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Praying forth a recovering of the realities of the cross of Christ
04.
In later years the Christian life has turned into something rather glamorous. The Spirit thinks differently. Heaven thinks differently. Jesus Christ offered himself without blemish, by the eternal Spirit, for the provision of a salvation to the uttermost from sin and defilement. The attitude and viewpoint which the author and perfecter of our faith holds does not contain any glamorous elements. The kind of overcoming which he points out, when he urges John to write to the seven churches, excludes half-heartedness and double-mindedness; it rejects a love which has grown cold and it refuses compromise. A martyr’s heart is pleasing to him, a heart which is set to endure under greatest pressure, a heart which does not follow common trends even in the face of friends who flips from friendliness to haughty scorn.
Therefore let us also, seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising shame, and hath sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that hath endured such gainsaying of sinners against himself, that ye wax not weary, fainting in your souls. Heb 12:1-3.
The cross stands as an absolute necessity in the work of salvation. It brings us back to reality. It provides heavenly perspective. The cross orders our common reality into strictly divided classes, sections and segments with abrupt lines of division. In the thought of the old Romans a cross was disastrously definite. A man on his way to the place of execution, carrying a cross, was not to be seen returning from his journey. The work of the cross is an unquestionable imperative in the process of the bringing forth of life and peace. But the glamorous Christianity reduces the cross to a symbol without practical value, to an item of adornment or a tool to be used by a superstitious mind to ward off evil.
The cross which is waiting for us is as disastrous in its efficiency as the executioner’s, but it brings life – a life which is fundamentally different from anything produced in and by the world. Our part of the cross of Christ includes a part in his death, but it also includes a part in his life and his peace. In the same manner as Abraham, the father of faith, travelled away from Babylonian territory and Babylonian influence purposely searching for the city which God builds, so the cross works an “away from” in the life of the Christian. The work of God in our days consists of a bringing of his people out and away from every expression of half-heartedness – lukewarm love, shallow worship, self-centered praying and works of benevolence which temporarily silences a bad conscience. The cross draws a strict, a definite borderline between the glory of God and a worldly setting.
The cross at work will be seen and solidified by a steady inclination towards the things of Heaven. A person who has been touched by its reality begins to seek after something in the outer world which corresponds to the rare product hidden in his innermost being. His disposition has changed, his longings go in a different direction, his mentality is reformed.
The prayer in his heart is simple: “I want to become all that which the cross can do in a man. The things which you, Father, have prepared through the cross must find its proper expression in me. I am willing to be crucified to the wisdom and the value-system which the world and its powers represent.”
“Lord, I would like to see your word come to fullness in me: By one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.” “Sanctify, work according to the cross, make it work in full power, allow life and peace come as is intended in the coming of your kingdom.”
Lars W.
