THE CROSS

...For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. 1 Corinthians 1:18.

The cross is, no doubt, the symbol of Christianity par excellence, because it is where the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, died – resurrecting on the third day. That symbol of roman curse for the death of the criminal, the log of torture, would become the symbol of life and resurrection, the symbol of the work of the Son of God, of the forgiveness which God grants for man’s sins, for those who believe in Him. The meaning of the cross is so relevant and holy that even Peter fought with his executioners when they were crucifying him so that he would die in any other way since he did not consider himself worthy of dying just like his Lord did, and they crucified him upside down. In the IV century, Constantine abolished crucifixion in the Roman Empire he governed due to his Christian mercy, since he converted to Christianity.

The cross has become a symbol of spiritual healing, but the world has turned it into a symbol of medical healing: ambulances, pharmacies, the Red Cross, first-aid kits, etc. The Cross is, therefore, symbol of Christ’s salvation, but the cross is also the life of the Christian who preached the Gospel for salvation and who lays down his life for his brothers in the faith of Christ. The fruits of the Cross are Salvation, the Gospel and the Church.

THE CROSS. THE PURPOSE OF JESUS CHRIST IN THIS WORLD.

The Cross of Christ, beyond the symbol itself, is the target to achieve in the biggest war in History: souls for eternity. On the cross, Christ obtains His crown of justice, the crown of the Kingdom of God, the victory over death, the forgiveness of sins and the fulfillment of the Law. It is where He opens the door, the way and the life to eternity for us who do not deserve Him. Resurrection exudes from the Cross of Calvary. Without the Cross, we would not have hope in this life or in eternal one.

The consequences of the cross include: The veil that separated us from the presence of the Lord, from the Most Holy Place, was torn: Matthew 27:52. The centurion said “Truly this was the son of God”: Matthew 27:54. His Blood was shed at the bottom of the Cross, an open fountain offering sacrifice for the sins of those who receive Jesus Christ as their Saviour today, when we preach and they believe for their salvation, changing their lives from that moment, being born again and filled with the Holy Spirit. 1Corinthians 2:12.

Christ on the Cross was raised like the bronze serpent, which is the symbol of the Law of God. John 3:14. On the cross, the feet and the hands are nailed down, immobilized. This is the meaning of the cross, to be disabled to do our own will, to deny oneself. If our feet are nailed down on the cross, we cannot go wherever we want. Similarly, if our hands are nailed down on the cross, we cannot do whatever we want, we cannot protect or defend ourselves; nothing, we are left at the Lord’s mercy. The absolute denial of oneself. Will we take our cross every day to follow the Teacher and share His yoke?

The release from sin and from a conscience which accuses us with God’s Law, which is the Ministry of Curse and Death, allows us to live for Christ and for our neighbours carrying our cross as disciples and also sharing the yoke, fulfilling what is known as the Law of Christ:

2Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ... ... 11Ye see how large a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand. 12As many as desire to make a fair shew in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised; only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. 13For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law; but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh. 14But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. 15For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. 16And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God. Galatians 6.

7 EVENTS THAT TAKE PLACE IN THE CROSS OF CALVARY

Jesus Christ signs, with His blood, the New Covenant that saves us, nailing to the cross the ordinances which were condemning us. A Christian signs with the faith in His work. Have you signed?. Colossians 2:14.

Jesus Christ pays for the sins of the world, reconciling us with God through the faith in the Ministry of Reconciliation in 2Corinthians 5:11, Romans 5:10, Ephesians 2:16.

Jesus Christ fulfills the prophecy about His work as the suffering Messiah in Isaiah 53.

Jesus Christ shows God’s love for the sinful man. John 15:13.

Jesus Christ defeats the Devil, and death, resurrecting after His death. John 16:33, 1Corinthians 15:54, 55.

Jesus Christ grants us victory and eternal life through faith. Ephesians 2:5.

Jesus Christ, as teacher, shows us the Way to learn how to deny ourselves and die for Christ and the Church, taking the cross. Luke 9:23.

