The Cross of the Christian

1995

What is a Christian without the cross? He is no Christian at all. Jesus said, "He that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it, and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." (Matt. 10:38-39) A Christian knows that before he can gain, he must lose. He must lose himself to all that once identified him as his own, that he may find his new identity in Jesus Christ.

The cross of the Christian is a cross of death that we must be baptized into if we are to be resurrected "a new creation in Christ Jesus." For death is the foundation of the resurrection life. How can a man be born again if he has never seen himself dead in trespasses and sins? Until he knows the disease of his heart, how can he apply the cure? Until he humbly submits to the crucifixion of the cancer of his flesh, how can he claim union with the Risen Lord, how can he know the power of His resurreciton?

A Christian has gone to Gethsemane; he has counted the cost. And finding no other way to life than death upon the cross before him, he takes it up saying, "not my will, but thine be done." He knows the piercing of nails through his flesh, for he is marked within by the wounds of a dying man. He has suffered the loss of all self-righteous, man-made glory and earthly satisfaction to win Christ and be found in Him without spot, and blameless.

A Christian's cross crucifies him unto the world and the world unto him. He knows that "the friendship of the world is enmity with God" (James 4:4) and therefore resigns any hope of ever finding a peaceable union with himself and those who have no cross to bear. He has put his hand to the plow to diligently labor for that meat which endures unto everlasting life, without looking back to the life he lost in the world he left behind. He confesses himself to be a stranger and pilgrim upon the earth and walks the narrow way of Calvary Road with those who look for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

A Christian embraces the cross as the only remedy for his sin-sickness, the only escape from death's woeful sting and eternal damnation, and the only entrance into eternal life in the kingdom of God. He endures the cross, despising the shame the world would bring upon him for it, for the joy that is set before him, "looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious apprearing of the great God and our Saviour Jeus Christ." (Titus 2:13) Alive from the dead, he knows that it is no longer he who lives, but Christ that lives in him.