In the previous verse, Jesus began talking about denying self, but makes it completely clear here. If we are going to truly be Christ-followers, we carry a death sentence for life. We lose all rights to ourself.

Note that when Jesus spoke of "carrying your cross", this was before He went to Calvary. There was no religious connotation to this yet. The Jews would not have been wearing a cross necklace, they would have shuddered at the very mention of the cross. The cross was not the symbol of ultimate sacrifice, it was a cruel instrument of death.

To carry your cross would have meant that your life had been given over to the Romans, that is was no longer under your control. You were directed by the command of the Romans over you. You walked where they told you to walk. You carried what they told you to carry. Your life was not your own.

Jesus calls us to live the same way. Not in subjection to the Romans, but in subjection to Him. If we want to be His disciple, we must be able to echo Paul: I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Gal 2:20)

Luke 14:27