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Scripture Reading: Mark 8:27-38; 9:1-13
In 8:34 the Lord Jesus says, “If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” In the foregoing message we pointed out that to come after the Lord is to gain Him, experience Him, enjoy Him, and partake of Him. If we would come after the Lord in this way, we need to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him. Let us now consider what it means for us to take up our cross.
Many Christians have a misunderstanding concerning the cross. They think that to take up the cross is to suffer hardship. This was my concept more than forty years ago. I told others that the difficulties in their environment were a cross to them. For example, if your husband or wife is troubling you, that is a cross. But when the Lord Jesus speaks of taking up the cross, He does not mean this. He means that we should apply the cross to our living. The real significance of the cross is not suffering — it is termination. In ancient times, crucifixion was not used merely to cause suffering; it was meant to cause death. Crucifixion, therefore, equals death, termination.
For us to take up the cross is for us to be terminated. I wish to emphasize the fact that the cross is for termination, not for suffering. Sometimes believers are not helped by suffering. I have known certain persons who suffered a great deal with the result that they became strongly self-willed. The more a person suffers in himself, the more his self-will is strengthened. Those who have passed through hardships in life and have become strong in their will are extremely difficult to touch. Eventually, when such a person reaches the age of sixty or seventy, he may have become so strong in his will that he cannot be changed.
The concept that the cross is a matter of suffering is contrary to the revelation of the Lord’s word in 8:34. In this verse He says, “If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” Here the Lord speaks of denying the self. To deny the self is to give it up; it is not to keep the self so that it may suffer.
Taking up the cross is not a matter of suffering. Instead, it is a matter of applying to our life what Christ has done on the cross to terminate us. Therefore, to take up the cross is to apply this termination to ourselves. Day by day we need to apply such a termination. If we do this, we shall realize not that we are suffering, but that we are terminated, finished, put to an end.
Suppose a brother says, “I thank God that, in His sovereignty, He has given me a wife who causes me to suffer and bear the cross. My wife is a cross given to me by God, and now I must bear this cross.” This is a serious misunderstanding of what it means to bear the cross. In fact, this understanding is related to that found in Catholicism. To some extent at least, this misunderstanding of the cross has been promoted by a famous book entitled The Imitation of Christ.
A married brother does not need to learn how to suffer. Rather, he needs to realize that, as a husband, he has already been terminated in Christ and that now he should live as a terminated husband, simply enjoying Christ’s termination. Then he may say to his wife, “Dear, I am not trying to be a good husband, to be a kind and gentle husband. I am here as a terminated husband. The more I am willing to experience Christ’s termination, the better I shall be as a husband, for then Christ will live in me. As He lives in me, He will be your husband through me.”
To come after the Lord is to partake of Him, enjoy Him, experience Him, and let Him become our very being. In order to come after the Lord in this way, we need to deny ourselves. We need to apply to ourselves the termination Christ has accomplished on the cross. This means that to bear our cross is to apply Christ’s termination to ourselves. When we do this, we become a crossed-out person, not a suffering person. Then we can testify, “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.”
Christ’s word concerning taking up the cross is a mystery. If we had only 8:34, we would not be able to understand Christ’s word about the cross. In order to understand this word properly, we need the fourteen Epistles of Paul.
The cross is not merely a suffering; it is also a killing. The cross kills and terminates the criminal. Christ first bore the cross and then was crucified. We, His believers, have first been crucified with Him and then bear the cross day by day. To us, bearing the cross is to remain under the killing of the death of Christ for the terminating of our self, our natural life, and our old man. In so doing we deny our self that we may follow the Lord.
Before the Lord’s crucifixion, the disciples followed Him in an outward way. But since His resurrection, we follow Him in an inward way. Because in resurrection He has become the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45) dwelling in our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22), we follow Him in our spirit (Gal. 5:16-25).
In 8:35 the Lord goes on to say, “For whoever wants to save his soul life will lose it, but whoever will lose his soul life for My sake and the gospel’s shall save it.” In this verse the Lord speaks about the soul life, whereas in the preceding verse He speaks about the self. Actually, these terms, the soul life and the self, are synonymous. Our soul life is our self, and our self is our soul life. We ourselves are a soul.
In 8:33-35 three matters are related to one another: mind, self, and soul life. Our mind is the expression of our self, and our self is the embodiment of our soul life. Our soul life is embodied in and lived out by our self, and our self is expressed through our mind, thought, concept, opinion. When we set our mind, not on the things of God, but on the things of man, our mind grasps the opportunity to act and express itself. This was what happened with Peter. Therefore, the Lord said that we must deny the self and not save our soul life. Instead of saving the soul life, we should lose it. To lose the soul life is the reality of denying the self. This is to take up the cross.
