Let the Cross Finish It's Work

“Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified. So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. Carrying his own cross he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). Here they crucified him, and with him two others- one on each side and Jesus in the middle.”

John 19:16-18

American pastor and author, A.W. Tozer, once wrote:

“The man in Roman times who took up his cross and started down
the road had already said good-bye to his friends. He was not coming
back. He was going out to have it ended. The old cross is a symbol
of death. It stands for the abrupt, violent end of a human being…
the cross made no compromises, modifies nothing, spares nothing;
it slew all of a man, completely and for good. It did not try to keep
on good terms with it’s victim. It struck cruel and hard, and when
it had finished it’s work, the man was no more.”

The man who took up the cross was keenly aware of it’s implications. To say the least, this experience would be a life-changing one. The march of death through the streets of Jerusalem to Calvary’s Hill suddenly brought a lot of things into perspective. The old way of life was about to come to an abrupt halt. Jesus was very mindful of where the road heading out of the city would take him. He knew that when the cross finished it’s work-”The man would be no more.”

I am certain that there were many who were shocked to see Him in the procession of criminals that were passing by. The cross was reserved for traitors, thieves and murderers. Jesus, however, was not surprised. In fact, months before His crucifixion, He told his disciples:

“If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”

Luke 9:23

He knew precisely the manner of death in which He would die and tried to prepare His disciples for it. Soon they were going to be faced with the reality of the cross. Jesus’ death on Calvary would bring new meaning to the cross. It would become the means of putting an end to the old nature. Calvary would represent death to the old way of living…

“For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin- because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.”

Romans 6:7-8

Have you “died” with Him? Have you “died” to the things that He died for? Have you taken up our cross and followed Him? You see Christ finished His work on the cross, but the cross has not finished it’s work in you! If you let the cross finish it’s work, you will no longer compromise in the area of sin. You will no longer be interested in holding onto anything from your “old nature” because the cross spars nothing. You will no longer be interested in being on good terms with sin or anything else in your old life.

Jesus did not go to Calvary so that we could simply memorialize it, take the day off of work and receive communion together. As His disciples He fully expects us to “take up our cross”, follow Him and die to things that He died for. We cannot live with Him if we do not first die with Him. It is time that we come and let the cross finish it’s work in our lives crucifying the old habits, attitudes and relationships that at one time kept us from our Savior.




Pastor Scott Burr
http://faithandworshipseries.blogspot.com