My Attitude To the Cross

"But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Galatians 6:14)

I find a deep, compelling message in the words of an old hymn no longer sung. And I am concerned for the spiritual desire now seemingly lost with the hymn:

Oh, for that Flame of living fire
Which shone so bright in saints of old,
Which bade their souls to heaven aspire,
Calm in distress, in danger bold.

Where is that Spirit, Lord, which dwelt
In Abraham's breast and sealed him Thine,
Which made Paul's heart with sorrow melt
And glow with energy divine?

That spirit which from age to age
Proclaimed Thy love and taught Thy ways,
Brightened Isaiah's vivid page
And breathed in David's hallowed lays.

... "Where is that Spirit, Lord?" Why must we cry in pathetic and plaintive manner, "Where is Thy Spirit, Lord?" I think it is because we differ from the saints of old in our relation to the Cross - our attitude toward the cross.

The cross on the hill must become the Cross in our hearts.

~A. W. Tozer~

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The Cross of Power

"What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ that I may know ... the fellowship of his sufferings" (Philippians 3:7, 10)

Christians have decided where to put the cross. They have made the cross objective instead of subjective. They have made the cross external instead of internal. They have made it institutional instead of experiential. 

Now, the terrible thing is that they are so wrong because they are half right. They are right in making the cross objective. It was something that once stood on a hill with a man dying on it, the just for the unjust. They are right that it was an external cross - for on that Cross God performed a judicial act that will last while the ages burn themselves out.

But here is where they are wrong: They fail to see that there is a very real cross for you and for me. There is a cross for every one of us - a cross that is subjective, internal, experiential. Our cross is an experience within. When that Cross on the hill has been transformed by the miraculous grace of the Holy Spirit into the cross in our heart, then we begin to know something of its true meaning and it will become to us the cross of power.

Our spiritual life is perfected by the constant recognition of the cross and by our unceasing application of it to all our life and being.

~A. W. Tozer~