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
All unannounced and mostly undetected there
has come in modern times a new cross into popular evangelical circles.
It is like the old cross, but different:
the likenesses are superficial, the differences fundamental!
From this new cross has sprung a new
philosophy of the Christian life with encouragement for a new and entirely
different evangelistic approach. The evangelist tries to show that Christianity
makes no unpleasant demands; rather, it offers the same thing the world does,
only on a higher level. The modern view is that the new cross does not slay the
sinner, it redirects him!
The philosophy back of this kind of thing
may be sincere, but it is as false as it is blind. It misses completely the
whole meaning of the cross.
The old cross is a symbol of death. It
stands for the abrupt, violent end of a human being. In Roman times, the man
who took up his cross and started down the road was not coming back. He was not
going out to have his life redirected: he was going out to have it ended! The
cross did not try to keep on good terms with its victim. It struck cruel and
hard, and when it had finished its work, the man was no more!
The race of Adam is under death sentence.
God cannot approve any of the fruits of sin. In coming to Christ we do not
bring our old life up onto a higher plane; we leave it at the cross. Thus God
salvages the individual by liquidating him and then raising him again to
newness of life
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