The Cross: Its Meaning and Application

(Overcomer Wu)

“And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.”

We often hear people loosely toss around the phrase 'the cross' like everyone understands the validity and weight of the subject to which we are referring. Many people, including Christians, do not understand at all what the cross represents or what relevance it has to our daily living. The cross is not only an object of faith, but also an experience of the soul and spirit on a continual basis. Just as the cross was Christ’s only way to glory and the eternal priesthood, so it is the disciple’s only way to realize their full salvation. The Master’s rebuke of Peter brings out the startling truth that the cross is the central and universal condition of the Kingdom. In Matthew chapter 16, Peter besought Jesus to spare Himself, to escape, to turn aside from suffering and death of the cross. The Lord Jesus immediately flung the suggestion from Him. In it He saw the essence of worldliness and the suggestion from the devil himself.

The cross is not just the place where Jesus died a sinner's death for us, the place where all shame, guilt, and sin are laid bare and all the negative things are taken care of by the Lord Jesus, but it is also the place where our life begins. Despite the wrong choices we have made in life, the heaviness of our sins, or the inconsistency of our faith, we can all find common ground at the foot of the cross – the place where we can cast aside the troubles of our mind and receive the benefits of salvation to our spirit, soul, and ultimately our body. It is there that God gives us a newness of life (Rom 6:4) and turn our lives into something truly purposeful and meaningful both in God's eyes and in our human life according to the divine creative purpose. Thus, it is by our daily living the life of the cross that we truly find fulfillment to the emptiness of life – the fulfillment that all unbelievers cannot experience and many Christians fail to attain to on a constant basis.

The cross stands for a life voluntarily surrendered to the will of God. From the standpoint of the world the death of Christ was a murder; in its eternal aspect it was a Divine appointment; in the act of Christ it was a voluntary sacrifice. He Himself said, "I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again” (Jn 10:17-18). He was a voluntary offering, not a helpless victim. The death of the cross was the last demand upon His obedience. In its agony He endured sin’s utmost penalty, sounded the deepest depths of human sorrow, and experienced the heartbreak of silent mystery.

Christ is our example. The obedience of the Christian must be as the obedience of Christ – voluntary, continuous, faithful. If our obedience involves suffering, loss, and agony, then, like our Lord, we should not flinch in the darkness nor be afraid in the silence, but commit all things to the keeping and responsibility of the eternal Father. This is the meaning of the cross: consecration, obedience, trust.

In the bearing the cross, our Savior trod the winepress alone, and there was no man to stand with Him in the cross appointed for Him to bear. And yet the disciple is called to carry our cross and follow Him (Matt 16:24). If we only see this as a hardship and suffering and not a great privilege, we failed to see the real meaning and full import of the cross. The apostle Paul's aspiration was to lose all that he may enter into “the fellowship of His suffering, and be conformed to His death” (Phi 3:10), for he realized that it is the only way for us to know our Lord experiencially in a more intimate way and to be fully conformed to His image. Yet the practicality of living the life of the cross often comes down to: "He laid down His life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren” (1 Jn 3:16). Yet instead of denying ourselves in submitting to the delegated authority of God or simply lay down our soul life for the gain of our fellow believers, we insists on our own rights and freedom. If we love as He loved, we shall live as He lived.