The Cross of Christ

Thumbnail of The Cross of Christ Layout

Get code or view preview below.

Click here to get this layout for your Google Homepage.

Copy & Paste the Layout Code below into the "About Me:" Section of your MySpace Profile.

The message of the cross is still as offensive to modern man as it was to those in the first century. People would rather believe anything and do anything rather than accept salvation as a gift from God. A proper understanding of the meaning of the Cross is essential to the process of sanctification - the gradual development of the Christ-like character in a believer (Gal. 5:22-23). Christians are not commanded to live good lives because of the threat of punishment if they fail, but because of the extent of what Christ???s has already done of their behalf. As Thomas Erskine put it: "in the New Testament, religion is grace, and ethics is gratitude."(15) The New Testament writers often linked believer???s understanding of the Cross and his sanctification, pointing to Jesus??? example and demanding a response in terms of personal ethics or right living, e.g. 1 Peter 1:17-19; 2:24; 4:1-3; 1 John 4:10-11. The message is clear: once we understand clearly how much Jesus had to suffer to pay the price for our sins, we will strive to obey Him out of gratitude.

We are not to use our freedom to indulge ourselves (Gal. 5:13), but to become holy (1 Thess. 4:3) and to achieve the purpose God has for us (Eph. 2:8-10). This will involve each of us paying a price in our efforts to fulfil this purpose. Jesus said that all who would follow him should take up their Cross daily and follow him (Matt. 10:34-39; 16:24-25; Luke 9:23). In saying this Jesus was not referring to some personal problem, arthritis or a congenital heart defect, to a conscious renunciation of everything that would oppose against God???s will in our lives. A.W. Tozer makes it clear that the taking up of the Cross is not done casually or half-heartedly, because the

...cross is a symbol of death. It stands for the abrupt, violent death of a human being. The man in Roman times who took up his cross and started down the road had already said good-by to his friends. He was not coming back. He was going out to have it ended. The cross made no compromise, modified nothing, spared nothing; it slew all of the man, completely and for good. It did not try to keep on good terms with its victim. It struck cruel and hard, and when it had finished its work, the man was no more.(16)

Paul wrote to the Galatian Christians: "Those who belong to Christ have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires." (Gal. 5:24). May that be true of us today.