The result is the resurrection of the dead; the righteous for eternal life and the unrighteous for eternal punishment. Matthew 25:31 to 46, John 3:36 and 6:54, Romans 2:7. Jesus Christ opened paradise again to men. It is our return to the beginning, to the genesis of life, to have access to the Tree of Life next to our beloved God and Father. Jesus Christ is the last Adam. Luke 23:42, 43.

5 POINTS IN THE CROSS IN THE PROPHECY OF ISAIAH 9:6

The Lord Jesus Christ goes to the Cross to win the Kingdom. As the Prince, He is the Heir. In Isaiah 9:6, the Son of God is shown as The Prince of Peace, but also as The Mighty God and everlasting Father. On the Cross, the Son obtains the right to take to the Kingdom’s throne those who believe in the redeeming work of the Cross, through the New Covenant in His Blood.

The 5 qualities of the Son of God in Isaiah’s prophetic text above, are also found on the Cross of Christ:

1.- The base of the cross is the first thing we see when we look up, because we are the footstool of His feet. The foundation, the basis of the Gospel of salvation, it is God’s great work: Wonderful.

2.- The right of the Crucified is the symbol of power and counsel: Counsellor.

3.- The Head is God the Father: The mighty God.

4.- The centre is the heart of eternal mercy of God the Father, when He gave His only son for us: The everlasting Father.

5.- The left is weakness, the threshold of peace which represents principality, which is the threshold to the Kingdom: The Prince of Peace.

...6For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.  7Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this...

Similarly, just like the Cross has 5 different parts, our hand has 5 fingers which we can use for prayer to focus on how to carry our cross:

1.- The cross for Jesus Christ.

2.- The cross for our beloved ones who are in Christ.

3.- The cross for our brethren in faith.

4.- The cross for our neighbour, so they will come to know the Gospel of Salvation.

5.- The cross of the persecution, sometimes as part of the church and others on our own when we are persecuted for announcing, fighting for and defending the work of Christ on the Cross, an honour; and if we are confronting it means that we are born again and we have accepted the Cross of Christ upon ourselves, the work of Salvation.

THE CROSS OF CHRIST AND THE CHRISTIAN’S CROSS

The cross is the beginning and the end of the Christian priesthood. The cross is denying oneself, the cross is the Lord and them. None of us, disciples of Jesus Christ, are unaware of the fact that there are two crosses: the Lord’s and ours. The Christian’s cross, like Christ’s, is a way of life. The centre of the Cross of Christ is the Father’s love for us, giving away His Son, and the love of the Son giving up Himself for us, due to its origin, love for us and the Father. The centre of the Christian’s cross is – it could not be otherwise – the love for the Lord who loved us to death, death on the Cross, and it is the love for the neighbour, because this is the message that will save the souls of those who give in to Him through faith in His Cross, for eternity.

The Cross is the eternal place of the suffering and redeeming sin of our Lord, conquering victory over sin and over eternal death of those of us who believe in His work of Salvation, resuscitating and obtaining eternal life for His Spouse, the Church, the Bride and Princess of the Son of God. The marriage supper of the Lamb, in Revelation 19:9.

Christ’s Passion for us and His great love led Him to give His life to take it back again, sitting to the right of God the Father. That Passion is the fire of the Spirit that also touches our heart and sets it on fire with the Christian’s flame of passion for Christ. The passion that changes our heart and leads us to be transformed spiritually making our heart and soul fall in love with Him. A furnace of spiritual fire lights up in the soul of a Christian; a furnace which slowly shapes the born-again in all his being, spirit, soul and body, 1 Thessalonians 5:23, until he becomes a temple of the Living God.

The Christian’s cross brings persecution, rejection from those that do not believe in God, it brings fight with the spiritual enemy who does not want to lose the souls that are now under his power, which he wants to lead to hell’s eternal death; but it also brings joy for the souls which are saved and that compensates the persecution, brings brotherly love and God’s love from the brothers who have been saved through faith in the Cross, which also compensates all the rejection from others, and brings victory, the Kingdom of God is in the souls and eternity, because the Kingdom of God is within us. Luke 17:21.

