CHRIST’S cross was His own, and none but He could bear it. Upon that cross was made by Him full and complete atonement and satisfaction for our sins, and as in that work He bore all the burden, so He has had, and ever shall have, all its glory.
It is perhaps merely an act of forgetfulness on the Christian’s part that leads him to speak of his bearing Christ’s cross. The cross the Christian has to bear is his own cross: “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me,” the Lord says. (Matt. 16:2424Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. (Matthew 16:24).) The burden of this cross is a man’s own—particularly and peculiarly his own, though borne for his Master’s sake. The Lord may appoint the cross, and He will fit the burden to the back of the bearer. He has His own ways of wisdom, which none can equal, and He knows exactly what is the suited cross for each of His people.
The Lord’s way to the cross was upon the path of rejection and of shame, and He calls His disciples to follow where He has trodden, and no faithful disciple need distress his heart as to what his cross shall be, for but a few steps trodden in the pathway of the Lord will make clear what the cross to be taken up is.