[Hymn] 십자가를 내가 지고 [Jesus, I my cross have taken] 예수 나를 사랑하사 빛난 얼굴 뵈시면 원수들이 미워하나 염려할 것 없도다! [Eng.Sub]

1 Jesus, I my cross have taken, all to leave and follow thee; destitute, despised, forsaken, thou from hence my all shalt be. Perish ev'ry fond ambition, all I've sought or hoped or known; yet how rich is my condition, God and heav'n are still my own. 2 Let the world despise and leave me, they have left my Savior too; human hearts and looks deceive me; thou art not, like man, untrue; and, while thou shalt smile upon me, God of wisdom, love, and might, foes may hate and friends may shun me; show thy face, and all is bright. 3 Man may trouble and distress me, 'twill but drive me to thy breast; life with trials hard may press me, heav'n will bring me sweeter rest. O 'tis not in grief to harm me while thy love is left to me; O 'twere not in joy to charm me, were that joy unmixed with thee. 4 Take, my soul, thy full salvation, rise o'er sin and fear and care; joy to find in ev'ry station something still to do or bear; think what Spirit dwells within thee, what a Father's smile is thine, what a Savior died to win thee: child of heav'n, shouldst thou repine? 5 Hasten on from grace to glory, armed by faith and winged by prayer; heav'n's eternal day's before thee, God's own hand shall guide thee there. Soon shall close thy earthly mission, swift shall pass thy pilgrim days; hope soon change to glad fruition, faith to sight, and prayer to praise. Lyte takes his cues from the two main emphases in the New Testament texts on following Jesus. The first is leaving all to follow Christ, the call his first disciples answered. “They left everything and followed him” (Luke 5:11). “See, we have left everything and followed you” (Matthew 19:27; Mark 10:28; Luke 18:28). This is a call that is costly in the short term but abundantly rewarding in the end (Matthew 19:29; Mark 10:30). It is the call the rich, young man would not answer (Mark 10:21–22). The second, then, is even more daunting: taking up the cross. “Whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me” (Matthew 10:38). “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). In the throes of rebellion against our Maker, unregenerate hearts hate the real Jesus. They take deadly aim at him, and our following him puts us in their sights. It’s only a matter of time till we’re under fire. “As we sing, we plead, ‘Jesus, make me more like this!’”TweetShare on Facebook Following Jesus does not guarantee actual crucifixion, but it does require taking up the cross, a readiness to choose him over life without him, come what may. “If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household” (Matthew 10:25). If sinners staked the Son of God to history’s most horrible instrument of torture, what might they do to us if we stay faithful? Yet again the embrace of near-term loss comes with Jesus’s great promise of gain. “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 16:25). In taking up the cross, and exposing ourselves to new dangers in this life, we are securing “that which is truly life” (1 Timothy 6:19). Abandoned and Deceived This mingling of loss and gain, of real danger and deeper delight, makes these lyrics so powerful as worship and as formation. I am “destitute, despised, forsaken,” but Christ is “my all,” and God is “my own.” In Christ, our heavenly condition is rich, even as we are struck with successive waves of earthly injury. So also in stanza three, fellow man will “trouble and distress me.” Hear the refrain of Psalm 107 (verses 6, 13, 19, and 28): “they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress.” As life in this age presses us with trials, we not only endure with the Spirit’s help, but in the process we sweeten the rest to come. Not only will “the sufferings of this present time” not compare to the glory that will be revealed to us (Romans 8:18), but the trials themselves will contribute to making our future all the better. “This light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Corinthians 4:17). Not only do the obstacles of this age pose no final threat to heaven’s bliss, but the obstacles go to work for our increased joy now. Afflictions, endured in faith, produce for us a greater eternity. God’s designs in the griefs he lovingly filters into our lives are not for our harm but eternal good. Pain as Pleasure, Loss as Gain With God as both Father and Sovereign, we enjoy a settled peace, even as our boat continues to be battered. Stanza five speaks of “joy to find in every station,” and the assurance of coming to know our “full salvation,” and “ris[ing] over sin and fear and care.” We have been invited into a life of Trinitarian remembrance. “Yes, we lose. But how much more we gain.”TweetShare on Facebook “Think” (three times) of having the Spirit in us, the Father’s smile on us, and the Son’s death for u