against you. Nicodemus went to the Lord by night because he was afraid to go by day. There is the instinctive consciousness that the world is against us, and we are afraid to confess Christ in our habits, our houses, Sac. It is very base, but there it is. Paul says what things were gain to him he counted loss for Christ; he did not go away sorrowful. He says, "I am glad to get rid of it" (it is dross and dung) "to win Christ." There was the energy and power of the Spirit. Did Paul follow trembling? Not at all. Five times forty stripes save one - beaten, stoned, all sorts of things! It was all on the road, and he had real liberty, "always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus." These disciples did not dare leave the Lord; they kept in the way, for here was eternal life in Him and nowhere else; but they had no liberty. When He spoke of the cross Peter said, "That be far from Thee;" and the Lord says, "Get thee behind me, Satan "the very man who had confessed Him as the Christ, and to whom He had said, "Blessed art thou." But if he will not take up the cross, he is "Satan." "Thou art an offence unto me." The cross deals with all that is of man, and where there is the willing spirit and blessed free liberty with God, the power of Christ rests upon us, and it is no sacrifice to give up human righteousness, or all I possess if need be, that I may win Christ; they are only weights as I run the race.

142 The disciples are thinking, What is the meaning of this, that this lovable character is driven away, and cannot come to God? Well, the very grace that has come to seek and save, drives away the natural heart because it cannot bear it. It detects the heart, and must claim it for God both as Creator and Redeemer. They were still looking to tack the new thing on to the old, looking for the glory in a carnal way. The Lord says, You must take up the cross and follow me. If you follow Me, I can give you the cross; that is all I have to give you now. He takes the lowly place as to man and the world; death was all He had for those who followed Him (v. 38-40). "Can you drink of the cup that I drink of?" They say, "Yes," deceiving themselves. He says, "Ye shall indeed drink of the cup that I drink of" (not atonement, but suffering) - you will have to suffer if you take up the cross and follow Me really. You shall be like Me, and close to Me too; but what you must reckon on is the cross, if you are going to glory. "If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour." Not that there is not joy, "a hundred fold now in this time"; but He says, I must have your hearts: I have to die, and if you are going to follow me, the road I am going is to the cross, that is the path I am going to the glory. Are you ready to take up your cross, or have you a question if the cross is right, or if there is any other road? The Lord knew none, and I know none.

There is another point. If we were perfect, all would be simple; but we have a great deal to learn and to detect and correct. At this time the Lord set His face steadfastly to go to Jerusalem, and the disciples want to know the meaning of it. "The Jews sought to stone thee, and goest thou thither again?" "As they followed they were afraid." Not only will and lust were detected, but they were afraid of following Christ. Do not you know what that is? The instant you are following Christ there is the consciousness that the world is against you. Nicodemus went to the Lord by night because he was afraid to go by day. There is the instinctive consciousness that the world is against us, and we are afraid to confess Christ in our habits, our houses, etc. It is very base, but there it is. Paul says what things were gain to him he counted loss for Christ; he did not go away sorrowful. He says, I am glad to get rid of it (it is dross and dung) "to win Christ." There was the energy and power of the Spirit. Did Paul follow trembling? Not at all. Five times forty stripes save one - beaten, stoned, all sorts of things! It was all on the road, and he had real liberty, "always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus." These disciples did not dare leave the Lord; they kept in the way, for here was eternal life in Him and nowhere else; but they had no liberty. When He spoke of the cross Peter says, "That be far from thee"; and the Lord says, "Get thee behind me, Satan" - the very man who had confessed Him as the Christ, and to whom He had said, "Blessed art thou." But if he will not take up the cross, he is "Satan." "Thou art an offence unto me." The cross deals with all that is of man, and where there is the willing spirit and blessed free liberty with God, the power of Christ rests upon us, and it is no sacrifice to give up human righteousness, or all I possess if need be, that I may win Christ; they are only weights as I run the race.

Hearing things such as these, great multitudes went with Him. Many there are who like to hear of something which is to be had for nothing. The Lord turned, and set before these the conditions of discipleship. The grace of God imposes no conditions, but the Gospel which announces that grace does conduct our feet into the path of discipleship, which can only be trodden rightly as we submit to very stringent conditions. Four are mentioned here. (1) The Master must be supreme in the affections of the disciple; so much so that all other loves must be as hatred compared with it. (2) There must be the bearing of the cross in our following of Him; that is, a readiness to accept a death sentence as from the world. (3) There must be a counting of the cost as regards our resources; a correct appraisal of all that is ours in the Christ whom we follow. (4) There must equally be a correct appraisal of the powers arrayed against us.

People who may think of becoming disciples, as well as disciples, ought to know that the cross is the disciple's present portion. In Mark 8:34, we find the same account as above: but it is added here that He "called the people with his disciples also," which shows how He wishes those who think of becoming disciples to know it is present suffering they come to. Unless a man does see what Christ has to give, in reality, and from what to deliver, he had better stop a moment ere he says, "I will be thy disciple." Stop and count the cost. But let him also, while so stopping, count both sides of the question; — what the issue will be if he tarries where he is; that is, what fearful wrath is coming on the place, and how there he cannot have the kingdom and glory which Christ gives to those that come to Him; and then let him look to it, that he set not out on the way in his own strength.