The Cross-T. Austin Sparks Thoughts

Further thoughts from a book called  SCHOOL OF CHRIST by T. Austin-Sparks

Christ said, " If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me" and "Whosoever doth not bear his own cross, and come after Me, cannot be My disciple." (Luke 9:23 and 14:27)


"...in the cross we have been brought to an end. The Lord Jesus took this way and set baptism right at the beginning of His public life, and under the annointing of the Spirit, from that moment He absolutely refused to listen to His own mind, apart from God, to be in any way influenced by anything arising from the dictates of His own humanity, sinless as it was, apart from God."


* (my thought-Jesus said that He did not come to do His own will, but the will of the Father. This infers that He had a will, like we do as humans, and He was also human, called the Son of Man. But He continually and without fail did the will of the One who sent Him) 


"All the way along He was being governed by the Anointing; in what He said, what He did, what He refused to do: where He went, and when He went; and was putting back every other influence, whether coming from the disciples, or from the Devil, or from any other direction. His attitude was , Father what do You think about this: what do You want: is this Your time? not My judgments, but Yours; not My feelings, but what You feel about it! He had died, in effect to Himself; He had been buried, in effect. His baptism had meant that for Him, and that is also where we stand."


" Whosoever doth not bear his own cross..." Christ is saying we can never know Him unless the cross is operating continually to put us out and make way for Him; so that we can accept His mind, and the cross means that we have been crucified to our own mind about things; our mind has come under the cross; our feelings, our ways have to come under the cross daily. This is how we make our way of learning Christ, His mind, His government, His judgment, His everything. This is the school of discipleship, the School of Christ."