#thecross #meaning #hope #grace
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Hello friends, today on Study Scripture Online I want to take just a couple of minutes to chat with you about … The Cross.
The cross is a popular symbol today. We see it in stained glass windows and on top of churches of widely varying beliefs. It is found around the necks of the deeply religious, the thoroughly superstitious, and all shades in between. The sign of the cross is made by baseball players before they bat, by pilots before they take off, and by boxers before they fight. In fact, you may have heard of the gambler at the racetrack who happened to see a priest making the sign of a cross over a horse, and promptly bet his paycheck, rent money and car payment on that horse. When the horse came in last, he sought out the priest and demanded to know why the horse had done so poorly when he had just blessed it. With surprise the priest responded, “I wasn't blessing that horse. I was giving it the last rites.”
The story aptly illustrates how the cross has largely been emptied of its content in our society today. In the first century it was a clear symbol of death by torture and execution. The modern parallel would be more like having a hangman’s noose or a replica of an electric chair hanging over the baptistry or around one’s neck.
The Bible’s warning that sinful people are lost and on their way to hell unless they put their faith in a crucified Savior falls on many deaf ears today. People ask, “Aren't we Americans, the strongest, richest country in the world? Isn't science solving more and more of the problems of human existence? What can a cross add to all of that?” Well, science has given us a greater life expectancy, but it has not given us more to expect from life. And while the U.S. may be able to give us social security, it cannot give us moral or spiritual security.
Only the Cross can provide that, because only in the Cross do we see the incomparable love of God-that He would send His one and only Son to suffer the cruelest death known to man, not just as an example of self-sacrifice, but as a substitute for us who deserved to die because of our disobedience to the basic moral law of God. Friends, if it were not for the Cross, we would have no message at all. It is the power of God to save sinners.
For further exploration of this topic, click the link below, which will take you to a sermon entitled “The Power Behind the Powerless” from 1 Cor. 1:18-2:5.
studyscriptureonline.com/serm...