The Cross

 

THE MEANING OF THE CROSS

For a better understanding of what the cross means, I advise that you sing the song below if you know it. The song is titled “The OLD Rugged Cross”.

1.       On a hill far away stood an old rugged Cross, the emblem of suffering and shame; and I love that old Cross, where the dearest and best, for a world of lost sinners was slain.

CHORUS: So I’ll cherish the Old rugged Cross till my trophies at last I lay down; I will cling to the Old rugged Cross and exchange it some day for a Crown.

2.       Oh, the Old rugged Cross, so despised by the world, has a wondrous attraction for me, for the dear Lamb of God left His glory above to bear it to dark Calvary.

3.       In the Old rugged Cross, stained with blood so divine, a wondrous beauty I see; for it was on that Old Cross, Jesus suffered and died, to pardon and sanctify me.

4.       To the Old rugged Cross, I will ever be true, its shame and reproach gladly bear; then He’ll call me someday to my home far away, where His glory forever I’ll share.

THE CROSS – ITS MEANING

According to the complete Christian dictionary for home and school, the cross is “An upright post with another piece of wood across it near the top of which people were bound or nailed in ancient times and left to as a punishment”. E.g, Jesus Christ; though innocent was He, but was nailed to a cross and left to die (crucified). Today the cross is used as a sign of the Christian religion.

Therefore what concerns us mainly in this context is to know what the biblical writers meant by their several and various usage of the term, “Cross”. In the first place, what did the cross mean to Christ? This is because knowing what the cross meant to Christ is a key to knowing what it should mean to His disciples. When Christ therefore said, “if any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his Cross, and follow me” (Matt. 16:24). He certainly was referring to some kind of suffering, disgrace and painful experience which He had, which every follower of His has to endure as He identifies himself with Him. For example, Christians in the early church, used to draw a cross sign on the ground to communicate to fellow Christian when in doubt, that they themselves are one of them; in faith, destiny and fate. Such symbolized use of the cross was necessary during an empire wide persecution of true Christians of that era.

Other symbolical meaning of the cross includes:

1.       DEATH TO SIN – Many of today’s Christians have becoming sinning Christians because want of messages of the cross in our pulpits. The Cross of Christ meant death to Him for the sins of the whole world and the believer in Christ is expected to die to sin for the sake of Christ’s death. To die to sin is to stop responding to the law of sin.

 

2.       DEATH TO SELF – The Cross reminds us of the unprecedented emptying of self which was characteristic of Christ as He offered Himself unreservedly for the sin of the whole human race. The Bible, (Phil. 2:5-8) plainly stated it. Even when He was actually hanging on the cruel cross, ready to die; the devil inspired men to challenge Him to save Himself had He wanted to. But he would not, because he had chosen to save others and not Himself. That was self-denial or death to self on the part of Jesus Christ, our great example.

Dying to self is meant for every one who wants to surrender his or her life completely to God. It is the birthright of every believer and should never be considered with awe. What price is one willing to pay in order to undergo the spiritual process we call, “dying to self”? Jesus said, “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone: but if it dies, it brings forth much fruit”. (John 12:24). The husk must perish before the seed can germinate. John the Baptist said; “I must decrease, but Christ must increase”.

Someone asked George Mueller the secret of his devoted life one day, he said simply, “George Mueller died”. Mueller’s reliance on his self sufficiency was gone. Only when we come to the end of our “self-centered” life, do we stand the chance to reach the beginning of God. The more we experience “dying to self” the more we enjoy fellowship with God.

Listen, the more we refuse to gratify ourselves, the more we will be in a right pace to please Him. As we become serious in our walk with Christ, the Spirit of God may show us fatal flaws in our lives such as lack of obedience, unfaithfulness, self-centered living, boasting and neglect of the Cross.

Our lives become fruitful only when we yield to the master’s plan for pruning and molding. The Christian person shines brilliantly when he lets God polish him. When Christians go after worldly pleasures, they lose their fervency in matters of spiritual truths. Self-seeking is not a godly trait. In fact, all self-seekers and self-lovers are steeped in selfishness; full of selfish desires, always treating conducive environment to pacify the flesh. It’s the ego-centric individual who attempts to impose his self-will on God and others, but it always backfire in the long run.

“Dying to self” does not take place overnight. It takes years of perseverance, consecration and dauntless loyalty to the Lordship of Christ. Look at the history of the early Christians and how they turned despair and gloom the process of “self-denial” in order to participate in the on-going process of “dying to self”.

Many years ago, there were two sisters whose lives were filled with immorality and shame, but that was all changed one day when the Lord captured them and they were gloriously converted.

Several months after their conversion, they received an invitation to attend a party from the people whom they used to hang around with. In response to the invitation, they sent the following message; “we regret to inform you that we’ve recently ‘died’; therefore we cannot come to your party. We are very sorry”. What did they mean by that? They meant that they experienced “dying to self” and all its pleasurable ways. Here lies the whole message of this subject of dying to self in a nutshell.

“only those who are prepared to die are really prepared to live”

 

3.       DEATH TO THE WORLD – Another area we are called to identify with Christ is in dying to the world. Paul the apostle who admonished us to follow him as he followed Christ, testified to this truth when he through the Spirit said “God forbid that I should glory (boast) save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world is crucified (dead) unto me and I (dead) unto the world”. (Gal. 6:14).

But it is sad to see today that the distinction between the two is hardly noticeable. (that is, between the world and the church) “Oswald Smith rightly remarked that the world has become so churchy and the church so worldly that it is hard to tell the difference. It is a pity and unfortunate.

Listen, another meaning of the Cross is Suffering, Shame and Reproach. But alas, today’s pulpits, preachers and Christians are now saying, preaching and believing a “new” thing in their “reductionist theory and theology of affluence. But what did the Bible say of the Apostles and the early disciples of Christ: “And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name (Christ) (Acts 5:41). And of Apostle Paul the Lord said; “Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles and Kings and the children of Israel. For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake”. For more enlightenment read (Rom. 8:17, 8:36, Heb. 11:25, James 5:10, 1Pet. 2:20, 5:10).

Christians therefore should not be mesmerized by the beautiful and subtle philosophies of men; for the kingdom of God consists not in fancy speeches, but in virtue and righteousness. For the promotion of grass-materialism, bread and butter Christianity, cosmetic born-againism and self perpetuating egotism; will eventually lead to pride and self-exaltation which finally leads to a fall.

Cross-bearing to a believer therefore means a conscious identification with Christ in His death to (for) Sin, to Self and to the World. It represents all types of sufferings the believer may be called to undergo for Christ’s sake. It also stands for a committed life to the person of Christ, a total consecration, and obedience to His known will.

 

And the CROSS spells out its demand thus:

C – Concentration of will, talents and potentials.

R – Righteousness and resolution (determination).

O – Obedience to God even when it hurts.

S – Self denial and self Crucifixion.

S – Service relentless for the MASTER.

 

Beloved, listen carefully; when Jesus Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die!

 

“I cannot trust myself for I am nothing; I cannot trust what I have, for I have nothing,: I cannot trust what I know for I know nothing”. – Gypsy Smith.

 

“There is some one I know from the day I was born yet ii cannot trust him; and that person is me”. – N.F. Ogbonna.

 

“Nothing provokes the devil like the Cross”. – Charles H. Spurgeon.

 

“Nothing good is in me save that little light of God in my spiritman”. – Joshua Aluaye Ohiole.

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God bless you!