While American culture idolizes winners in all areas of life, Scripture teaches Christians about counter-cultural practices. As Americans, we demand our rights and fully expect those rights to be respected; but the Christian life embraces a different philosophy. Jesus told his disciples to consider themselves as dead (the military concept of unconditional surrender) when he said to “take up your cross daily” (Luke 9:23, ESV).
If a person could fully follow just this one command of Jesus, that person would be a perfect disciple of Jesus Christ. A dead person has ceased to make their own decisions and choices. A dead person does not have any rights, and if they did have rights, they could not demand them. Jesus was telling his disciples to cease trying to be first and unconditionally surrender to God.
The concept of considering yourself dead is reinforced when Jesus taught us in Matthew 19:30 that “the first shall be last, and the last shall be first.” If you consider yourself dead (take up your cross), you no longer strive to be first. Instead, you surrender yourself and your ambition to God.
The Apostle Paul also continued this theme in Romans 12:1 when he told his readers to present their bodies as a living sacrifice to God. Paul continued this theme in Galatians 2:20 when he said, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”