LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
The Eternity of the Cross
The cross is part of God's own nature.
Roberto Sáez
The preaching of the cross is at the center of preaching about Christ. For Paul, there was no other message with more relevance than this: to preach Christ and him crucified. However, in many Christian contexts, this has been left aside, changing the focus toward other aspects, such as gifting, prosperity, anointing, miracles, etc. Without doubt, these have a place in the work of God, but they don't constitute the central aspect of the message of Christian preaching. Christ crucified should continue occupying first place.
The eternity of the cross
Surprisingly, the cross is eternal and will continue being eternal, since it is part of God's own nature. Given that the cross is intrinsic and inherent to the divine nature, and that our God is eternal, it stands to reason that the cross is also. The cross is visible in the way in which the Godhead relates to one another: The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit have eternally lived the cross; it has always been their lifestyle. Therefore, given that humans were made according to the image and likeness of God, he must necessarily have had this same quality.
When God created man, He had the cross in mind, giving Adam a first lesson from the cross when telling him not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We know that his sin consisted in disobeying this commandment, which resulted in the loss of the cross in man's nature. The tree of life had the form of a cross, since when eating from this tree the man would have received a substitute life; a different life would be inside him and thus he would have to learn how to cohabit with a life that would decrease the life of his self, making him deny himself and live for a different life, different to his, within him.
To lose the cross meant losing the life of God: not eating from the tree of life meant death; that is to say, separation from God, the loss of dependence on God. This was fatal, because by rejecting the life of God that emanates from the tree of life, man became independent from God with his own, limited, fallen human life; a poor earthly, sinners life, distant from God; deprived of Him completely and separated by an abyss. Because that is what death is: separation.
In certain sense, what has allowed the Godhead to be united for all eternity is the cross. That capacity to deny oneself to give priority to another is what has enabled the unity of the Deity. They have never lost the cross. It is this that has regulated them in their multiplicity of relationships that they have had from eternity. None of them has ever avoided the cross; it has always been present in each one of the decisions that have been taken and of the actions that have been carried out.
The sad thing about Christianity is that Christians only know one aspect of the cross and perhaps many not do not even know this part as they should: the work of the cross, what happened on the cross where the Lamb of God was offered. To have revelation of this fact is absolutely basic to the Christian life; if one doesn't know this, then one does not even know how God saved us. But beyond this glorious event of the work of the cross, is what is called or known as the way of the cross. This means that the cross should be incorporated in the Christian life from now onwards, and forever, just like the lifestyle of God. It is necessary to understand that this is a form of life that will accompany us for all eternity. We can never -nor will we be able to- do without the cross, because it would be like living without the life of God, which is impossible, that is, if we want to live eternally in the glory of God.
That's why man's salvation becomes effectuated through a cross that is manifested in history, in man's space and time. The cross was not a novelty for Christ. His earthly life demonstrated that the cross was incorporate in him, because the life that moved him here on this earth was not his own life that he possessed as a man, but the life of the Father who had sent him. Our Lord Jesus Christ was fully aware that there was an hour of death that awaited him. This meant for him the greatest test that he would be faced with in relation to the lifestyle of God: the cross. This was what had always enabled him to prefer the Father before himself, and now he would be faced with the cross, but not for his sake; rather for the sin of the whole world.
If he didn't accept the cross, he wouldn't lose anything. It would only have meant that God's plan to redeem the human race would not have been carried out. But, glory to the Lord Jesus because he denied himself, he took up the cross accepting the Father's will before his own! Never in all of eternity had the Deity faced such a great test. God would have continued being God and the Son of God would have continued enjoying the glory with the Father for all eternity if he hadn't accepted the cross. Because in this case this cross was not for him; it was not his fault or his error (he never has committed an error), but because of the sin of others; the human race that had lost the cross because of sin, preferring oneself to God. Blessed is the Lord Jesus Christ who saved us through the cross, so that now we are not only recovered by the cross, but rather we live victoriously by it, now and forever more!
