04.03. The Cross of Jesus

Paul said, "I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified." (1 Corinthians 2:2) Nowadays it’s "Jesus Christ and what He can do for you!" You cannot have more exact opposites than the Bible’s Christ-centered Gospel,(Matthew 10:38; Luke 14:27; 1 Corinthians 1:17-18; Galatians 6:14; Ephesians 2:6; Colossians 1:20; 1 Peter 2:24) and our modern, cross-less, me-centered gospel.

Today, if anyone preaches self-denial as a condition of discipleship, you can hear the comments afterwards: "old-fashioned," "harsh," "legalistic." I dare say that our Lord would have as much trouble finding acceptance among our preachers as He had among the religious leaders of His own day.

Here’s what A.W. Tozer says about the cross...

"The cross is the most revolutionary thing ever to appear among men. The cross of Roman times knew no compromise, it never made concessions. It won all its arguments by killing its opponent and silencing him for good. It spared not Christ, but slew Him the same as the rest. He was alive when they hung Him on that cross, and completely dead when they took Him off of it. That was the cross the first time it appeared in Christian history.

"With perfect knowledge of all this, Christ said, ’If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself take up his cross and follow Me.’ So the cross not only brought Christ’s life to an end, it also ends the first life, the old life of every one of His true followers...this and nothing less is true Christianity. We must do something about the cross, and there’s only one of two things we can do - flee it or die upon it!"