Gary Chapman, an author and marriage counselor, developed the concept of the five love languages. In his bestselling book The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love That Lasts, he describes how one of these languages is the giving and receiving of gifts.
From my experience walking with the Lord over the last couple of years, I’d guess that if God were to take the quiz at the end of Chapman’s book, gifts would rank as one of His top love languages—maybe even His highest. The love He has for us is unmeasurable. The famous John 3:16 tells us that He loves us so much that He sent His only Son, and whoever believes in Him will have eternal life.
“…but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 6:23 (ESV)
Like any gift, it has to be received before it can be enjoyed. The same is true with Jesus. To enjoy and have access to our free gift from God, we must first receive Him. When we receive Jesus, we’re not just accepting an idea or a belief—we’re welcoming a person. He described Himself as “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). In other words, He’s not simply showing us the path; He is the path. Everything our hearts long for—direction, truth, and life itself—is found in Him.
A Journey Begins
But receiving Christ is just the beginning. Once we do, we’re also called to follow Him and walk in the way He leads.
Here’s an interesting side note: Followers of Jesus weren’t called Christians until later. In Acts 9, Saul, who later became Paul, referred to believers and followers of Jesus as people who “belonged to the Way.” Since Jesus is the Way, following Him means trusting His direction even when it doesn’t make sense in the natural, can be difficult, or pushes us out of our comfort zones.
Following Christ isn’t always easy, and Jesus never said it would be. However, He did promise that His burden is easy and His yoke is light (Matthew 11:28-30). Still, that doesn’t mean there’s no burden and no yoke.
“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?” – Luke 14:26-28 (ESV)
Counting the Cost
Following Christ requires sacrifice—the sacrifice of self. These words from Jesus to the crowd can be difficult to digest, but they should be a staple in our walk with Christ. Our daily attitude should be, “Lord, not my will, but Yours.”
Jesus’s words to the crowd echo what He said in Luke 9:23: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.”
Jesus would never ask us to do something He wasn’t willing to do Himself. As part of God’s free gift to us, Jesus took our place and carried what we couldn’t. Through His sacrifice on the cross, He gave us a living example of what it means to deny ourselves and take up our cross.
Looking at the crucifixion, we can see it was extremely difficult for Jesus to endure. Yet Jesus knew exactly that’s why He came. He knew the plans and purposes for His life. In His suffering, He prayed and made His requests and sorrow known to the Father, but at the end of His prayer, He denied His will in exchange for the Father’s (Luke 22:42).
We need to have that same approach every day of our lives. We can bring our requests before God—our feelings, desires, dreams, struggles, pain, and suffering—but in the end, our hearts and attitudes should echo the same words Jesus prayed: “Not my will, but Yours be done.”
The Weight of the Cross
As we pick up our cross and follow Christ, it won’t always be easy. When we look at what Jesus endured on His way to the cross, we can almost recognize similar moments in our own journeys.
Just as Jesus was mocked along the road and taunted while hanging on the cross—people shaking their heads at Him, hurling insults, saying things like “He saved others; he cannot save himself” (Matthew 27:42)—we too face voices that doubt us, mock our faith and decisions, or question God’s goodness.
Sometimes on our own journey, we join those who stood by the cross, and we start questioning God ourselves:
“Surely You can just take this away, God.”
“You’re capable of removing and ending this struggle from my life.”
“Surely You can bring supernatural provision.”
“Why can’t You just remove this addiction from me?”
These are just a few examples from my own tantrums. In our pain and suffering, we sometimes even reach the point where we find ourselves whispering the same words Jesus did: “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?”
The Resurrection Is Coming
I’d like to think that Jesus’s silence toward the hecklers was because He knew what was coming. He was able to save Himself from the cross, but He knew the resurrection was still ahead. Saving Himself from the cross would have been impressive and would have left people stunned, but being resurrected from the dead? That’s HUGE. An even greater miracle to show the people.
You might feel like you’re hanging abandoned on a cross while others spectate, shaking their heads, commenting, and laughing at you. But I want to tell you that God’s not done. He will take you through the difficult times, refining your faith by fire, but He knows what’s coming. While we can get caught up with our “death on the cross”, God has a resurrection planned.
The Word of God says He can do far more abundantly than anything we can ever imagine. But to lay hold of that resurrection moment, you first need to take that first step with your cross picked up and your eyes fixed on Jesus.
Meet Simon from Cyrene
What can we learn from Jesus and Simon of Cyrene? (Matthew 27:32) Simon was the man who was forced to carry the cross of Jesus. I remember the first time I read about him. I was going through a difficult time, and as I read how they forced him to carry Jesus’s cross, I felt God saying to me, “Just take the first step. I’ll do the rest.”
And that’s how God has worked ever since in my life and in the lives of every other follower of Christ I know. Once we take that step, He comes through. He sends “Simons” our way to help us.
Even with Simon carrying the cross, Jesus still had to die on it. Jesus still suffered, was still struck on the head, spat on, mocked, and died on the cross—but the physical weight of carrying the cross was taken from Him.
Similarly, when we follow Christ through the plans and purposes for our lives, out of obedience and through pain and suffering, God will help and carry us through it all, but we still have to do what God has called us to do!
Hebrews 12:2 reminds us: “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Jesus endured the cross for the joy set before Him—the joy of our salvation, of bringing us back to the Father. He saw past the pain to the resurrection, past the shame to the glory. And that same hope is ours as we follow Him.
The journey of following Christ is free—paid for by His sacrifice—but it’s not cheap. It will cost us everything. And yet, in losing our lives for His sake, we truly find them.
-by Derick Greyling
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