The Cross

                                    But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord

                                    Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto

                                    the world.   (Gal 6:14)

The cross as we know it in modern world has lost something of its nature. We are historically removed from its application: no longer can we go to the edge of town to learn of it with our own eyes. We no longer face it personally and actually in our modern world, so its sharpness in our time is blunted. We speak of discomforts as if they were crosses, difficulties as they were deaths to die and believe these experiences are the cross the Bible discribes. In our reading of the scriptures we have noticed its centrality and necessity, and even the warnings from Jesus himself that if we “do not” we “cannot”. Have we felt its death or experienced only discomfort?

                                   

                                    And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me,

                                    cannot be my disciple.    (Luke 14:27)

The cross is a fact of the Christian experience, but many take every opportunity to avoid it. We no longer see it as the necessary agent of change to be embraced, which brings a greater life than can be obtained by just personal reformation. We embrace the cross of “Jesus Christ the King of the Jews”, giving it the just measure of praise for what He won upon it, but deny that there is one with our name on it. At the time Jesus spoke of the cross for “any man would come after me” (Luke 14:27), He had not yet laid its wood upon His back, yet every man there understood of what He spoke.

                                    And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer

                                    persecution? then is the offence of the cross ceased.  (Gal 5:11)

Paul said that there was an “offence” to the preaching of the cross, but the word in the Greek is “skandalon”; our source for the English word scandal. If the preaching of the cross was attended by scandal, how much more will the bearing it in our own life be attended by the same? Family, friends and those who truly care for us will beg us not to embrace it, and later gather at its base to say “I told you so”. Leonard Ravenhill was fond of saying, “You never have to advertise a real fire, people will come from miles around to watch you burn.” The cross is our scandalous fire which draws a corwd: God's means of advertising.

                                    For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you

                                    even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ:

                                    Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose

                                    glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.   (Phil 3:18-19)

To think that the cross is our only goal is sheer madness! Many trying to embrace the cross walk in error and obtained only a cross they have designed for themselves. The cross is not to be sadistically employed by us; for in our wisdom we can find an endless list of things we should justifiably suffer it for. Those with crosses of their own design have rejected the cross of Jesus Christ: attempting to reach God by their suffering, rather than His. This spiritual sadism is an ultimate attempt to move the spiritual by the power of the flesh, and though it is framed in Biblical typology, God has nothing to do with these crosses.

                                    Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith;

                                    who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross,

                                    despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of

                                    the throne of God.   (Heb 12:2) 

God given crosses are another matter, for we would never and have not choosen it; even if we feel worthy of it from time to time. The a true cross by its nature disgusts us, in every way is considered hideous by us and we ourselves call it a scandal, even the Lord Himself "despised its shame". God given crosses are calculated by God; not for just training, correction or pruning; for our death and death alone. This is not a singular topical cross applied to our daily discomforts, but these are season of deep pain which despite our best efforts there is not an escape from: we did not chosen for ourselves.

A true cross is a constructed in faith, because only through faith we understand the difference between what God gives and what we construct for ourselves. It is normal that just before a God given cross is laid upon our backs, God speaks a word to us which is by our own estimation is bigger than ourselves. The suffering we are about to undergo will require trust in the faithfulness of God and hope of a resurrection. For these reasons God has spoken. Just as the Father set before Jesus a “joy”, so too will a joy be set before, and by this joy we too will endure. Our present agony seems to have nothing to do with the fulfillment of the promise, but stands exactly opposing it, so we are in agony all the more. Hold onto that joy, that promise and that last speaking by God; for when the cross is finished its work, it will be all that is left alive.

                                    Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said,

                                    They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known

                                    my ways.   (Heb 3:10)

The scriptures are full of examples of just this process of the cross in others lives. Abraham offered the very son he was promised unto death. Joseph was sold by his brothers into slavery before becoming their master. The children of Israel were made to walk through a desert devoid of resources before they could obtain a land flowing with milk and honey. The cross of our Lord as the highest example, the ultimate death, before the ultimate life. All these seemed to mock the promise of God and put them to death just before raising them to life.  

 The application of the cross in Christian living is central, real, painful, full of death and scandalous; but it is one of the ways of God. The promises are sure, but the cross and death are the way to obtain it. Without a death preceeding the promises of God, it can be thought to have been made to come to pass by us. Willed by us into being in our own strength and resources, but by become fulfilled while we are hanging dead upon a cross, everyone knows, only God can raise the dead to life again.

                                    But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross

                                    of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified

                                    unto me, and I unto the world.   (Gal 6:14)