THE PATTERN OF THE CROSS – Part 1 of 2

Jesus said, “The reason My Father loves Me is that I lay down My life -- only to take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from My Father.”  (John 10:17-18 NIV)

The pattern of the Cross means that the world’s glorification of power, might, and status is exposed and defeated. On the cross Christ wins through losing, triumphs through defeat, achieves power through weakness and service, comes to wealth via giving it all away. Jesus Christ turns the values of the world upside down. As N. T. Wright, in his book “Simply Christian,” says: “The real enemy after all, was not Rome but the powers of evil that stood behind human arrogance and violence… [On the cross] the kingdom of God triumphed over the kingdoms of the world by refusing to join in their spirit of violence. [On the cross, Jesus] would love His enemies, turn the other cheek, go the second mile.”  

-- Timothy Keller (1950-2023) in “The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism” 

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FULL OF GRACE AND TRUTH

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth… For from His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”  (John 1:14,16,17 ESV)

There is more nonsense per square inch about worldliness than perhaps any other subject in the Christian life.  Usually, worldliness is reduced to a laundry list of taboos -- the nasty nine, the terrible ten, or the dirty dozen, depending on whose list you go by.

The do's and don'ts sound like they come straight from Sinai, but the truth of the matter is, they originate from our own parochial prejudices.

We want to watch out for worldliness, but we also want to watch out for the legalistic labels that some condescending Christians stick on many areas of life where God has granted us freedom.

The key to an abundant life under the lordship of Christ is not trying to impress Him with the check marks on our laundry list but trying to live like He lived -- full of grace and truth, not full of legalism and pious platitudes. 

-- Charles R. Swindoll in “The Practical Life of Faith” [1990] 

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DYING TO OURSELVES – Part 1

“So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!”  (2 Corinthians 5:17 NRSV)

How do we die to ourselves?

[As a pastor] I’ve been around my share of dead people. I’ve been in the room before the coroner comes in. I’ve sat with families as their father and husband took his last breath. I’ve stood next to many open caskets as friends and family walked by to say good-bye. And I don’t mean to be coarse, but I’ve noticed something about dead people.

They don’t seem to care very much what other people think of them. They’re not concerned with how nice their clothes are.

Dead people aren’t caught up in their stock investments, nor do they show much interest in getting a promotion. Death renders all worldly points moot. It’s the ultimate, required surrender of yourself and all you have. When Jesus speaks of dying to ourselves, this is what He wants us to think about. All the stuff of the world is dead to us, and we’re dead to it. 

-- Kyle Idleman in “The End of Me: Where Real Life in the Upside-Down Ways of Jesus Begins” 

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CONFORMING TO CHRIST

Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to follow Me [as My disciple], he must deny himself [set aside selfish interests], and take up his cross [expressing a willingness to endure whatever may come] and follow Me [believing in Me, conforming to My example in living and, if need be, suffering or perhaps dying because of faith in Me].”  (Matthew 16:24 AMP)

Abraham Joshua Heschel once said, “Self-respect is the root of discipline: The sense of dignity grows with the ability to say ‘no’ to oneself.”

What do these two quotes say to us today – to a culture where anything goes, where I am encouraged to say ‘yes’ to my desires, where so many are conforming to the direction of society, rather than to Christ? So much is upside down in this world today. We need to say ‘yes’ to Christ and ‘no’ to oneself. 

The Apostle Paul put it this way, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is -- His good, pleasing and perfect will.”  (Romans 12:2 NIV)

-- Rev. David T. Wilkinson

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NOTHING BUT FILTHY RAGS

“We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall, and our sins sweep us away like the wind.”  (Isaiah 64:6 NLT)

If... you are ever tempted to think that we modern Western Europeans cannot really be so very bad because we are, comparatively speaking, humane -- if, in other words, you think God might be content with us on that ground -- ask yourself whether you think God ought to have been content with the cruelty of past ages because they excelled in courage or chastity.  You will see at once that this is an impossibility. From considering how the cruelty of our ancestors looks to us, you may get some inkling of how our softness, worldliness, and timidity would have looked to them, and hence how both must look to God. 

-- C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) in “The Problem of Pain”


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