Earlier this month we believers and followers of Jesus Christ set aside time to reflect upon Jesus' birth, death, resurrection, and ascension to heaven to sit at the right hand of God.

During these days of reflection, Michael Bynum made a statement that captured my attention.  I cannot remember his exact words, but they were something like this:  The modern church today goes out of its way to ignore the ugliness and the truth of the cross of Christ.  [hope I got the gist of that correct]

The cross cost Christ everything he had and provided us everything we so desperately needed.  Therefore, why are we so afraid of presenting the cross as it really is?  

Paul said that if we should glory in anything, we should glory in the cross of Christ.

God forbid that I should glory in anything

but the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Gal 6:14 NLT)

That cross was not meant to crucify only Jesus.  It was meant to crucify us as well.

Because of Jesus' cross, I have been crucified in relation to the world,

set free from its influence. [Gal 6:14 Message]

When we come to the cross and bow surrendering our lives to the Lordship of Christ,

we are made dead to the world and alive to Christ.  Our old self and nature dies, and a new self and nature is born, one with its eyes set on Christ and heaven, one that lives by the spirit of God.

If we truly believed this message, we would live different lives and cling to the old rugged cross of Christ.

How is this modern cross different than the ancient cross?

We're so intellectual today with so many modern philosophies about behavior and the consequences of such.  We approach sin pragmatically from each man's own  relative point of view with each man defining his own "issues" as character flaws instead of sin. 

Tozer says that the modern cross "makes no unpleasant demands; it offers the same thing the world does, only on a higher level."  Instead of slaying the sinner, "it redirects him."  This idea totally misses the meaning behind the cross of Christ.

The ancient cross was a symbol of death.  It was a horribly violent end to a human life.  Being crucified was humiliating and shameful for the one being crucified had been found guilty of punishment.  It was capital punishment.  The man who carried his cross down the road was NOT coming back.  His life was NOT going to be redirected.  He did not have the pleasure of a second chance.  His life was to END.  The cross's cruel intentions were horrible, and when its work was done, only a corpse remained.

All of mankind is under a death sentence because of the choices made by our ancestors Adam and Eve.  However, Jesus' death of the cross made a way that we could be forgiven our sins and have a new life.  When we come to the cross and accept his forgiveness and Lordship over our lives, we basically bring our old life to the foot of the cross and LEAVE IT THERE.  There we are resurrected into a new life, one lived in Christ Jesus.  We too must die and be resurrected.

As believers and followers of Jesus, we should be mindful of Jesus' cross and resurrection every day.  Every day is a new chance to die to sin and the world and say yes to God and the new life he's offered us. Every day is a opportunity to be thankful for the reconciliation and sanctification Jesus purchased for us on the cross.  Every day is an opportunity to walk in and shine with the joy, love, mercy, and grace provided to us from above.  We can be free from our old sinful nature and alive in Jesus.  So I cherish the old rugged cross today and will do so every day to come.  I don't want a new cross; give me the old one, the one Christ died upon.

The cross that ended the earthly life of Jesus

now puts an end to the sinner;

and the power that raised Christ from the dead

now raises himto a new life along with Christ.

- A.W. Tozer

On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross

The emblem of suffering and shame

And I love that old cross where the dearest and best

For a world of lost sinners was slain

O that old rugged cross so despised by the world

Has a wondrous attraction for me

For the dear Lamb of God left His glory above

To bear it to dark Calvary

In the old rugged cross stained with blood so divine

A wondrous BEAUTY I see

For 'twas on that old cross Jesus suffered and died

To pardon and sanctify me

To the old rugged cross I will ever be true

Its shame and reproach gladly bear

Then He'll call me some day to my home far away

Where His glory forever I'll share

~"The Old Rugged Cross" by George Bennard