The Cross

[HKHaugan]

The Cross

 Why is the Cross so central to our thinking as believers? People wear crosses to identify their belief in Jesus. They become a part of our dress, sit on our mantles, tacked on our front doors and are major markers in cemeteries. The fact that Jesus said we should take up ours may suffice for some but for others it is a serious question. Why did He choose to accept the Cross? What has that to do with my personal day to day life? Let’s just just stop and think about it for a second.

 The most basic form we encounter everyday is the cross. Look at the human body. Look at a any institution. Look at structures, fence to a building, a cross is built into it. There is an up and down, an above and below, a side to side dimension, a latitude and a longitude, with an intersecting line in everything visible and invisible. But the basic form, the human body, head to toe, arms that reach out right and left. Every organized institution has leadership at the head, middle management that are spread out and a membership of workers or customers or fans, etc. Even small groups, teams, gangs, have the same.   It’s built into us to look up and across while our feet are on a foundation of some system, organization, institution or group. The very nature of the commandments of God and the commands we give each other come from a source above us and direct our activities.

 The Romans used the cross to identify their superiority over the world of people. Roman citizens were exempt from crucifixion. It was for non-Romans except in very rare cases.  

 What the Cross does right there is to show the spiritual nature of God in Jesus redeeming man’s misuse of the basic human form and making it the central symbol for our converted internal spirituality.

 It’s the invisible reality of the Cross that takes all of these daily realities under its cover. The Father sent Jesus down to reach out laterally through the Holy Spirit. He made us in that image.

Jesus died to show us the reality of God, eternal life and the Kingdom of God.

 He died to show us we are His images of God and to offer us a personal relationship with Him to be spiritually reborn. In that rebirth He promises, ““I—yes, I alone—will blot out your sins for my own sake and will never think of them again (Is.43:25), “"For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more (Jer.31:34 repeated in Heb.8:12).”

 He died to show us the past is only a memory; it is no longer real. God tells Moses I Am.

He died to show us looking forward is the new normal. Every moment, event, meeting, is new.

He died to show us that life is first spiritual, then personal, then relational.

He died to show that our aloneness, our separation from God, is due to sin.

He died to show what an individual human being was designed to be like.

He died to recover our relationship with the Father, Him and the Holy Spirit.

He died to show life is local, where we are, with anyone whether casual or deeply connected.

He died to show life is eternal

He died to identify with our death, its temporary hold.

He died to show us everything we do has eternal meaning and purpose.

He died to show us who we really are and then what we can become when we take up our cross.

He died to show the purpose of marriage, family, friendship, work, labor, pleasure, prayer, worship, childhood, maturity.

He died to show us guilt is forgiven, the past is a memory, that’s all it is and has no power unless we give it power over us.

He died to show where our real power is,---our choices and decisions are ours.

He died to show us that every moment, every event, every contact we make with the earth and the world of people has a purpose.

He died to show us the depth of spiritual love, spiritual faith, spiritual hope and make His Word our guide.

He died to show us the Cross is vertical and horizontal, that every choice we make calls us to first look up for His mind and heart and then horizontally around us and follow His lead. Thus, the Cross become our lifestyle.

It seems to me that the big impression the Cross is supposed to make is the freedom from guilt. Jesus bore sin, the tendency in the old person to think apart from God. It’s the tendency to think I

 When I survey the wondrous cross

On which the Prince of glory died,

My richest gain I count but loss,

And pour contempt on all my pride.

 

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,

Save in the death of Christ my God!

All the vain things that charm me most,

I sacrifice them to His blood.

 

See from His head, His hands, His feet,

Sorrow and love flow mingled down!

Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,

Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

 

Were the whole realm of nature mine,

That were a present far too small;

Love so amazing, so divine,

Demands my soul, my life,  Isaac Watts (1760)