The Call of the Cross

Because the cross makes clear God’s daily execution of you. The cross makes clear God’s daily execution of you. And I know that’s strong language, but I mean it to be strong. This is what the Bible teaches. The cross is not just a place of death for Christ. The cross is a place of death for the Christian. Think immediately back to Jesus’s words, all throughout the gospels. “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself. Take up his cross. You take up instrument of torture, bloody, humiliating, shame and follow me.”

The Call of the Cross Is To Die To Yourself

In a world where everything revolves around self, promote yourself, exalt yourself, preserve yourself. Take care of yourself. Jesus says, “Slay yourself.” Die to yourself. Die to your power. Die to your wisdom. Die to your ways. Lose your life. This is what it means to be in Christ Jesus, to be crucified with Christ, to use Paul’s language in Galatians 2:20. And we need to be reminded of this daily, especially in a world and more specifically a church culture where we have created this idea that all is involved in becoming a Christian is asking Jesus into your heart, inviting Jesus into your life, praying this prayer, signing this card, or raising that hand. None of those phrases mentioned in the Bible.

And there are scores of people whose lives look no different than the rest of the world, but they prayed a prayer years ago. And so they assume that they are saved when they are not. Come to Christ. You lose your life as you once knew it. When you meet Christ at the cross, everything in your life changes.

Imagine I came in here late tonight. Imagine those two incredible songs finish up. Video plays and then lights come up and nobody’s standing here and everybody’s kind of looking around, five, 10 minutes, just kind of sit there awkwardly. And then five to 10 minutes late, I come running in. I’m breathing hard and I say, “I’m so sorry I’m late.

I was on the way over here tonight and was on interstate 95.” It’s 95 out there, right? Yeah, interstate 95. “And I had a flat tire. And so I pulled over, was fixing the flat tire, and I accidentally stepped out in the middle of the interstate and a mack truck hit me head on and it hurt. And so I got back up, put the tire on the car, got in the car and rushed you. So I’m sorry I’m late.”

You would say to me that you are either lying or deceived. And the reason you would know that is because you know that when somebody gets hit by a mack truck, they look different than they did before. How much more? When a person comes face to face with God in the flesh, the king of the nations, the savior of the world, who has all authority over disease and sin, sickness and death itself, the one who gave his life on a cross for the rescue of your soul, how is it possible to come face to face with him? When you see him, everything changes.

Find New Life

It is not possible to look the same after encountering the cross of Christ. You die to life as you know it, and you find new life in him. And that affects what you do every single day. The cross reminds you today, Christian, that you are dead to yourself. You no longer, we in this room, we no longer live for the passions and pursuits and pleasures and possessions of this world. We’re dead to this world and our lives look very different in this world as a result. We are living for treasure in the world to come.

 So I would ask some in this room who profess to be Christians, have you really met Christ? Have you really come to the cross? Let us be finished and done with lukewarm, halfhearted, world loving versions of Christianity. And pastors in this room, let’s preach the cross like this. Let’s resist the temptation to promote some crowd pleasing Christianity that attempts to make people feel good about idolatrous devotion to money, big houses, nice cars, possessions, sex, sports, and success. Let’s call people to die and in dying to live.