Transformation Based on the Cross[W]e see the way Jesus was executed as a common criminal among other criminals on our behalf. We don't have to understand exactly how it works. But this fact is something we must always have before our minds. That is a good reason to wear or display a cross. For all its mystery it still says: "I am delivered through the sufferings, death, and resurrection of Jesus and I belong to God. The divine mission of which I am a part shoots through human history in the form of a cross." Individual disciples must have indelibly imprinted upon our souls the reality of this wonderful person who walked among us and suffered a cruel death to enable each of us to have life in God. It should become something that is never beyond the margins of our consciousness. "God," Paul said, "makes clear the greatness of his love for us through the fact that Christ died for us while we were still rebelling against him" (Rom. 5:8). Upon this vision of God, transformation into Christlikeness is based. The genuine exclusiveness of the Christian revelation of God lies here. No one can have an adequate view of the heart and purposes of the God of the universe who does not understand that he permitted his son to die on the cross to reach out to all people, even people who hated him. That is who God is. But this is not just a "right answer" to a theological question. It is God looking at me from the cross with compassion and providing for me, with never-failing readiness to take my hand to walk on through life, wherever I may find myself at the time. From Renewing the Christian Mind: Essays, Interviews, and Talks. Copyright © 2016 by Willard Family Trust. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers. |
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