Cross-Bearing and Our Own Crucifixion

Oxford educated A. Paget Wilkes became a missionary to Japan with the Church Missionary Society led by Barclay Buxton in 1897. Subsequently he founded the Japan Evangelistic Band (JEB) which was devoted to a more aggressive evangelism and personal holiness. Wilkes envisioned "a band of men . . . who detaching themselves from the responsibilities and entanglements of ecclesiastical organization, would give themselves to prayer and ministry of the Word." He served his whole life in Japan but became well known through his books.

The following priceless gem is from his book The Dynamic of Life:

"It is not a 'choice of affliction' for its own sake in the vain hope that it will purify the soul. We can never be purified or refined by our own sufferings. We are not called upon to take up our own cross for our own crucifixion. No! no! a thousand times no! We are crucified with Christ! It is His sufferings not ours that purify the soul: the purpose of our cross-bearing is for others. It is only as we get a vision of the people of God in their need, and with it a desire to help and bless and lead and deliver, that we can choose such a pathway. Faith sees the people of God, the 'riches of His inheritance in the saints.' Faith sheds abroad in our hearts not only God's own love for His beloved Son (John iii. 35); not only His love to a dying world (John iii. 16); not only His love to us individually (Gal. ii. 20); but to His Church, the chosen of God (Eph. v. 25-27)."