Do you ever pay attention to the old hymns as you sing them?
stood an old rugged cross the emblem of suffering and shame
This was an agonizing way to die. A long slow process designed to tear at every fiber of your being before your body finally gave up and you died of suffocation.
where the dearest and best for a world of lost sinners was slain
The dearest and best, God came to this world to live and to die.
Is He the dearest to you?
The Cross is perhaps one of the most recognized symbols in all of history. Christ was crucified on the cross for us. Yet the cross itself has no actual significance outside of that is how man sacrificed their God.
The cross, the actual physical wood of the cross has absolutely no bearing whatsoever on your salvation.
It is the One who died on the Cross that matters. It is the precious blood spilled on Mount Calvary that is most sacred.
Blood is the life of man. His blood, Holy, Precious was spilled for us. He bled out His life there on Calvary that we might have life.
There was a time when people would sell pieces of wood claiming they were from the cross of Christ.
I am of the mind that no one at any time during the death of Christ thought to save a cross where they killed a man because it was special.
I doubt they ever even considered salvaging that cross for posterity. For all they knew it was just another man they were killing, nothing to save or take note of.
After all, there were very few who before His Resurrection and ascension thought anything other than that He had died. The disciples took a long time after His Resurrection to come around to the thinking and belief that He was alive.
There is no power in the actual physical cross. So even if they knew what had actually just happened, and they had saved the cross for it's symbolism, or it's significance, it was just a piece of wood. Nothing more nothing less.
But He had to die on the cross, it was foreordained.
It was also necessary as that was the only way He could be sacrificed for all the world to see.
It was the way He had to die for no man took His life, He gave His life for us. He died of His own accord on that cross. Spilling out His Blood for us.
They betrayed Him, and intended to kill Him but all they did was take Him to where He had to go. They were merely the instruments of God's Will.
Christ came to die so that we might live.
The cross had no significance but it does have a ton of symbolism.
Num 21:8 And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.
Num 21:9 And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.
All they had to do was look and live. It was that easy.
Or was it?
Imagine walking with snakes everywhere, being bit by one. The pain of the bite, the venom flowing into your system, the constant care for each step.
During all this you had to look up, take your eyes off the ground and your everyday circumstance to look up and live.
Today we have the same set of circumstances. We are bit by sin, living in constant pain and fear, worried about the every day troubles and toils. We too must lift up our eyes while we try to not get overwhelmed by what is going on the ground.
We too must look and live to see that salvation that was so dearly bought on the cross.
Joh 3:14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
Joh 3:15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
The next thought is this..... The Cross is transformational from death to life. It was/is a symbol of life and of death at the same time.
Has it transformed you? Are you truly aware of the sacrifice that was for you?
Have you knelt at the cross lately and just thanked Him for the debt He paid for you?
Have you looked at the cross and truly been transformed, transfixed by what happened there?
Not just His part of the Cross, but the Gift that was so freely offered to you.
Eternal life free from the damnation of sin, free from the death that had come upon all men.
And all you had to do, have to do is look and live!
Joh 3:17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
Joh 3:18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Joh 3:19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
Have you truly been to the cross?
Have you knelt there and freely given your life as a sacrifice to Him? Just as He gave His life as a sacrifice for you.
Have you truly considered the sheer shame and humiliation of what the God of the universe did for you?
There is power in the Blood of Christ. There is an Amazing Grace that will save a wretch like me,
There is Victory in Jesus.
Look to the Cross, For it is the way Home. On that cross died a man. The very Son of God, that we might have life and have it more abundantly.
stood an old rugged cross the emblem of suffering and shame
This was an agonizing way to die. A long slow process designed to tear at every fiber of your being before your body finally gave up and you died of suffocation.
where the dearest and best for a world of lost sinners was slain
The dearest and best, God came to this world to live and to die.
Is He the dearest to you?
The Cross is perhaps one of the most recognized symbols in all of history. Christ was crucified on the cross for us. Yet the cross itself has no actual significance outside of that is how man sacrificed their God.
The cross, the actual physical wood of the cross has absolutely no bearing whatsoever on your salvation.
It is the One who died on the Cross that matters. It is the precious blood spilled on Mount Calvary that is most sacred.
Blood is the life of man. His blood, Holy, Precious was spilled for us. He bled out His life there on Calvary that we might have life.
There was a time when people would sell pieces of wood claiming they were from the cross of Christ.
I am of the mind that no one at any time during the death of Christ thought to save a cross where they killed a man because it was special.
I doubt they ever even considered salvaging that cross for posterity. For all they knew it was just another man they were killing, nothing to save or take note of.
After all, there were very few who before His Resurrection and ascension thought anything other than that He had died. The disciples took a long time after His Resurrection to come around to the thinking and belief that He was alive.
There is no power in the actual physical cross. So even if they knew what had actually just happened, and they had saved the cross for it's symbolism, or it's significance, it was just a piece of wood. Nothing more nothing less.
But He had to die on the cross, it was foreordained.
It was also necessary as that was the only way He could be sacrificed for all the world to see.
It was the way He had to die for no man took His life, He gave His life for us. He died of His own accord on that cross. Spilling out His Blood for us.
They betrayed Him, and intended to kill Him but all they did was take Him to where He had to go. They were merely the instruments of God's Will.
Christ came to die so that we might live.
The cross had no significance but it does have a ton of symbolism.
Num 21:8 And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.
Num 21:9 And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.
All they had to do was look and live. It was that easy.
Or was it?
Imagine walking with snakes everywhere, being bit by one. The pain of the bite, the venom flowing into your system, the constant care for each step.
During all this you had to look up, take your eyes off the ground and your everyday circumstance to look up and live.
Today we have the same set of circumstances. We are bit by sin, living in constant pain and fear, worried about the every day troubles and toils. We too must lift up our eyes while we try to not get overwhelmed by what is going on the ground.
We too must look and live to see that salvation that was so dearly bought on the cross.
Joh 3:14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
Joh 3:15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
The next thought is this..... The Cross is transformational from death to life. It was/is a symbol of life and of death at the same time.
Has it transformed you? Are you truly aware of the sacrifice that was for you?
Have you knelt at the cross lately and just thanked Him for the debt He paid for you?
Have you looked at the cross and truly been transformed, transfixed by what happened there?
Not just His part of the Cross, but the Gift that was so freely offered to you.
Eternal life free from the damnation of sin, free from the death that had come upon all men.
And all you had to do, have to do is look and live!
Joh 3:17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
Joh 3:18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Joh 3:19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
Have you truly been to the cross?
Have you knelt there and freely given your life as a sacrifice to Him? Just as He gave His life as a sacrifice for you.
Have you truly considered the sheer shame and humiliation of what the God of the universe did for you?
There is power in the Blood of Christ. There is an Amazing Grace that will save a wretch like me,
There is Victory in Jesus.
Look to the Cross, For it is the way Home. On that cross died a man. The very Son of God, that we might have life and have it more abundantly.
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