In Jesus’ day, death on a cross was cruel and brutal—the worst way to die. No one would have worn a cross as a piece of jewelry anymore than we would consider wearing a tiny emblem of a coffin around our neck!
More than two thousand years before Christ’s death on a cross, Abraham was circumcised; it was an external sign of his covenant with God. Did Abraham know it foreshadowed the work of the Cross? I think he did. Because some 400 years later, the Old Testament writers called it a “circumcision of the heart (Deut. 10:16; Romans 2:29). They knew the covenant with God was entered by death—that’s what the sacrificial ceremonies were all about. But on some level, they also knew that it meant death to the treasures of one’s heart.
How many people who call themselves Christians wear the cross on the outside but have never known what it is to have a new heart and a new spirit (Ez. 36:26)because of Jesus’ death and resurrection (Romans 6:4,6,11): the New Covenant? Jesus bore the Cross. Now we wear a Cross. Today is Good Friday. Why is it “good?” Because… if Jesus had not been bearing the Cross, we couldn’t be wearing one.
It makes me think how when we realize what the cross practically signifies for us individually, the crucifixion of the old man with Christ, and the excellent privilege of living a life in the resurrection power of Jesus through the Holy Spirit, it makes one to want to keep the cross close in our hearts because we know is the basis and essence for our everyday lives lived in God. I think when we live daily on the cross our hearts become beautiful to the Lord, a cross not seen by men but worn in our hearts.
ReplyDeleteAnd Paul calls it a circumcision made without hands! Have a blessed Easter, Patricia.
ReplyDeleteGreg,
ReplyDeleteWhen you used the phrase "death to the treasures of one's heart" it prompted something within me. Many non-Christians I know--as well as Christians--seem to retain the idolatrous worship of the god of their own mind. Their mind has become the stanfard for their understanding of truth. It matters not how much biblical truth they are presented with it is only their opinions that matter to them (been there myself...and sometimes still struggle with this issue).
When Jesus made the claim for Himself that He is "the Way, the Truth, and the Life" this was His way of smashing the human mind with all of its intellectual processes as a god worthy of allegiance, and replacing it with His Own Person. If Jesus would not have died on the Cross there would not have been any means whereby the above lie could have ever been effectively displaced, and for us not to die in our sinful conclusions. Someone needed to die vicariously as Representative of the whole race in order for us to be free to choose the Truth, therby gaining life eternal.
"Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much fruit." (John 12:24)...I get it now, Greg!
Stan
We will neve get to the end of "taking all thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ. and we're ready to punish all disobedience whenever you obedience is compelte!" 2 cor.10
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