This is the Cross of Jesus: What’s your Cross?

                                                                 By: Art Javier

 

     What does the CROSS of Jesus mean to us?

     There will definitely be a myriad of answers to this question. It could mean salvation, the passion or suffering of Christ, the death of our Lord Christ, the Savior, etc., etc.

     In this article, my objective is for us to understand that Jesus had already conquered the power of sin over us by his suffering and death on the cross.

     In the old days, from 6^th century BC until 4^th Century AD, the cross really meant only one thing: death. The crucifixion of an individual entails a slow death of excruciating pain. Probably, the word “excruciating,” may be rooted from crucifying.

     Among Christians, in the new world, the most significant meaning of the Cross is that: “it connects God to His people.”

 

     I. Historical Perspective

          When Adam committed the first sin, by eating of the fruit of knowledge of good and evil, he fell from God’s grace. The curse of the sin of Adam was passed on to his children, and his children’s children, until to the last person who will ever be born in this world.

         This perception could explain the sin nature of man. According to one author, “in a sense we were all in Adam when he sinned, which explains why we inherit a sin nature. When Adam sinned, a sin nature came over them (Adam and Eve) and since we were in them and our life originated from them, we inherit this nature as well.” Some ideas here may be debatable, but I say it could generally be acceptable. (Romans 3:23. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”). 

     Simply put, with Adam’s sin we have been separated from God. After the fall, the wrath of God came upon us and we were disconnected from Him. To be connected again with God, who is the Almighty and perfectly holy- where there is no room for sin, transgression or iniquities- God demanded judgment and punishment for sin.

 

                   II. The Lamb of God                       

     The irony of it is that because God loved us so much, He himself was the One who paved the way for the full payment, appeasement and satisfaction of sin. He gave us His only Son to suffer and die on the cross for the full payment and satisfaction of all the sins of mankind, past, present and future. (John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but will have eternal life.”).

     Jesus is the sacrificial Lamb of God who took away the sins of the world. (John 1:29 “The next day John saw Jesus coming towards him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.”). 

     Because of Jesus’ atoning sacrifice on the cross, those of us who have accepted and have put our faith and Trust in Him, we are guaranteed salvation and eternal life.

 

                 III. “It is finished”

          When Jesus was about 12 years old, his earthly parents “lost” Him. They searched for him for more than a day until they found Him at the temple teaching to the most learned and authorities of the Scriptures. His parents asked him, “where have you been? We have searched all over for you?” And Jesus answered, “Why were you searching for me? Do you not know that I had to be about my Father’s business?’ (Luke 2:49). 

     About 21 years later, at the cross, after He had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” He bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” (John 19:30).

     Some of us have been taught from childhood, that salvation can be attained by meritorious works. And that this salvation, must be maintained by good works- probably more akin to traditions than anything else. These traditions include receiving more and more sacraments, after we have been baptized as infants, a commitment of attending 9 Wednesdays of Novena in Baclaran, approaching with bended knees from the door step of the church to the footstep of the altar, joining weekly repetitious and empty prayer groups, working very hard for the money, so we can give alms to the poor,  participating with the millions of “debotos” in Quiapo every Jan 9 of every year, or getting ourselves nailed on the cross on Holy Week festivities, even to the point of death, etc., etc.—then ultimately believing that we can earn our own salvation through this approach and that these works will be pleasing to God to welcome us in His kingdom and spend an eternal life with Him. There is nothing biblical or extra biblical about this. It is outright unbiblical!

     Our Lord Jesus said on the cross, “it is finished.” What was finished? His Father’s business. And what was His father’s business? That Father God loved us so much, that He demanded the suffering and death of His only son on the cross, our Lord Jesus Christ, to save us from the eternal condemnation of sin.          

     There is no need to substitute meritorious works or outright unnecessary sacrifices, inflicting pain on ourselves and believing that this will merit us salvation. Because if this is so, Jesus death on the cross was utterly useless!  

     We have been saved, we are being saved and we will be saved from the power of sin by the death of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. Paraphrasing, we have been justified, sanctified and glorified by our Lord Jesus Christ by His cross. (Ephesians 2:8-9 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and it is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-not by works, so that no one can boast”).

     We must sincerely repent of our sins and the sincerest intent of a transformation of our lives from the old us to the new us.

 

                   IV. Our Cross

                  But our lesson doesn’t end here. We must be able to understand not only Jesus’ cross, but also the cross that Jesus has given us if we want to be His disciple.  Let’s read from Matthew 16: 24-26,  “24.Then Jesus said to His disciples, whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25. For whoever wants to save his life, will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. 26 For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world but lose his soul? “

     When I was growing up, I learned from my elders that if we want to be Jesus’ disciple, this cross that we must take up in our lives, referred to some inconvenient or bothersome circumstances in our lives, or some sort of trials and tribulations that God is using to test us. Examples of these would be a disrespectful and troubled teen age son or daughter, who is into drugs, an abusive husband or maybe an unfaithful wife, and so on. All these years, I thought these are the crosses in our lives that Jesus was referring to.

     It is only now that I learned that what Jesus was exactly referring to our cross that we must carry are the worldly material things, and the desires of the flesh, that we must radically deny ourselves from. If we are a gossiper, stop the gossiping and assassinating the character of another person. If we are dishonest, stop that and be an honest person. If we are unfaithful, be sincere now and be loyal to your spouse. If we are a gambler, or in a sexual relationship outside our marriage or into any form of fornication, stop it now. And if we are constantly cursing and judging other people stop it and remove that F word from our vocabulary. The key here is to stop and repent!

    Therefore, to establish parallelism to the beginning of this article our cross, as true disciples of Jesus, means the same as it was in the old days: DEATH.  The only difference from the old days, is that, this is spiritual death.  Jesus chronicles the death of that sinful self who will rise to walk in new life through Him.

     (Galatians 2:20. “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me”).

 

     Amen.