April 02, 2015
THE LIBERATING POWER OF THE CROSS
But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.
Galatians 6:14, KJV
The late news on TV concluded with an interview with a street girl, a woman
who earned her living as a prostitute. Her makeup was heavy, her skirt
short. She was smug and coy as she brushed off the questions of the TV
reporter, parrying them with her sure knowledge that hers was an old and
necessary profession. But then the reporter noticed a gold cross on a chain
around her neck and the questions took a turn she had not anticipated.
"I see you have a cross on your necklace," he began. "Are you a religious
person?" The second TV camera quickly zoomed in on the little gold cross
which filled the screen.
"Oh, no!" she said, adding, "I'm not religious at all."
"Well, why do you wear the cross?" There was silence for a minute. Her eyes
dropped to the ground. She spoke softly: "I used to be religious when I was
a kid, but I got away from all of that...."
Does a person ever go so far that he or she escapes the shadow of the cross?
Whether you are a professional, an executive, a laborer, a street person, or
whatever, can you really escape the shadow that fell from that Roman cross
on Good Friday as Jesus Christ was lifted between heaven and earth? Calvary
was at the intersection where two roads crossed, one coming from the north
leading to the south towards Jericho. The Romans purposely put the cross
there so that all who passed by might see the action.
George MacLeod of Scotland wrote, "I simply argue that the cross should be
raised at the center of the marketplace as well as on the steeple of the
church. I am recovering the claim that Jesus was not crucified in a
cathedral between two candles, but on a cross between two thieves; on the
town's garbage heap; at a crossroad, so cosmopolitan they had to write his
title in Hebrew and Latin and Greek....at the kind of a place where cynics
talk smut, and thieves curse, and soldiers gamble. Because that is where He
died. And that is what He died for. And that is what He died about. That is
where churchmen ought to be and what churchmen ought to be about."
I have been thinking recently how little we hear any more about the cross.
"An offense" and "foolishness" was the way Paul described it, saying that it
violated our sense of public propriety. "For," said Paul, "the message of
the cross... to us who are being saved...is the power of God" (1 Corinthians
1:18).
What Jesus did when He died at Calvary was to take your place, to die on
your behalf so that you might be adopted into the family of God, so that our
heavenly Father would accept His sacrifice in your stead. Does that make
sense, friend? The cross is the key to the whole matter, the keystone to the
whole structure of faith, the key that opens the locked door to the very
presence of God.
Long ago Isaiah explained, " But he was wounded for our transgressions, he
was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him;
and with his stripes we are healed " (Isaiah 53:5, KJV). This, friend, is
the very heart of the Gospel.
The cross still provides the only rationale for God's forgiveness. It is the
very heart of what Christ did, and we must never trivialize its power nor
neglect its importance. It is still the answer to the sinner's shame and the
gulf that separates us from the presence of the Father. Yes, there is no
other way home.
Resource reading: Matthew 6:25-34.
Disclaimer: The preceding material was written by Dr. Harold J. Sala, and is
copyrighted. You are authorized to download this selection and use it for
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Victoria E Gilkerson