In verse 35 the Lord speaks of saving the soul life and losing the soul life. We may say that to save the soul life is to allow the soul to have its enjoyment and not to suffer. To lose the soul life is to cause the soul to suffer the loss of its enjoyment. If the followers of the Slave-Savior allow their soul to have its enjoyment in this age, they will cause their soul to suffer the loss of its enjoyment in the coming kingdom age. If they allow their soul to suffer the loss of its enjoyment in this age for the sake of the Lord and the gospel, they will cause their soul to have its enjoyment in the coming kingdom age.
In verse 35 the Lord speaks of losing the soul life for His sake and the gospel’s. Many readers of the Gospel of Mark misinterpret the Lord’s word about losing our soul life for His sake and the gospel’s. Some may say, “The words ‘for My sake’ mean for the Lord’s purpose and glory. The phrase ‘for the gospel’s’ must mean for the sake of the preaching of the gospel, for the sake of the effectiveness and result of the gospel. For the sake of the Lord’s glory and for the sake of preaching the gospel, I must behave myself in a proper way.” This concept is wrong. It is not a correct interpretation of the Lord’s word here.
What, then, is the correct understanding of “for My sake and the gospel’s”? Here for the Lord’s sake actually means “no longer I, but the gospel.” We have been terminated in Christ. Now we need to apply this termination to ourselves and to every aspect of our living. Then in our living it will be “no longer I, but Christ, no longer I, but the gospel.” This means that we shall be living Christ and living the gospel. This is very different from trying to behave ourselves properly as Christians for the sake of the Lord’s glory and for the sake of the effectiveness of the gospel.
Let me illustrate the difference between living Christ and the gospel and trying to behave properly for the sake of Christ and the gospel. Suppose a certain brother is working in an office. This brother may say to himself, “My colleagues here in the office realize that I am a Christian and that I am in the church in the Lord’s recovery. Recently I have preached the gospel to them. Now I should behave myself and be very careful about what I say and do. For the gospel’s sake, I need to be careful with my colleagues. Now that I have preached the gospel to them and have told them that I am in the church, I need to be very watchful concerning my conduct.” Actually, this is a matter of the brother’s own effort. Furthermore, it is an absolutely incorrect understanding of the Lord’s word in 8:35.
If this brother working in the office has the correct understanding of the Lord’s word, he will say to himself, “As a follower of the Lord Jesus, I am a partaker of Him. I have been crucified with Him. Now it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. At work I do not need to try to behave myself. I do not have to exert myself to be so careful. Instead, I should simply live Christ day by day. When I wake up in the morning, I need to call on the Lord Jesus and breathe Him in. As I call on Him, He becomes my breath, the intrinsic and essential element of my inner being, the essence of my living. Then at the office I simply live Him. I shall not deliberately try to preach the gospel to my colleagues, and I shall not worry because of the fact that I have told them that I am in the church. I only care for one thing — for living Christ. All day long, I want to breathe in Christ and then live Him.” This is the correct understanding of losing our soul life for the Lord’s sake.
The principle is the same in the matter of living for the sake of the gospel. When we live Christ, we shall certainly live the gospel. As we live Christ, others will see the gospel in our living and not only hear it. Our living will be Christ, and this Christ will become the gospel to others in an actual and practical way. By this we see that living for the sake of Christ and the gospel is not a matter of our behavior; it is a matter of living Christ in a practical way. Regarding this, I would say once again that we need the Epistles of Paul in order to have an adequate understanding of the Lord’s word in verse 35.
In 8:27-38 we have an unveiling not only of the Lord’s wonderful Person, but also of His death and resurrection. This unveiling also includes our application of the Lord’s death and our living in His resurrection. Through the application of Christ’s death to ourselves we may live in Christ in resurrection.
After the unveiling of Christ’s Person and His death and resurrection, the Lord went on to say in 9:1, “Truly I tell you, there are some of those standing here who shall by no means taste death until they see the kingdom of God come in power.” This was fulfilled by the Lord’s transfiguration on the mountain (9:2-13). His transfiguration was the coming of the kingdom of God in power. This was seen by three of His disciples, Peter, James, and John.
The Lord’s transfiguration on the mountain was the coming of the kingdom. This kingdom is actually the enlargement of Christ. First, Christ is sown as a seed into our heart. This seed will then grow and develop until it is manifested in glory. This is the kingdom. The time has not yet come for the kingdom to be manifested in full. However, through His transfiguration Christ demonstrated to three of His disciples what the reality of the kingdom is. When He was transfigured, that was the manifestation of the kingdom of God.