If you have decided to take your cross, you must take the following into account:

…Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God! 25It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. 26And they were astonished out of measure, saying among themselves, Who then can be saved? 27And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible. 28Then Peter began to say unto him, Lo, we have left all, and have followed thee. 29And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel's, 30But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life. 31But many that are first shall be last; and the last first. Mark 10:24

The Christian’s cross is to announce the Gospel and its consequences, to be a disciple and the persecution it brings, it is to lay down your life to serve the Lord and the Church, as a ministry for life, to lay down your life for the brethren; on top of accepting your mission in the great commission: to save souls through preaching the Cross of Christ and make them part of His Body, which He gave His life for, with the brothers living together in unity. Psalm 133.

christian experiences with the cross

In Simon of Cyrene we see the best representative? representation?  in the Scriptures of the person who has the chance to carry the cross of Christ, side by side, an experience that transforms the disciples and which reflects in the Christian’s cross.

In Sodom and Egypt …where also our Lord was crucified….The Lord was, therefore, crucified in these two cities as well as in Jerusalem. Was Jesus Christ crucified in three different cities?. No, as we all know, once was enough, but Jerusalem is also Sodom and Egypt simultaneously, in the sense that the Cross of Christ covers the three spiritual cities that the spiritual man goes through. We part from Egypt – the world – the go through Sodom – either due to lack of faith (Lot), or to look for Lot and take him out (Abraham) – and we get to Jerusalem, the religion and the Law of God. The Lord has to redeem us from the three of them: slavery, doubt and self-justification through our acts, awaiting the new heavenly Jerusalem, the spiritual freedom in Christ.

The thief that refused is in Egypt, the thief that repents is in Sodom and Jesus is in Jerusalem, in the earthly one, at the same time as in the heavenly one, accomplishing the eternal work of saving us. Jesus Christ, therefore, fights on the cross where earthly religion is, gaining victory in the earthly Jerusalem, which also has a repercussion on the heavenly Jerusalem, which is eternal, for salvation of souls. The announced Cross provokes the two reactions on the two thieves: they either repent or rebel. The Cross. The crosses; three places; three blessings. One salvation.

5BIBLE STUDIES RELATED TO THE CROSS

The love of God, which exudes from the Cross.

The Carpenter, who made the spiritual Cross.

Simon of Cyrene takes the Cross.

The fulfillment of Melchizedek’s eternal Priesthood on the Cross.

The Cross in Jerusalem, in Zion.

THE CHARACTER OF THE LORD AND THE CROSS?

Although God is the Lord of the Cross, He is also God the Lord of laughter. Yes, brothers, He is!. God is the Lord of Isaac, which means laughter, joy of the Spirit. The Lord of Abraham (faith), Lord of Isaac (laughter or joy) and Lord of Jacob, which is Israel (the one who fights with God to obtain His blessing). God of faith, God of joy and God of the spiritual warrior. It means the same as Jesus Christ teaches us about Himself: I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. The way is to come out of Egypt by the Lord’s hand: the faith of Abraham. The truth is having Abraham’s faith to sacrifice Isaac. The joy is to give our joy to the Lord, to consecrate it to the Lord, rejoice in the Cross of Christ. And to avoid entering into Sodom, the world of religion to our traditional taste, or national taste, of men; the world of pleasures and love for money and our own projects instead of the Lord’s and to take our brothers out of there. And finally Life comes through spiritual battle, the one Christ fights on the Cross. Following His example, we – like Him – carry our own personal and non-transferable cross. Abraham, Isaac and Israel: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, together with Faith, Joy and Intercession.

The Lord’s joy or satisfaction is Jesus Christ, who fulfilled it on the Cross: ... Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased...Luke 3:22

the cross as a symbol

The battle of the spiritual enemy to deny the Cross is such that it has – arguing that it was not a cross, that it was a tree, that it was a pole with a “patibulum” crossbar, that it was “the log of torture”, all sorts of arguments to deny the shape of that tool of torture widely used by Rome to execute the maximum penalty and that is historically and sufficiently documented. Jesus Christ already used the symbol of the cross in His teachings to refer to His death and the symbolic meaning of burden and spiritual death of denying oneself out of love for the others, the persecution which comes from announcing the Kingdom of God in the kingdom of this world.

