Poignant statement: When Jesus said, “If you are going to follow me, you have to take up a cross,” it was the same as saying, “Come and bring your electric chair with you. Take up the gas chamber and follow me.” He did not have a beautiful gold cross in mind—the cross on a church steeple or on the front of your Bible. Jesus had in mind a place of execution.
Subject: Boasting on the cross
Scripture: Galatians 6: 14
From this week on Christians all over the world observe ‘Advent’ the preparation and coming of the Lord Jesus Christ on earth. I am a firm believer in keeping the whole season as simple and spiritual as possible and if people observe the season it must have not only religious values but great spiritual values. As I was thinking on this issue I remembered a Christmas card I received some years ago. The card had the beautiful baby Jesus quietly sleeping in the manger but then on the wall was the shadow of a cross. What the painter wanted to convey was that Jesus was born to die on the cross. The cross was not an emergency plan of God but the eternal plan and will of God.
It is amazing that many times, we as Christians forget the cross while going to the cradle of the Lord Jesus Christ. We must celebrate and we must rejoice at the birth of Jesus but equally we must keep in mind the cross of the Lord Jesus in our mind and heart. Cradle without the cross has no meaning.
Paul was a great man in every way even before conversion. He came from an aristocratic family, studied at one of the best schools and university of the day in Jerusalem and had impeccable religious belief and practice of faith. On top of that he became popular when he blatantly and cruelly persecuted the church. In letter to the Philippians chapter 3:4-9 he tells his audience that as far as religion was concern he was zealous and also he had the right breeding as well. In every way he was complete and confident man. But when the Lord Jesus saved him on the way to Damascus he became a different man. All his world came crashing down and then God gave him a new life and new direction. After that he began to preach the very faith which he had despised for many years.
Later when writing to Galatians he says that “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” It was the most powerful antithetical statement particularly when the Romans still practiced death by crucifixion. The word cross was a despised symbol in those days. A writer of ancient history says “The word crux was unmentionable in polite Roman society . . . even when one was condemned to death by crucifixion the sentence used was an archaic formula which served as sort of an unlucky euphemism: arbori infelici suspendito, ‘hang him on the unlucky tree.'” But Paul not only used this unmentionable word, he gloried it. For him the cross was everything as far as he and his preaching was concerned. Why was he so fanatic in this belief? There are many reasons but I would like to bring to your notice three great truths of the Bible in relation to the death of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. These are great Biblical doctrines and all believers need to know these precious truths. I want to let you know these truths in bare simplest format. You can further study and grow in the knowledge of these precious nuggets of truths.
The first precious doctrine is justification by faith. It means when we believed in the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ then God forgave our sins of the past forever and presented us before God as if we have never sinned. 1 John 2: 1,2
The second doctrine is sanctification. In the present God continues to work in our lives and now that we are new creation we continue to grow progressively in the holiness in all aspect of our lives. 1 Thes. 5: 23,24
The third doctrine is glorification. The faith in Christ is not only for now but for our future after our death. We must know and believe that when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ the seed of eternal life was planted in us and we will see germination and complete fruition when we die and are transported to heaven. John 3:16
These three great truths of the Gospel are the gifts of God. These are the most precious gifts and no one can earn this gift, no one except God can give this gift and no one can steal this gift from us. These are eternal riches of great value.
Today, as in the ancient day the believers are despised and persecuted. There was a time in Nepal when the state persecuted the believers and even now the Christians are not treated well by society in Nepal. In India too we have seen remarkable rise in persecution of Christians by militant Hindus. All over the world the church has been going through hard time and various degrees of hardship. But then the Lord told us that if we want to be a believers in the Lord Jesus then we need to take up the despised cross and follow him. We should be surprised when the world treats us well and count it normal when we are despised because of our faith. Our Lord took up the cross and we cannot expect anything else. We have no other choice and no alternative. From the time we said that we want to follow the Lord, from then onward we have prepared ourselves for any kind of hardship.
This cross even though despised by the world still remains the most powerful symbol of love, forgiveness and hope. Many symbols have come and disappeared in the dustbin of history but this symbol is still vibrant and vigorous. This symbol will be there till the end of the age and when the Lord Jesus comes to take His saints. I believe, embrace and preach this cross till my last breath. I am not ashamed because this is the power of God unto salvation for all the people of the world.
So beloved believers, as we enter in Christmas season let us just thank the Lord for His wonderful grace in justifying us by faith in Jesus, beginning the process of sanctifying and planting the seed of eternal life in us now and here. Let me close this devotion with a stanza of a hymn written by Augustus M. Toplady.
Nothing in my hand I bring
Simply to thy cross I cling
Naked, come to thee for dress
Helpless, look to thee for grace
Foul, I to the fountain fly
Wash me, Savior or I die
Poignant statement: When Jesus said, “If you are going to follow me, you have to take up a cross,” it was the same as saying, “Come and bring your electric chair with you. Take up the gas chamber and follow me.” He did not have a beautiful gold cross in mind—the cross on a church steeple or on the front of your Bible. Jesus had in mind a place of execution.
Prayer:
Lord, during this advent season help me to focus my heart on the cross and it wonderful power to save and create a new person. Let all my boasting be that I am a child of God by the mercy of God and apart from this I have no meaning of my life
Republished in new layout on 8/20/2013
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