The Ancient Word...

The Creator God gave us life (see Genesis 2:7), and all life belongs to Him.

The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; for He founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters. (Psalm 24:1-2, NIV)

The Jewish sacrificial system expressed this important truth. Ancient Jews offered blood sacrifices to God not because He is some sort of bloodthirsty "vampire," but as a symbolic way of offering their lives, or rededicating their lives to Him. The Lord had told them,

The life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life. (Leviticus 17:11)

[The worshipper] is to lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him. (Leviticus 1:4)

Blood sacrifices served as a vivid reminder that we cannot be right with God, or "at-one" with God, without giving our lives completely over to Him.

On the Cross, Jesus died as the sacrifice that established the New Covenant (see Bare Roots 7.1). At the same time, by pouring out his life's blood, Jesus set an example of how to place our lives fully in God's hands. We see it in his prayer at Gethsemane:

My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will. (Matthew 26:39; compare John 10:17-18)

Jesus calls us to adopt the "same attitude" of self-surrender and dedication to God (see Philippians 2:5-8):

If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. (Matthew 16:24-25)

Jesus calls us to pour out our life's blood every day -- to "die with Christ" (see Romans 6:8). For, after all, God gives us life, and our lives belong to Him.

... for Today

Crosses were hardly popular in Jesus' day. These violent instruments of torture and terror generated deep fear in most people. The brutality, pain, and public shame ensured that death on a cross was not desirable.

Yet Jesus died in such a way and urged his disciples to take up their own crosses and follow him.

Perhaps Jesus sounds like a modern-day jihadist, rallying would-be suicide bombers. Some people might hear his language and presume it would attract the desperate and utterly down-and-out...those with nothing to live for. But Jesus intended us to hear his words much differently.

The Cross does not represent a fatalistic end. On the contrary, it denotes the refusal on Jesus' part -- and our own -- to have life on our preferred terms. It represents the ultimate act of the will, to let God have His way.

From this perspective, the horror and offense of the Cross becomes a badge of honor. Nothing demonstrates our self-surrender and choice for life better than the Cross.

Yes, the Cross invited ridicule and created shame. Yes, the Cross was "accursed" and despised. But it remains unsurpassed as the symbol of obedience in the life of Christ. He turned the shame of the Cross into honor, and the humiliation of the Cross into strength.

Just as the Cross revealed the strength of Christ's character, so it might do the same in our own story.

Figuratively speaking, we may kneel at the foot of the Cross in an act of repentance. After all, the Cross is the place where forgiveness was established once and for all. But we might kneel at the foot of the Cross in an act of devotion -- expressing our deepest allegiance and deepest yearning.

The Cross of Christ thus becomes our cross. Whatever it takes, we will trust God with everything in life...and death. As the hymnist wrote, "I will cling to the old rugged Cross, and exchange it some day for a crown."

Discuss...

1. Focus your mind's eye on the Cross of Christ. What do you see and feel?
   
2. How might we make the Cross a more central feature of our lives?

Chris Davis, PhD & David Timms, PhD
Hope International University
Fullerton, California

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