The Centrality Of The Cross

Life is hard. There are setbacks, trials, adversities, hardships, sorrows, grieving and innumerable challenges. You have yours and I have mine. How do we endure? How do we keep showing up faithfully for our service to the King of Kings? How do we keep going when so much seems against us?

The centrality of the cross. When is the last time you sat before the Lord in prayerful meditation about what He did on the cross? Look long at His love, mercy, grace and sacrifice. Then look equally long at His holiness, righteousness and justification. He did all that for us. We are the recipients of love, mercy, grace, holiness, righteousness and justification. Go a step further. Look at yourself. Your inconsistencies, the flaws in your character, your sin, your unfaithfulness and unworthiness. How undeserving all of us are for what Jesus did on the cross.

In our age self esteem, self image and self promotion rule the day. These fly in opposition to seeing ourselves fully in light of the cross. We are sinners. Anything redeeming in us is solely because of what Jesus did on the cross. That must never be forgotten. How easily the cross is forgotten though. Forgotten and ignored by a pagan society. Also forgotten by born again believers who get caught in the matrix of family, work, recreation and entertainment.  We have crosses hanging on the mirror of our cars, on the jewelry we wear, and on the walls in our home. Yet the message of the cross is easily forgotten in our minds and hearts.

The Apostle Paul had the cross on his heart and mind continually. The cross remained central to how he lived and endured the tough stuff. Read these verses and let the centrality of the cross sink in.

Galatians 2:20 (NKJV)
20  I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Galatians 6:14 (NKJV) 

14  But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. 

See what I mean. The cross and Jesus' redemptive work there was central to Paul's life and ministry. He saw himself as a man with no rights. His life was hidden in Christ and forever laid on the cross. He had no room for boasting no matter how he endured whether in prosperity or suffering. His boast was in the work of Jesus on the cross. He died to the things in this world others still strive to earn and enjoy. 

Paul suffered. What kept him going? How did he endure with so much going against him? He never lost sight of the cross. 

Many years ago I used to meet with two other preachers for the purpose of accountability. We prayed together. Confessed sin to one another. We asked hard questions about our lives and ministry and we offered hard hitting Bible based counsel. One particular day one of us was whining about the difficulties of life in ministry. This went on for some time. One pastor simple offered one sentence of counsel that day that has sustained me to this day. "In light of the cross so what?" 

Here is the intended meaning. No matter what sufferings and hardships we have to endure can they compare to Jesus' death on the cross? NO. If He endured the cross with joy so can we persevere through our trials. Furthermore, if servants like Paul also suffered but endured because of the cross then so can we. 

It is easy to lose sight of the cross in our fast paced society bent on living for and pursuing the temporal. The cross reminds us of the eternal. Let us stay focused on the eternal for in the end this is what really matters. Keep the cross central in your thinking and living.