Mark 9:2 says, “And after six days Jesus takes with Him Peter and James and John, and brings them up into a high mountain by themselves alone. And He was transformed before them.” Since the Lord’s transfiguration took place six days after the revelation concerning Christ and His death and resurrection in chapter eight (given at the very foot of Mount Hermon), the high mountain here must be Mount Hermon. To receive the revelation concerning Christ and His death and resurrection, we need to be far away from the religious environment. But to see the vision of the transfigured Christ we need to be on a high mountain, far above the earthly level.
In verse 4 the record continues, “And there appeared to them Elijah together with Moses, and they were conversing with Jesus.” Moses died and God hid his body (Deut. 34:5-6), and Elijah was taken by God into heaven (2 Kings 2:11). God purposely did these two things so that Moses and Elijah might appear with Christ on the mount of His transfiguration. They were also preserved by God to be the two witnesses in the great tribulation (Rev. 11:3-4). Moses represented the law, and Elijah the prophets. The law and the prophets were the constituents of the Old Testament as a full testimony of Christ (John 5:39). Now Moses and Elijah appeared and conversed with Christ concerning His death (Luke 9:31) as it had been prophesied in the Old Testament (Luke 24:25-27, 44; 1 Cor. 15:3).
On the mountain with the Lord Jesus, Peter, James, and John had a foretaste of the coming kingdom. Here we see a miniature of the millennium. We have the Old Testament saints — Moses and Elijah — and New Testament saints — Peter, James, and John. We may say that Moses, one of the Old Testament saints, signifies the resurrected ones, and Elijah, Peter, James, and John, all living ones, represent those who are raptured.
Peter was very excited, and said to the Lord Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. And let us make three tabernacles — one for You, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah” (v. 5). Peter’s absurd proposal was to put Moses and Elijah on the same level with Christ, which means to make the law and the prophets equal to Christ. This was absolutely against God’s economy. In God’s economy the law and the prophets were only a testimony to Christ; they should not be put on the same level with Him.
Mark 9:7 says, “And a cloud came overshadowing them, and a voice came out of the cloud, This is My Son, the Beloved. Hear Him!” This declaration of the Father to vindicate the Son was first given after Christ’s rising from baptism, which signified His resurrection from the dead. This instance is the second time the Father declared the same thing, this time to vindicate the Son in His transfiguration, which prefigures the coming kingdom.
In verse 7 God charges us to hear His Son. In God’s economy, now that Christ has come, we should “hear Him,” no longer the law or the prophets, because the law and the prophets were fulfilled in Christ and by Him.
Verse 8 continues, “And suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone with them, except Jesus only.” Peter proposed to keep Moses and Elijah, that is, the law and the prophets, with Christ. But God took Moses and Elijah away, leaving no one “except Jesus only.” The law and the prophets were shadows and prophecies, not the reality; the reality is Christ. Now that Christ, the reality, is here, the shadows and the prophecies are no longer needed. No one except Jesus Himself alone should remain in the New Testament. Jesus is today’s Moses, imparting the law of life into His believers. Jesus is also today’s Elijah, speaking for God and speaking forth God within His believers. This is God’s New Testament economy.
The New Testament age is a matter of Jesus only. We should hear Him, not the law represented by Moses or the prophets represented by Elijah. Christ Himself is the New Testament. Here in chapter nine of Mark a miniature of the millennium appeared briefly as an example that was shown to the Lord’s disciples. Then the scene returned to that of the New Testament age.
Mark 9:9 says, “And as they were coming down from the mountain, He ordered them that they should relate to no one the things which they had seen, except when the Son of Man should rise from the dead.” This indicates that the vision of the transfigured, glorified Jesus could not be realized by anyone except in the resurrection of Christ.
Verse 10 says, “And they kept the matter to themselves, discussing what rising from the dead is.” At that time, Peter, James, and John did not understand what the Lord meant when He said that the Son of Man should rise from the dead. They had seen a vision, but they did not understand it thoroughly. But on the day of Pentecost, when Peter stood up with the eleven, he was clear and could testify strongly concerning Christ’s resurrection. On the day of Pentecost, the central point of Peter’s preaching was the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. The resurrection of Christ became the focal point of Peter’s gospel preaching. Peter not only came to understand what the resurrection is, but he himself was in this resurrection. He came to live Christ in His death and resurrection.
