The Calling of the Cross.

Looking closely at Paul’s letters brings something crucial about the world in which we live to the forefront our minds: hostility to the Cross characterizes the kosmos.  The Cross symbolizes the love poured out to secure our souls, then leads us by the light of faith to the Resurrection, the source of our Life and the place of our power {Rom. 6}.  For you and I, it is an utterly indispensable aspect of Jesus’ Finished Work.  In light of this, one can make any kind of ‘spiritual statement’ they want {no matter how ludicrous it may seem}, utter all manner of ‘religious rhetoric,’ but when you stand boldly for the Son of God and the sacrifice of the Cross, all the rage of nations will be turned against you.

Christian author Brennan Manning wrote: “Today the Christian community does not disturb the world….”  And this should disturb us.  “When our dogmatic beliefs and moral principles do not realize themselves in discipleship, then our holiness is an illusion.  And the world has no time for illusions.”  Why so little impact from a Body that seems so B.U.S.Y.?  Because “Christian piety has trivialized the passionate God of Golgotha.  Christian art has turned the unspeakable outrage of Calvary into dignified jewelry.  Christian worship has sentimentalized monstrous scandal into sacred pageant.  Organized religion has domesticated the Lord of Glory, turned Him into a tame theological symbol.  …Theological symbols do not sweat blood in the night.  In his landmark work, The Crucified God, Jurgen Moltmann writes: ‘We have made the bitterness of the Cross, the revelation of God in the Cross of Jesus Christ, tolerable to ourselves by learning to understand it as a theological necessity for the process of salvation.  As a result, the Cross loses its ...incomprehensible character.’”

View it as a theological relic, and the Cross will never disturb your comfortable religiosity.  Yet the Savior of our souls and Lover of our lives demands nothing less than the placing of all our arrogance and ego on the Cross.  This is the heart of submission and surrender.

There’s an entire ‘complex’ of churches today which attempt to eliminate the risk and inherent danger of following Jesus {a prospect which we all know, if we’re even remotely honest with Scripture, can end badly}.  “We cushion the risk and remove the danger of discipleship by drawing up a list of moral rules to give us a sense of security rather than the insecurity of living each moment by faith in Him.  To live the Adventure of Faith is to walk in the Way we were saved— 2 Corinthians 5:7.  The Word of the Cross, the power and wisdom of Jesus Christ crucified, is conspicuous by its absence.  If we were to live a life in imitation of His,” what would it look like, what would be our witness to the world?

“If indeed we lived a life in imitation of His, our witness would be irresistible.  If we dared to live beyond our self-concern, if we refused to shrink from being vulnerable, if we took nothing but a compassionate attitude toward the world, if we were a counterculture to our nation’s lunatic lust for pride of place, power, and possession, if we preferred to be faithful rather than successful, the walls of indifference to Jesus Christ would crumble.  A handful of us could be ignored by society, but hundreds, thousands, millions of such servants would overwhelm the world.  Christians filled with the authenticity, commitment, and generosity of Jesus would be the most spectacular sign in the history of the human race.  The call of Jesus is revolutionary.  If we implemented it, we would change the world in a few months.”  {The Signature of Jesus, pp. 36-37, 45-46}

HJC	Ric Webb  |  Shepherd Heart’s Journey Community 9621 Tall Timber Blvd. |  Little Rock, AR 72204 t +1.501.455.0296
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