In his remarkably profound book, Lift Up You Heart, Bishop Fulton Sheen
said,
“The Cross is
the most inescapable reality of life. If we will not accept it outside of
ourselves, to pardon us and to heal, then we will have it inside, as
frustration and despair.”
The life changing reality of Calvary has been that “most inescapable reality” for
millions of people. I am included in their ranks.
Wretches like me
For wretches like me, it was the Cross that
brought into sharpest focus the enormity of our sin and the enormity of Divine
love. God offered his only Son so that a fallen humanity might be reconciled to
Him. Such love is beyond my capacity to
understand!
“For our sake he
made him to be sin who did not know sin, so that we might become the
righteousness of God in him.” (2Corinthians 5.21)
For wretches like me, the Cross provided a
clear delineation between the holiness of God and our own wretchedness. There
was a great chasm between us and the source of all Goodness, which is God. The
chasm that separated us could only be bridged by the Cross of Christ.
“For Christ,
while we were still helpless, yet died at the appointed time died for the
ungodly. But God proved his love for us in that while we were still sinners
Christ died for us.” (Romans 5. 6 &
8)
Wretches like me crossed the chasm through simple
faith that what happened to Jesus at Golgotha
– that terrible place of crucifixion – somehow paid a ransom to make wretches
like me acceptable to a holy God.
We may not have known how it happened; all that
many of us knew was that it did
happen. All we knew was that by confessing our wretchedness (sin) and believing
that God’s only Son would forgive us, our wretchedness fell away. The great and
terrible chasm between us and the source of all Goodness was bridged by the
Cross! We were made fit through Jesus Christ’s sacrifice, to meet God. Not only
that, we were adopted as children of God.
Adoption by God
The notion of being adopted by God is not a
silly fantasy that we made up in our minds. The Bible assured us of our
adoption:
“But to those
who did accept him [Jesus Christ] he gave power to become children of God, to
those who believe in his name, who were born not by natural generation nor by
human choice nor by a man’s decision but of God.”
Remember, these words about adoption into
the family of God came to us from the disciple who Christ entrusted the care of
his Mother, as he hung dying on the Cross! (John 19.26-27).
Paul expanded on this adoption:
“For those who
are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit
of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption,
through which we cry, “Abba Father!” The Spirit itself bears witness with our
spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God
and joint heirs with Christ, if only we suffer with him so that we may also be
glorified with him. I consider that the sufferings of this present time are as
nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us.”” (Romans 8.14-18)
Sufferings of this present time
I have had multiple sclerosis for over thirty years. Only my left arm
The slow destruction of my physical body has
made me cling tighter to the “inescapable reality of the Cross.” Like Job, I can rest in the knowledge that my
Redeemer lives. Even though my flesh is being destroyed, “I shall see God, whom
I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. How my heart
yearns within me.” (Job 19.26-27.)
[Click on image below or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nn5ken3RJBo for the Nordic Chamber Choir singing Lauridsen's "O Magnum Mysterium", (O Great Mystery) 7:00]
[Click on image below or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nn5ken3RJBo for the Nordic Chamber Choir singing Lauridsen's "O Magnum Mysterium", (O Great Mystery) 7:00]
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