Garry spoke on the power of the cross tonight. The way of the cross involves following Jesus (Mk 8:34); it involves a full commitment (since denying ourselves does not come naturally but must be a conscious choice.) A disciple cannot be half-hearted (Luke 18:28); we must be willing to give up our own interests, desires, plans and thoughts and replace these with Christ’s. Christ shows us the way to go; He leads from the front: the way of the cross is established by the One who went that way Himself.
The cost of the cross involves death (see Matt 10:37-38). We are called to a radical discipleship, to re-evaluate our lives and re-prioritise according to God’s values. During the Second World War, the allied forces came across a totally different mindset in the Japanese, who were prepared to lose their own lives for their cause; for them, the individual was not of supreme importance and this can be difficult to comprehend when we value individualism so highly. Jesus’ disciples are called to live by a different value system to the world’s and to clothe ourselves with Christ’s values (which involves putting the Father’s will before His own, as Matt 26:36-43 makes clear.)
The way of the cross will always cost us: it will cost our time, our wealth, our plans, our dreams, our comfort and our reputation. Ultimately, it costs us our lives.
The power of the cross demonstrates, however, that there is power to save (see 1 Cor 1:17-18). We are saved from death and given new life (Eph 2:1-3); we have the chance to leave behind our old way of living and embrace an endless, amazing life.
Through the cross, there is also power to liberate (Rom 6:1-7); we are set free from death, bondage and all the things that would enslave us and given new power to live as God wants us to (Gal 2:19-20).
There is power to witness (Acts 1:6-8), to be an ambassador for Christ, with Christ living through us by the power of His Spirit.
All that we need to live is available to us by faith. So often, we live by our own resource and find, as a result, life rather monotonous and irrelevant. We need to go beyond the ordinary and live our lives wholly dependent on God, and then we will find a power that achieves for us more than we could ever do on our own!
