Today's post is by guest writer Keith Ward.
When we realize that the terms, "cross" and "crucified," are only used in a possibly negative or sad way two times in all the epistles, it changes our whole view of, "This do in remembrance of me" (1Cor11:24).
Rather than feeling sad at the foot of the cross, we should join the apostle Paul, "But far be it from me to glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified unto me, and I unto the world" (Gal 6:14). Certainly, we must consider that our sins caused his suffering to bring about appropriate repentance. But, Paul's every remembrance of the cross is not only positive, it is boasting in victory over the world of sin and emptiness.
In the Bible, blood always means death, not the red liquid. (In Gen 9:6 Is one innocent of "shedding blood" who strangles or poisons another instead?) Thus, it is by the "blood of the cross" that "we are reconciled to God through the death of his son" (Col 1:20, Rom 5:10) as he "Poured out his soul unto death" (Isa 53:12). Every passage we consider after the resurrection speaks only in the same manner, leaping and shouting for joy for this victory, "and he has taken it [the Law] out of the way, nailing it to the cross; having despoiled the principalities and the powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it" (Col2:12-15). Triumph! not sorrow; "I WIN!" not mourning.
Jesus who endured the cross despising shame in his lifetime demanded that disciples take up their cross and follow him. That concept has been cheapened by calling our illnesses or self-generated problems, "our cross to bear." Bearing our cross in victory means emulating the apostles who after being beaten, went "rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the Name" (Acts 5:41). Suffering for Christ wins the victory of the cross. The communion commits us to hold fast that confession that we began with baptism.
That remembrance should lead us to a life of triumph in Christ that causes the world about us to view us as a sweet smell to the good and the smell of death to those who refuse truth (2Cor2:14-16). Without the sense of victory engendered by the Lord's Supper, we soon are overwhelmed by life's challenges and fears. Our hearts must always focus on that firstfruit of our victory "which is Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Col 1:27).
We may be scorned for speaking and living that which we believe in a world where tolerance is the only rule; we may lose jobs, suffer isolation, or even go hungry or homeless. But silence is refusing the cross of the Lord's Supper, the cross of triumph over death.
"In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory" (1Cor 15:52-54).
Keith Ward
When we realize that the terms, "cross" and "crucified," are only used in a possibly negative or sad way two times in all the epistles, it changes our whole view of, "This do in remembrance of me" (1Cor11:24).
Rather than feeling sad at the foot of the cross, we should join the apostle Paul, "But far be it from me to glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified unto me, and I unto the world" (Gal 6:14). Certainly, we must consider that our sins caused his suffering to bring about appropriate repentance. But, Paul's every remembrance of the cross is not only positive, it is boasting in victory over the world of sin and emptiness.
In the Bible, blood always means death, not the red liquid. (In Gen 9:6 Is one innocent of "shedding blood" who strangles or poisons another instead?) Thus, it is by the "blood of the cross" that "we are reconciled to God through the death of his son" (Col 1:20, Rom 5:10) as he "Poured out his soul unto death" (Isa 53:12). Every passage we consider after the resurrection speaks only in the same manner, leaping and shouting for joy for this victory, "and he has taken it [the Law] out of the way, nailing it to the cross; having despoiled the principalities and the powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it" (Col2:12-15). Triumph! not sorrow; "I WIN!" not mourning.
Jesus who endured the cross despising shame in his lifetime demanded that disciples take up their cross and follow him. That concept has been cheapened by calling our illnesses or self-generated problems, "our cross to bear." Bearing our cross in victory means emulating the apostles who after being beaten, went "rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the Name" (Acts 5:41). Suffering for Christ wins the victory of the cross. The communion commits us to hold fast that confession that we began with baptism.
That remembrance should lead us to a life of triumph in Christ that causes the world about us to view us as a sweet smell to the good and the smell of death to those who refuse truth (2Cor2:14-16). Without the sense of victory engendered by the Lord's Supper, we soon are overwhelmed by life's challenges and fears. Our hearts must always focus on that firstfruit of our victory "which is Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Col 1:27).
We may be scorned for speaking and living that which we believe in a world where tolerance is the only rule; we may lose jobs, suffer isolation, or even go hungry or homeless. But silence is refusing the cross of the Lord's Supper, the cross of triumph over death.
"In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory" (1Cor 15:52-54).
Keith Ward
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