When we speak of the cross, we often think of salvation, grace, and love. And rightly so. The cross is the ultimate symbol of God's mercy, where Jesus bore the weight of our sins and opened the gates of eternal life. John 3:16 tells us, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” Then again, the Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 5:8, “But God commended His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” But to embrace the cross only as a token of comfort is to miss its full weight. The cross cost.
It cost Jesus everything. His dignity, His body, His blood. It cost him betrayal by friends, humiliation by enemies, and abandonment in his darkest hour as explained to us by the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 53:3-5. He says,
“ He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.”
In the gospel of Matthew 27:46, he reports that, “ And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me.” We are all fully aware that God the Father did not actually forsook Jesus, His son, but the weight of the world’s sin caused Jesus to feel separated from His Father. The cross was not a polished emblem on a necklace. It was rugged, cruel, and soaked with the agony of obedience. Jesus didn’t carry it for appearances; he carried it because it was the only path to our redemption as is written in Hebrews 12:2, where we are told, “ Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
The cross also costs us. When Jesus says, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me" (Matthew 16:24), he is not offering a suggestion. He is revealing the cost of discipleship. The cross we carry is not decorative. It may mean surrendering our pride (Philippians 2:3), forgiving the unforgivable (Ephesians 4:32), letting go of comfort zones, or standing for truth when it's unpopular (2 Timothy 3:12). It may mean daily dying to self so that Christ can live more fully in us as stated by the Apostle Paul to the Galatians, “ I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20).
The modern world prizes convenience, comfort, and personal gain. The cross calls us to the opposite: surrender, sacrifice, and service. The apostle implores us to “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. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God”
(Romans 12:1-2). The Cross Costs. Following Jesus will cost us our illusion of control, and in return, it will give us something far greater—true freedom, as the Apostle John declares in John 8:36, “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.”
The cost of the cross is not meant to discourage but to deepen our love and commitment to Jesus Christ. It reminds us that love is not cheap. Grace is free, but it is not without cost. Someone paid for it, and now we are invited into that same journey, to lose our lives so we might truly find them. Jesus tells us clearly, “… If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it” (Luke 9:23-24). The Cross Cost.
So today, let us not flinch from the cross. Let us take it up, not as a burden, but as a holy calling. For though it costs much, it leads to life everlasting, which is clearly explained in 2 Corinthians 4:17-18, where Paul tells the church at Corinth, “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. He surely shines a clearer and brighter picture of this walk of the Cross.
Finally, as we examine the cost of the Cross, we are compelled to remember that there is a hefty reward for bearing the cost of the Cross. John tells us unequivocally in Revelation 2:10, to “Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. He admonishes to be ‘faithful unto death.’ In other words, irrespective of the test, trial, or challenge, we must stay true just as Jesus Christ stayed through to the Cross. We must be prepared to suffer with Christ if we must reign with Him (Romans 8:17). Presently, Christians in the northern part of India, which is predominantly Muslim, are being persecuted, beaten, stoned, and killed for proclaiming Jesus. Even as we pray for them, they must be faithful unto death, to inherit the crown of life. Like the Apostle Paul we must all declare, “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38-39).
Beloved, The Cross Cost.
