Rooted and Grounded

Ever wonder why the image of the cross figures so predominantly in the New Testament.  It’s more than the obvious – Jesus died on a cross.

Mark 5:34 records Jesus speaking, “Whoever desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”  When Jesus made this statement, he hadn’t gone to the cross yet.

John Stott says “becoming a Christian involves a change so radical that no imagery can do it justice except death and resurrection – dying to the old life of self-centeredness and rising to new life of holiness and love.”

In Galatians 5:24, Paul writes “those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh of its passions and desires.”

In Romans 6:6, he says,  “our old man was crucified with Him.”  He repeats the imagery of the cross and death on the cross to speak of living a life of self-denial – death to self.

Often people think that their “cross” is the trial or persecution they are undergoing.  The trials are not the cross.  The trials function to strengthen one to carry his or her cross.  The cross is the life of self-denial, the laying down of one’s own life for the furtherance of the gospel.

As a Christian, I am best described as “dead man walking” since I must carry the instrument of my own execution, the cross.  I must die, so He might live through me.  By this great miracle, others will see Him and His glory and be drawn to Him.  Thus, the gospel is spread.

Father, make me to be dead to self and alive to Your Spirit.  May Easter remind me of how that fully-surrendered life appears.