At the Foot of the Cross
But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought our peace was on him; and by his wounds we are healed. — Isaiah 53:5
He said to all, "If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross,{TR, NU add "daily"} and follow me. — Luke 9:23
Author
Faustino de Jesús Zamora Vargas
Summary: The cross, once an image of pain and shame, is for us the hope, victory, and foundation of salvation in Christ. It is not enough to understand it: we must embrace it, identifying with the weak and marginalized. In the face of a diluted gospel, without demands or repentance, we must call sin what it is and acknowledge our own responsibility instead of attributing it to impersonal spirits. A church that preaches the cross must be marked by it. To live at its foot means dying to sin and self, putting Christ first, humbling ourselves, denying ourselves, and taking up our cross. In this way, we rise to new life, display the virtues of Christ, and proclaim to the world: Christ lives!
If at some point in the history of Christianity the cross was an image of pain and shame, for Christians today it is a symbol of hope and victory. Salvation is obtained through the cross, in acknowledgment of the sacrifice of our Lord, who on the cross nailed all the sins of the world through his redeeming blood. The cross is more than a symbol; it is the starting point of Christianity, whose center is Christ the Redeemer. A beautiful document from the Latin American Theological Fellowship declared in Brazil in 1985: “The Cross of Christ, rather than merely being understood, must be embraced… which means making the same liberating choice as Jesus, involving identification with the weak, the unfortunate, and the marginalized.” We Christians must live at the foot of the cross. The world is far too busy reveling in its miseries and depravities, gambling away its life. The gospel preached today in so many places is moving farther and farther away from the cross. It is the “gospel without demands,” a diluted gospel adapted to pleasures; it is cheap grace, a new gospel without commitments, in which consecration and service are obsolete words—as they also say of sin—a gospel without a cross.
The gospel without a cross refuses to call sin by its name; it masks it, conceals it, and turns it into an action justified because “life is very short and must be lived to the fullest.” Christ purchased our lives on the cross, and right there he dealt a mortal blow to the kingdom of darkness by rising again, by emerging from the cross with a light that shines upon us from Calvary and into eternity. There are those who go around claiming that the word sin is out of context, that it is no longer relevant, that we must take care not to hurt people when we tell them they are sinners and must repent, that the word is very aggressive and no one likes to hear it. At times, we prefer to speak of rebuking spirits of fornication, drunkenness, and adultery rather than rebuking ourselves for our sins. We are the sinners, not the spirits we so often rebuke as though sin had no faces. We act like the foolish Galatians, as though the Cross and the blood of Christ had not been necessary to cleanse our own corruption. We have often heard it said, “We are being affected by the spirit of enmity, lack of love, rivalry, distrust, etc.” Good grief! Is it not better to act at the foot of the Cross and confront each person’s sin with its liberating and victorious power, calling the sinner to repentance?
According to the Lausanne Covenant, “a church that preaches the cross must itself be marked by the cross.” What a tremendous challenge for the church of Christ and for all Christians!
Living at the foot of the cross as disciples of Christ means, first of all, “dying to sin,” with our eyes fixed on the throne of our Savior. The cross is the throne of Jesus. Living at the foot of the cross means putting the “self” to death; it means putting Christ first in our lives and humbling ourselves as he humbled himself to come into this world and suffer death on a cross. It means “crucifying ourselves,” “denying ourselves,” and taking up our own cross to rise to a new life, a glorious life. As this happens, Christian virtues that glorify God and Christ the Savior begin to arise within us. Paul helps us reflect on the cross when he says: “Persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. Wherever we go, we always carry in our body the death of Jesus, so that his life may also be manifested in our body. (2 Cor. 4:9–10) NIV)
Beloved brothers and sisters, it falls to us to live at the foot of his cross so that we may be worthy of so great a salvation and cry out to this troubled world: Christ lives! To Him be the glory forever and ever.