The cross is not only a principle of life that drives Christians, but rather it is God's life that has been given to us and which drives us. Although the cross is a symbol of death -it is as far as killing whatever may be earthly in us- in another respect, the cross is synonymous of life, because without it, it is impossible to find true life.
The glory of the cross
For Paul, to live by the cross was the most glorious discovery that could happen to his life; so much that he ended up saying: "But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world" (Gal 6:14). One can clearly see that the cross is at the center of all his cosmo vision. The tremendous thing is that for Paul this was not something painful, but on the contrary, it was the most glorious thing that he could boast of. Many present the cross as something terrible; it is true that from the point of view of that which the cross kills, it is something painful; but, the focus should not be put on this but in what we gain by the working of the cross. Paul finally discovered the positive aspect of the cross; in this respect he says: "For me, to live is Christ but to die is gain" (Phil.1:21).
The cross of Christ is Christ himself. It is the lifestyle that he revealed to us when saying: " As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father; so he that eateth me, he also shall live because of me " (John. 6:57). We see that the Lord Jesus lived by the life of Another: by the Father; and in the same way, He hopes that those who come to know Him may live by Him. On this point, the cross has a double effect: it kills and gives life at the same time, because when receiving Christ's life in us, we die to ourselves to allow Him to live for us and through us. What God is looking for is to have a family of children who are like his Son Jesus Christ. A family that learns to live according to the divine life that is formed in the same image and likeness of God, a heavenly family that has incorporated the cross into their way of life.
Before the love and grace of giving, we find the working of the cross, because love, just like that of giving requires an act of denial of oneself in order to be able to give what one has to the other. This was how the cross operated in God the Father in order to be able to freely give us His beautiful Son for love's sake. Likewise, the cross operated in Christ to lead him to give up His own life, not only because the Father wanted it, but also because He Himself offered His life to save sinners. Both denied themselves to give to another what was His, for love's sake.
The apostle Paul was very clear about this: "For we who live, are always delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body" (2Cor.4:11) All servants of God must have this same vision regarding the working of the cross. From death to life or through death to life; there is no other way. It speaks of paying a price in service to our Lord Jesus Christ. Some end up saying that the price was already paid by our Lord. It is true that our Lord paid the price for our rescue. Only He could do that. However, all servants of God will inevitably be driven to permanently go through the cross, surrendering their life, because otherwise, Christ's life won't be manifest through them.
The cross exists between the world and my "self" to kill off one and the other, but not for destruction, but for salvation, giving back that which was lost in the beginning. The tree of life is crucified Christ; and there, together with him, the whole human race that denied the cross was crucified. The greatest favor, the greatest salvation, the greatest mercy of God toward us was to have returned life to us through the tree of the cross. Let us remember that the tree of life was removed in Eden and a cherub was placed in the garden with a drawn sword to stop anybody entering, indicating that we not only lost the tree of life but also the entrance to the garden where the communion with God was found. Blessed is God that now in Christ we are brought back to the tree of life by means of the tree of the cross, so that we can return to communion and dependence on God!
The cross was needed for our redemption, it continues to be necessary for our sanctification, and it will continue to be needed for all eternity as a constituent part of our heavenly nature. We will need the cross in order to be eternally related to God by means of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in the multiple relationships that we will have the citizens of the Kingdom of the heavens. Every time that we experience the cross in this world, let us not think that something strange is happening to us; in fact it is the most normal thing that could happen.
Today the cross is usually painful, because it kills what is characteristic of the earthly nature and of course nobody likes this aspect of the cross. But if we only understand how necessary and convenient it is for us to be purified by means of the working of the cross, we will endure it with joy knowing that the glory of God is waiting for us. Then the pain of the cross will disappear, because we will be clothed with the glory of God. Then to live the cross in eternity future will be a delight, because there the carnal, sinful body won't exist, but rather the power of a new creation. For then the cross will have been completely incorporated in all the participants of the heavenly Kingdom. Although the pain of the cross will have disappeared, it will continue being the way of life in the heavenly family.