👉🏾👉🏾👉🏾About the Holy Cross
Why Do We #Rejoice in the #Cross?
(Part 4 )
✍🏾Beloved in Christ, children of God, let us lift our hearts to behold the mystery that is the boast of the Church and the terror of demons: the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. For to the world it appears as weakness and shame, but to the faithful it is strength, redemption, and the crown of glory.
✍🏾The Apostle cries aloud, “The word of the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Cor. 1:18). And what greater power has ever been revealed than when the Son of God stretched out His hands, was pierced in the flesh, poured forth His blood, and by death destroyed death?
The Glory of the Cross
✍🏾The Cross shines with glory not because of wood or nails, but because upon it the Lord of Glory was hung. Just as the donkey of Hosanna was adorned with honor, not because of itself, but because Christ sat upon it (Matt. 21:8), so too the Cross is exalted because Christ was lifted up upon it. What once was a symbol of shame has become the throne of salvation.
✍🏾It is by the Cross that the ancient word of God was fulfilled: “He shall crush your head” (Gen. 3:15). The Cross is the weapon by which Satan’s head was crushed, his dominion broken, his malice undone. For every believer who clings to the Christ , the Cross is the strength to trample down the enemy.
The Old Testament Foreshadowings
✍🏾The Scriptures proclaim the power of the Cross even before it was revealed:
👉🏾When Moses lifted up his hands in the form of a cross, Israel prevailed over its enemies. So too do we, the new Israel, conquer the demons by the power of the Cross.
👉🏾When Jacob crossed his hands upon the sons of Joseph, blessing flowed forth (Gen. 48:13–20). In the same way, the Cross is the fountain of blessing for body and soul.
👉🏾The rod of Moses worked wonders (Ex. 4:14), the mantle of Elijah parted the waters (2 Kings 2:7–14), the Jordan healed Naaman (2 Kings 5:1–10), and the oil anointed the sick (Mark 6:13, James 5:14).
👉🏾The waters of Siloam restored sight (John 9:1–12), the garments of Paul healed the afflicted and cast out demons (Acts 19:11–12), and the very shadow of Peter brought health (Acts 5:15–16).
✍🏾If such power was revealed through rod, mantle, water, and cloth, shall not the Cross of Christ, sanctified by His blood, overflow with even greater power?
The Folly of the World and the Wisdom of God
✍🏾The devil whispers to his slaves, “Why do you bow to wood? Why do you honor the Cross?” Yet such objections are nothing but echoes of hell. For it is not the material that we venerate, but the power of Christ revealed through it. Just as God used ordinary things in ages past to show His might, so He has sanctified the Cross to be the sign of His victory.
✍🏾To despise the Cross is to align oneself with those of whom the Apostle warned: “Many walk as enemies of the Cross of Christ… their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and their mind is on earthly things” (Phil. 3:18–19). Such men hate the very sign by which they might have been saved.
The Refuge and Boast of the Faithful
✍🏾The Cross is the banner given to those who fear God, that they might flee from the arrows of the evil one (Ps. 59:4–5). Therefore, we boast in it, as Paul did: “Far be it from me to glory except in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world is crucified to me, and I to the world” (Gal. 6:14).
✍🏾This is why the faithful wear the Cross upon their necks, sign themselves with it in prayer, adorn their garments with it, and mark their houses with it. The Cross is our refuge in every place, our shield in every trial, our boast in every generation. To the world it is folly; to us, it is life.
Continues 👇🏾