Warning Preachy...
Think
about the Roman Cross for a moment. It was a device to kill men,
perfectly. It’s cruelty was its genius in that it tortured as it took
its own sweet time killing its captive. The person hanging on the cross
would suffocate if they did not push themselves up against the stakes
holding them in. They were hung nude, thus exposing their shame,
especially when their bladder and bowels were forced by the pain to
expel themselves. And the process would take hours upon hours to
complete.
It was the Cross that the early believers preached for it was the “power of God”.
Today
we don’t hear about the Cross much. It’s a radical thing really,
because if it wasn’t for this implement of death mankind could not have
life. For God required death as the justice for sin and what better way
to exult that death than in the Cross?
I think
we need more preaching on the topic of the Cross. A.W. Tozer’s Radical
Cross is an excellent example. I think we need to learn of the
radicalness of the Cross and maybe we wouldn’t think hanging it around
our necks, from our earlobes, or on the wall of our houses for adornment
would be so attractive. To me, hanging the Cross around my neck would
be like hanging a noose, a guillotine, or an electric chair around my
neck. For the Cross really is an ugly thing and should call us to shame
that our sin made it ever necessary in the first place. At the sight of
the Cross we should feel the reverence of the reality, but instead it‘s
become a common thing to us: and all it takes to make something unholy
is to make it common. So then it is, the Cross where God defeated the
power of Sin for us has become a simple and common adornment for our
dress.
Have you considered the Cross?Do you
feel it’s shame? Do you feel it beckoning you to fall to your knees in
anguish and repentance? Or is that sort of stuff just foolishness to
you?
Today, allow the Cross of Jesus to
inform your soul of your utter need for the grace of His death. And when
you do, you will recognize it’s awful (fully awesome) power for your
soul.
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For the word of the cross is folly to those
who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of
God. - 1 Corinthians 1:18
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