Lankton, Grace Lindsey, Maud Marion, Sallie Martin, Wilson Meade, Alice Monteith, Martha C.
Frances, Victoria Frances, Jennie Garnett, Frank Gould, H. Cuyler, D.H.W., Ella Dare, Ellen Dare, Mrs. Blair, Charles Bruce, Robert Bruce, Leah Carlton, Eleanor Craddock, Lyman G. You will never experience the pleasures of Christ if you reject the pain of His cross.Pseudonymns: A.V., Mrs. The road of fellowship with Christ leads over Calvary.
Jesus said you can’t know Him or follow Him without a cross. We can’t pray, “Thy kingdom come” without also saying “And my kingdom go.” That means that we can’t do God’s will if we still insist on our will. “If anyone would come after Me,” He said, “let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me” (Luke 9:23).Ĭhrist calls us to follow Him in cross-bearing, in dying to ourselves, and in pursuing sacrifice as a strategic part of living out the gospel. He Who died for us also calls us to die with Him. In His crucifixion, Jesus was establishing a pattern for our lives. “It must be an inexpressible and unendurable yearning,” said Martin Luther, “that causes the Son of God Himself so to suffer!” This miracle, this cross, this death of God’s Son - this is how much God loves sinners.įinally, until we steadfastly look upon the cross in all its gory magnificence, it will be impossible to realize God’s call upon our lives. He was under no obligation to do so and yet, He died, horribly, all for love’s sake. Consider the awesome omnipotence of His love, not that He overlooked sin - far from it! - but that on the cross He died for it. No sentimentalism, no sappy “anything goes” tolerance is visible at the cross. Look at the cross and see what the Son of God endured to solve our sin problem! He took sin seriously, and so must we.Īs we look on the cross more intently, we learn, in addition, to appreciate Christ’s love.
The incomprehensible suffering of Christ shows us that sin is no mere trifle. Staying near the cross, keeping it in the center of our lives, also helps us see the truth about our sin. At the cross, where the Son of God was broken under the weight of the Father’s wrath, we see that the holiness of God exceeds all our imaginations. Until we discipline ourselves to gaze upon the cross, to meditate on its meaning and rehearse all that happened there, we never rightly comprehend God’s righteousness. When Jesus suffered on the cross He was taking our place, enduring the separation from God we deserved, serving as our substitute.Īnd so, let us pray to be kept near the cross, saying “O Lamb of God, bring its scenes before me,” to correct our vision of what is important in life and to keep the dazzle of this world from causing us to stumble from God’s call. Of course, there is a degree of truth in that notion: without the death of God’s Son, you and I would still be in our sins, and therefore rightfully under God’s wrath. We tend to think of the cross as a way for us to get more of God’s goodies, the ticket, as it were, to our best life now. Too many of us have an incomplete understanding of what happened when Jesus willingly embraced the cross and died upon it.
More than just a song, it’s a much-needed prayer for Christians. How many of us can sing by heart the words of the song that starts “Jesus, keep me near the cross”? Can you recall the next few lines?
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