When [Jesus] bids us to take up our cross, He means come and die. The cross was a place of horrible execution. It would have been unthinkable in Jesus’ day to wear a cross as a piece of jewelry. It would have been like wearing a miniature electric chair or lynching rope. His words must have had a terrifying effect: “Whoever does not take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:38). So today the words are sobering. They mean at least that when I follow Jesus as my Savior and Lord, the old self-determining, self-absorbed me must be crucified. I must every day reckon myself dead to sin and alive to God.

– John Piper