Our Perilous Confidence in the Flesh

Now we see, how many good things, interwoven, spring from the cross. For, overturning that good opinion which we falsely entertain concerning our own strength, and unmasking our hypocrisy, which affords us delight, the cross strikes at our perilous confidence in the flesh. ~John Calvin

An Unpopular Conversation Piece

7 You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? 8 This persuasion is not from him who calls you. 9 A little leaven leavens the whole lump. 10 I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view than mine, and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is. 11 But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed. 12 I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves! ~Galatians 5:7-12, ESV

Discourse about the Cross isn’t in overabundance these days, if you haven’t noticed. A shiny smooth cross might make a fine decoration dangling around our necks, but the jagged edged Cross the Son of God suffered and died on doesn’t make for a very good conversation piece I have found. We like to talk about current news and the events that have shaped history, but will avoid the Cross like the plague (even though the Crucifixion is the one event that overshadows all of history and gives it definition). It is only within the exclusivity of the Cross plus nothing which speaks to both man's most desperate predicament and his most glorious hope.

On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross,
The emblem of suffering and shame;
And I love that old cross where the dearest and best
For a world of lost sinners was slain. ~"The Old Rugged Cross", by George Bennard, 1913

Those who talk about or (close your ears) preach the Cross too much, tend to suffer for it (just ask the apostles about being persecuted and beaten and eventually martyred on behalf of such). So, instead of the old rugged Cross and its undeniable display of eternal love, we tolerate cross-less nonsense all the more. Luther wrote, There is not a word in the Bible which is extra cruem, which can be understood without reference to the cross. The question becomes then: Why is our speech , our writing, and our (I'm going to use the word again) preaching so devoid of it?

Maybe Paul gives us a clue as to why:

17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. ~Romans 8:17-19

A Wonderous Cross

The classic hymn by Isaac Watts never wears thin (When I Survey The Wondrous Cross),

When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ my God!
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to His blood.

See from His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down!
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.

It Was Love

Nails were not enough to hold God-and-man nailed and fastened on the Cross, had not love held Him there. ~Catherine of Siena (1347-1380)

It wasn't for fame, it wasn't for prize, it wasn't for principle, and it wasn't for honor.

Jesus could have just as easily gotten down off that mean-brutal-blood-soaked tree as he could have had the very ones nailing him to it fried to a crisp, but he didn't. Why?

It was love that held him there.