May I never boast except in
the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified
to me, and I to 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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