All of you know we are in the season of lent. As I was meditating on what devotion to write, God reminded me that we all should remember "What He has done for us on the Cross". I don't know about you, but each time, I think about the Cross, my heart becomes heavy, and my mind goes blank. I can never comprehend why the God of Glory has had to go through such a mockery of trial to give me a new life? Why does He love me so much?
Long time back I read a book called "The Cross of Christ". It's one of the Masterpieces written by a famed Bible Scholar John R. Stott. Till I read this book, I never knew what it meant to be crucified in those days, In case you haven't read the book yet, I strongly urge you to read it. I would like to use the following paragraphs in that book written about "The Centrality of the Cross" for our devotion.
The Christians' choice of a cross as the symbol of their faith is the more surprising when we remember the horror with which crucifixion was regarded in the ancient world. We can understand why Paul's 'message of the cross' was to many of his listeners 'foolishness', even 'madness' (1 cor. 1:18, 23). How could any sane person worship as a god a dead man who had been justly condemned as a criminal and subjected to the most humiliating form of execution? This combination of death, crime and shame put him beyond the pale of respect, let alone of worship.
Crucifixion seems to have been invented by 'barbarians' on the edge of the known world, and taken over from them by both Greeks and Romans. It is probably the most cruel method of execution ever practiced, for it deliberately delayed death until maximum torture had been inflicted. The victim could suffer for days before dying. When the Romans adopted it, they reserved it for criminals convicted of murder, rebellion or armed robbery, provided that they were also slaves, foreigners or other non-persons. The Jews were therefore outraged when the Roman general Varus crucified 2,000 of their compatriots in 4 BC, and when during the siege of Jerusalem the general Titus crucified so many fugitives from the city that neither 'space ..... for the crosses, nor crosses for the bodies' could be found.
Roman citizens were exempt from crucifixion, except in extreme cases of treason. Cicero in one of his speeches condemned it as 'a most cruel and disgusting punishment'. A little later he declared: 'To bind a Roman citizen is a crime, to flog him is an abomination, to kill him is almost an act of murder: to crucify him is - What? There is no fitting word that can possibly describe so horrible a deed.' Cicero was even more explicit in his successful defense in 63 BC of the elderly senator Gaius Rabirius who had been charged with murder: 'the very word "cross" should be far removed not only from the person of a Roman citizen, but from his thoughts, his eyes and his ears. For it is not only the actual occurrence of these things or endurance of them, but liability to them, the expectation, indeed the mere mention of them, that is unworthy of a Roman citizen and a free man.'
I remember reading long ago, one of the Philosophers talking about the God's of the Greek said "The Gods' of the Greek and the Gods' of the Mediterranean deserted their people because the people were so depraved, further he went onto say in turn the people deserted their Gods' because their Gods' were so depraved". We can go through all major religions of the world, I won't name them, but no where we find a God who is Just yet forgiving, all loving but hates Sin, and most Holy yet compassionate towards sinners, as our God. We all want Justice, but don't we crave for forgiveness when we do something wrong? Whenever I look unto the Cross, I am always reminded that its the only place where violence, love, justice, and forgiveness converge. How can anyone deny the fact that He loves us unconditionally after knowing what it meant to be crucified? Jesus said it was for this very reason He came into this world to die on the Cross for your sins and mine. I always wondered why, God, who is the most high would chose most disgraceful form of death to pay ransom for your sins and mine. No one can deny that His love is unconditional and His ways are past finding out, ain't they? I don't know about others, but I can never comprehend why He loves a wretched like you and me so much? we can never repay for what He has done for us on the Cross, as the hymn writer Isaac Watts aptly said "Were the whole realm of Nature mine, that were an offering far too small; Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all". Let this verse be our prayer. Let's not take His suffering on the Cross lightly. I sincerely pray that God will help all of us to live every movement of our life for His Glory!!
God Bless!!
In Christ,
Isaac.
Long time back I read a book called "The Cross of Christ". It's one of the Masterpieces written by a famed Bible Scholar John R. Stott. Till I read this book, I never knew what it meant to be crucified in those days, In case you haven't read the book yet, I strongly urge you to read it. I would like to use the following paragraphs in that book written about "The Centrality of the Cross" for our devotion.
The Christians' choice of a cross as the symbol of their faith is the more surprising when we remember the horror with which crucifixion was regarded in the ancient world. We can understand why Paul's 'message of the cross' was to many of his listeners 'foolishness', even 'madness' (1 cor. 1:18, 23). How could any sane person worship as a god a dead man who had been justly condemned as a criminal and subjected to the most humiliating form of execution? This combination of death, crime and shame put him beyond the pale of respect, let alone of worship.
Crucifixion seems to have been invented by 'barbarians' on the edge of the known world, and taken over from them by both Greeks and Romans. It is probably the most cruel method of execution ever practiced, for it deliberately delayed death until maximum torture had been inflicted. The victim could suffer for days before dying. When the Romans adopted it, they reserved it for criminals convicted of murder, rebellion or armed robbery, provided that they were also slaves, foreigners or other non-persons. The Jews were therefore outraged when the Roman general Varus crucified 2,000 of their compatriots in 4 BC, and when during the siege of Jerusalem the general Titus crucified so many fugitives from the city that neither 'space ..... for the crosses, nor crosses for the bodies' could be found.
Roman citizens were exempt from crucifixion, except in extreme cases of treason. Cicero in one of his speeches condemned it as 'a most cruel and disgusting punishment'. A little later he declared: 'To bind a Roman citizen is a crime, to flog him is an abomination, to kill him is almost an act of murder: to crucify him is - What? There is no fitting word that can possibly describe so horrible a deed.' Cicero was even more explicit in his successful defense in 63 BC of the elderly senator Gaius Rabirius who had been charged with murder: 'the very word "cross" should be far removed not only from the person of a Roman citizen, but from his thoughts, his eyes and his ears. For it is not only the actual occurrence of these things or endurance of them, but liability to them, the expectation, indeed the mere mention of them, that is unworthy of a Roman citizen and a free man.'
I remember reading long ago, one of the Philosophers talking about the God's of the Greek said "The Gods' of the Greek and the Gods' of the Mediterranean deserted their people because the people were so depraved, further he went onto say in turn the people deserted their Gods' because their Gods' were so depraved". We can go through all major religions of the world, I won't name them, but no where we find a God who is Just yet forgiving, all loving but hates Sin, and most Holy yet compassionate towards sinners, as our God. We all want Justice, but don't we crave for forgiveness when we do something wrong? Whenever I look unto the Cross, I am always reminded that its the only place where violence, love, justice, and forgiveness converge. How can anyone deny the fact that He loves us unconditionally after knowing what it meant to be crucified? Jesus said it was for this very reason He came into this world to die on the Cross for your sins and mine. I always wondered why, God, who is the most high would chose most disgraceful form of death to pay ransom for your sins and mine. No one can deny that His love is unconditional and His ways are past finding out, ain't they? I don't know about others, but I can never comprehend why He loves a wretched like you and me so much? we can never repay for what He has done for us on the Cross, as the hymn writer Isaac Watts aptly said "Were the whole realm of Nature mine, that were an offering far too small; Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all". Let this verse be our prayer. Let's not take His suffering on the Cross lightly. I sincerely pray that God will help all of us to live every movement of our life for His Glory!!
God Bless!!
In Christ,
Isaac.
