J. Grant Swank, Jr.
". . .Christ crucified. . ." I Corinthians 1:23
Salvation
comes to us by faith. There is no work possible to mankind which can
forgive sins. Only the sinless sacrifice upon the cross is able to
cleanse us from our wrong-doing. That is why the cross is absolutely
central to the Christian life and faith.
Before the world
was created, God schemed the redemption plan. It would be activated if
mortal disobeyed Creator God. Our first parents unfortunately did
trespass against the law of Creator God; in that instant, the cross
came into play upon the planet. Prior to that moment, the cross was a
divine plan housed in the eternities.
Down through Old Testament history,
the shedding of blood was the means by which mortals could find
forgiveness. It was the sacrifice. It was the pain. It was the reminder
that first parents had attempted to play deity--foolishly so--by
believing the tempter.
Then came the Calvary Cross atop Golgotha.
There was stapled the perfect Lamb. There He bled, scarified His all
upon the wood, suffered, cried out in anguish, writhed beneath the
awful blows of a slow death. There Christ became sin for us. There the
Lamb became likewise goat of humanity--the scape goat carrying into the
tomb our sins upon His holy head.
From that cross point
in human history, all other history looks back upon Jerusalem's tree.
And from creation's start, all human history looked forward to
Jerusalem's tree. The cross is the cross roads of all human history.
Therefore,
it is paramount that everyone who claims the name "Christian" realizes
that the Christian life is summed up in the cross. There is finally no
other place to go in this life. It is the cross from alpha to omega.
One can travel all over the globe--back in history, forward in expectation--and yet find no greater height than the hill upon which Christ was nailed to a piece of timber.
Likewise,
it is of utmost significance that each believer reckon with the fact
that the Christian experience centers upon the cross--sacrifice, pain,
relinquishment, surrender, yielding, emptying, soul nakedness, death to
self-striving and acclaim.
Yet this very truth is the concept most ignored by the Christian community
for at first blanch it appears to be repulsive, so absolutely
impossible. How can a good God ask this of us? How can such a bloody
scene be the central crux of a religion?
Yet it is. Once one
then grips the fundamental fact of the faith, one can then move into
the reality of the cross by his own personal obedience to emptying all
into the hands of Christ. This is what Paul called for when he wrote
for believers to die in Christ, to be buried in Christ, and then to
know the resurrection peace.
This
must become personal to you otherwise you are merely holding to a
religious coin without knowing its value. You are merely toying with a
religious emblem without understanding its blood stain upon your soul.
You must climb up Calvary, stake out your very existence there and bed
down till the last breath beneath the body of the crucified One.
Anything less cannot be tolerated for it is God who demands this of His
own.
It is by faith you start the journey. It is by faith you continue the journey. It is by faith you will end the journey.