Many people, inside and outside Christianity, argue that a simple cross, without any image, is an idol; but a cross does not represent the same as an image which is prayed to. The truth is that the cross cannot be regarded as a lucky charm. You shall not make for yourself and idol, nor bow down to them or worship them – that is what the Second Commandment of the Law of God teaches us in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5, and which Rome eliminated, changing the commandments and adapting them to become man’s commandments, not the Lord’s. The issue is not making idols, and Christianity has undoubtedly made them, and continues doing so, and they are carried in processions, used in prayers and worshipped by pilgrims – although they do not see and they do not know: Isaiah 44:9, and the devil feeds this behaviour in his strategy to take the Christian away from the centre of the Gospel, which is Jesus Christ alive?

Images, icons, special crosses: this is where it becomes distorted. Some branches of Christianity teach prayer to certain christs, some of them more powerful than others, just like they do with Mary and the rest of the saints. Neither the Lord – neither Mary nor the saints – told us to do this. But when we speak about a simple cross as a symbol we are not referring to an idol – unless the believer thinks it has a special power, and in that case he falls again in idolatry. There are famous crosses, such as the cross of Jerusalem, the cross of the templars, the Egyptian one and many others that are just simple objects which the people who wear or carry them believe them to have special powers – something which certainly does not please Jesus Christ. He already spoke about the Cross before He was crucified, in its most spiritual meaning.

To finalize the question of the cross as a symbol, we must all agree on the fact that whenever anybody sees a cross, they immediately think of Christ, on the church and Christianity. The cross is a way of life, of denying oneself, of living a life for the Lord and for our neighbour, all of which are contrary to human nature, and one can only feel and desire doing these things when you are born again. Many Christians say they have been born again, but the way they treat people denies thee cross, because they do not take care of what matters to Christ, or their neighbour, but their own business. Besides all of this, a simple cross is, and will be, symbol of Christ and Christianity.

FOUR VIEWS OF THE CROSS IN SIMON OF CYRENE

The first one is on the imposition of carrying Jesus Christ’s cross up to the Calvary – how do we react when we are confronted with having to announce the gospel to the rest of the world and when we are asked for help?. The second one is the attitude of the criminal when he insults Christ out of pride and disbelief. The third one is the attitude of the other criminal when he rebuked him and asked Jesus to remember him when He came in His kingdom, and the reply was that he would be with Him in paradise today. These two men are the two attitudes of man on Judgment Day: one, to despise salvation through faith only, and the other one to recognize oneself as a sinner, repent and beg for mercy. The fourth one is towards the Cross of Christ, who gives His life for us and our personal relationship with our Saviour from the moment we understand that He has died instead of us, we should have been on that Cross, not Him. All of them start in the middle of a street, in Jerusalem, almost two thousand years ago, when the Son of God was burdened with a cross that He would carry next to a man who represents all of us, Simon of Cyrene.

The burden of the cross is the yoke of Christ, which He invites us to share and that He describes as light and easy to bear thanks to the biggest power God can give us: the love of Jesus Christ. The yoke is a piece of wood which, as we all know, is placed on two oxen to pull together. That yoke is really the same as the cross, placed horizontally, where the two parts which were used to nail the hands of the Messiah were placed on the shoulders of each of the two men: Jesus and Simon, when he was forced to help Jesus carry His cross. That obligation became a privilege for him.

Needless to say that our cross does not save us, but the Cross of the Lamb of God, Yahshua the Messiah, and therefore salvation is not provided through our help, testimony or spiritual effort, but through the life of the Son of God, given in and resurrected. But Jesus Christ has left part of the burden for His bride, the Church, as the Bible says: ...Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church. Colossians 1:24.

