Sunday February 6, 2022

It is no longer I who live, it is Christ who lives in me ; if I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me. Galatians 2. 20

The cross, meeting point and border

It was at the cross where Jesus died that we met : I brought my sins, and God, who is just and holy, was there to punish them. Jesus turned to me and took my faults upon himself. Then he turned to God and suffered from him the punishment that I deserved. He was condemned in my place, and by his death I am saved. The cross reconciles me with God.

The cross is also placed between the Christian and the world which refuses God. Close to Jesus, I can accept the contempt of that world. The world that seems so attractive, I see it as it showed itself when it crucified the Lord. His language has not changed : "We do not want this man to rule over us" (Luke 19:14). "Take away, take away, crucify him !" (John 19. 15). He remains what he has always been, an enemy of God. If I expect the world to approve me, I haven't really grasped the meaning of my Christian life.

Thus, the cross of Jesus has this double effect : it reconciles me with God, and separates me from a world that wants to do without him.

"Far be it from me to glory in anything but the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified for me, as I am for the world !" (Galatians 6. 14).

You came from heaven to offer yourself as a sacrifice,

And through you alone God was glorified :

His holiness, his love, his justice,

Your cross, Jesus, has magnified everything.

Source (The Good Seed)