The Cross Happens

In a message entitled "The Power of Total Freedom," Terry Virgo said something I found quite arresting:

"Paul doesn't talk about the cross so much as a memory of what happened to Jesus but as something that...happened to him. In fact, if you count the number of times Paul talks about the cross in the New Testament you'll find he talks more about what the cross did to him than the actual event of Jesus dying on the cross."

For example...

Galatians 6:14, he boasts "in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world."

2 Corinthians 5:15, "He died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised."

Back to Galatians, in 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."


So, right now you are reading a blog. It's only barely interactive. You will probably navigate away right about now and think about something else. But it seems to me, this deserves a great deal of mediation: do I view the cross the way Paul did?

The cross didn't just happen, it happens. Has it happened to you?