To take the cross of Chris means to take His testimony, to preach the Gospel, offer a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips that confess His name, Hebrews 13:15, to be the salt of the earth and light of the world, announce His work amongst men, speak up in those places and circumstances where nobody talks about God but about vanities, flesh and financial gains, defend the salvation of soul and repentance for the love of those who listen, publish a type of conversation which human mind does not like, because it feels accused and it denounces human expiry and foolishness. Additionally, the cross of Christ implies bearing the suffering which He bears by seeing all the souls getting lost because they reject Him and us, seeing human kind destroying itself, people hurting each other through power, envy, prevalence, hatred; the opposite to the love of God, all of which has been nailed down on the Cross in those who accept Him as Saviour, changing their hearts. The Cross of Christ implies that we will be rejected, persecuted, some of us will be killed, and all of that tribulation is to glorify the Lord – which is certainly different to the gospel of well-being, financial prosperity and blessing which the crowds are looking for in some show churches. We Christians are called to bear our own cross for the love of Christ, for the love for our brethren, we can see it in Galatians 6:2 and 1John 3:16 and 17, that is our Melchizedek Priesthood, priest forever, our Lord Jesus Christ. 

DEFINITION OF CROSS IN  THE SPIRITUAL DICTIONARY OF YAHSHUA.NET

Cross: Christ's cross is His exclusively in a way that by dying on it he would defeat death and gives us life. Our death came through our sin but Christ is our sin offering as the Lamb of God. It is also the burden carried for others in a daily intercession, as eternal priest Melchizedek. The people of God are invited to bear their own cross, the one which is to accept being hated by the world for giving testimony of Christ. Our spiritual circumstances for the sake of the faith, and also that one offers God his soul as a living sacrifice for the brethren, so that he, she or they instead receive presence of God, carrying the cross, the burdens for others: there is no greater love than this. Take your cross daily for Christ and for the Church.

Matthew 10:38, 16:24, John 19:17, 1Corinthians 1:18, Ephesians 2:16.

BIBLE RELATED TEXTS

MATTHEW 10

…37He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. 39He that fended his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

MatTHEW 11

…29Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 30For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

MatTHEW 27

…32And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name: him they compelled to bear his cross. 33And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull…

MARK 10

…21Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me. 22And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions.

LuKE 9

...23And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.

LUKE 24

…5…Why seek ye the living among the dead? 6He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee, 7Saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again. 8And they remembered his words, 9And returned from the sepulchre, and told all these things unto the eleven, and to all the rest. 10It was Mary Magdalene and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and other women that were with them, which told these things unto the apostles.

JOHN 19 - ISAIAH 53

…17And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha: 18Where they crucified him…28After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. 29Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a spunge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth. 30When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost. 31The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. 32Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with him. 33But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs: 34But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water. 35And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe. 36For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken. 37And again another scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they pierced. 38And after this Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus.

GALATIANS 2

…18For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. 19For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. 20I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. 21I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.

EPHESIANS 2

…14For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; 15Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; 16And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: 17And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. 18For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.

COLOSSIANS 1

…15Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: 16For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: 17And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. 18And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. 19For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; 20And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, … 24Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church.

COLOSSIANS 2

11In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: 12Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead. 13And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; 14Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; 15And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

REVELATION 11

...8And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.

CONCLUSION

The symbol of the Cross is so relevant that it has been recognized by human kind for 2000 years. Christ changed the meaning of the roman cross for the Cross of Christ, of cursed and despicable death for atonement and blessed death, the unworthy death for the life amongst the death. The Cross of Christ.

The two criminals on two crosses on each side are the two attitudes of man before Judgment: resist or give in a beg for forgiveness, and Jesus Christ, our “paracletos” lawyer and comforter, has not faced judgment from a lawyers’ chair but from another one, even though it is also made by a carpenter’s hand, the eternal Carpenter; from the Cross. In the same condemnation which humankind deserves, and from the same suffering, defends us through just the faith in His accomplishment in the Cross of Calvary. This is what we preach when we bear our cross.

We cannot forget that Jesus Christ is sat to the right of the power of God, not on the Cross of Calvary. This, which may seem obvious, is not so for millions of Christians who unsuccessfully look for Christ in the image of the Cross, instead of looking for, praying to, and with, the living Christ. The effect of the Cross almost 2000 years ago is eternal, and Jesus Christ is alive, and is with us every day until the end of the world. Matthew 28:20.