The Cross Is a Radical Thing

 

A.W. Tozer

 

 

The cross of Christ is the most revolutionary thing ever to
appear among men. The cross of old Roman times knew no compromise; it never made
concessions. It won all its arguments by killing its opponent and silencing him
for good. It spared not Christ, but slew Him the same as the rest. He was alive
when they hung Him on that cross and completely dead when they took Him down six
hours later. That was the cross the first time it appeared in Christian
history.

 

After Christ was risen from the dead the apostles went out to
preach His message, and what they preached was the cross. And wherever they went
into the wide world they carried the cross, and the same revolutionary power
went with them. The radical message of the cross transformed Saul of Tarsus and
changed him from from a persecutor of Christians to a tender believer and
apostle of the faith. Its power changed bad men into good ones. It shook off the
long bondage of paganism and altered completely the whole moral and mental
outlook of the Western world.

 

All this it did and continued to do as long as it was permitted
to remain what it had been originally – a cross. Its power departed when it was
changed from a thing of death to a thing of beauty. When men made of it a
symbol, hung it around their necks as an ornament or made its outline before
their faces as a magic sign to ward off evil, then it became at best a weak
emblem, at worst a positive fetish. As such it is revered today by millions who
know absolutely nothing about its power.

 

The cross effects its ends by destroying one established
pattern, the victim’s, and creating another pattern, its own. Thus it always has
its way. It wins by defeating its opponent and imposing its will upon him. It
always dominates. It never compromises, never dickers nor confers, never
surrenders a point for the sake of peace. It cares not for peace: it cares only
to end its opposition as fast as possible.

 

With perfect knowledge of all this Christ said, “Then said Jesus
unto his disciples, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and
take up his cross, and follow me.” (Matthew 16: 24). So the cross not only
brings Christ’s life to an end, it ends also the first life, the old life, of
every one of His true followers. It destroys the old pattern, the Adam pattern,
in the believer’s life, and brings it to an end. The the God, who raised Christ
from the dead raises the believer and a new life begins.

 

This, and nothing less, is true Christianity, though we cannot
but recognize the sharp divergence of this conception from that held by the rank
and file of evangelicals today. But we dare not qualify our position. The cross
stands high above the opinions of men and to that cross all opinions must come
at last for judgment. A shallow and worldly leadership would modify the cross to
please the entertainment-mad saintlings who will have their fun even within the
very sanctuary; but to do so is to court spiritual disaster and risk the anger
of the Lamb turned Lion.

 

We must do something about the cross, and one of two things only
can we do – flee it or die upon it. And if we should be so foolhardy as to flee,
we shall by that act put away the faith of our fathers and make Christianity
something other than it is. Then we shall have left only the empty language of
salvation; the power will depart with our departure from the true
cross.

 

If we are wise we will do what Jesus did: endure the cross and
despise its shame for the joy that is set before us. To do this is to submit the
whole pattern of our lives to be destroyed and built again in the power of an
endless life. And we shall find that it is more than poetry, more than sweet
hymnody and elevated feeling. The cross will cut into our lives where it hurts
worst, sparing neither us nor our carefully cultivated reputations. It will
defeat us and bring our selfish lives to an end. Only then can we rise to
fullness of life to establish a pattern of living wholly new and free and full
of good works.

 

The changed attitude toward the cross that we see in modern
orthodoxy proves not that God has changed, nor that Christ has eased up on His
demand that we carry the cross; it means rather that current Christianity has
moved away from the standards of the New Testament. So far have we moved indeed
that it may take nothing short of a new reformation to restore the cross to its
right place in the theology and life of the Church.