The Wonder of the Wonderful Cross

"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us..." (1st John 3:16)

Have you ever thought about the phrase we often hear and exhort one another with: "Look to the cross"? Have you ever wondered what that really means, what it looks like, what thoughts it conjures, why we would say something like that? Christians are a peculiar people if you think about it. We revel and rest in the marvelous beauty...of a tortuous instrument of execution, a vile Roman cross.

Only the lowest of the low met death by crucifixion. It was the method of capital punishment rolled out only for those the government wished to humiliate in addition to execute. It was a most disgraceful, dreadful, and shameful way to die: hanging nude on a cross while your mother, brothers, sisters, friends, enemies, and arrogant accusers watched and mocked and spat and laughed.

Knowing all this, what is our fascination with the wooden timbers of the cross? Saints throughout the centuries have written and spoken and hymned about the beautiful significance of the cross. Its theological significance is something I have known about for a long time now, but just recently I remembered its sweetness, its gravity, its centrality to all of life. Why say, "Look to the cross"? Because it visually reminds us that regardless of what our fickle emotions tell us, we are at peace with God. His justice is satisfied. His consuming wrath was quenched by divine blood. Our sins have been fully avenged. Christ bore the miserable curse for our aggravated crimes.

So seeing the cross reminds us that Jehovah has done far more than simply tell us about His love. He is not the lover who spends the nights penning romantic sonnets to prove His love. No, His love goes deeper, His love is omnipotent and efficacious. It accomplishes all it intends to. His is the powerful love which conquers the obstinate hearts of His people by submiting to death on a cross in their stead.

The cross is crucial because that is precisely where and when and how our God proved the infinite depth of His love. When we see that cruel image, we are warmed by the reality that there, on that cross the Living God laid His Isaac down that we might be made sons. When a saint ponders His Lord's agonies at Golgatha, he sees the tangible evidence, the visual reminder, the undeniable proof of divine favor. And when a person who doesn't yet believe but "seeks to believe" considers this reality, he should know that the promises of This God can be trusted. This God proved His love to a habitually doubting, rebelling people. And This One, True, Living God is absolutely sincere when He beckons, "All of you who are thirsty, come to Me and I will give you Living Water...and you will never thirst again."

Praise God from whom all blessings flow,
Praise Him all creatures here below,
Praise Him above the Heavenly Host,
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!