THE LIFE OF THE CROSS

The Christian life is not a stroll through the world’s gardens, but a pilgrimage toward the City of God.  We walk as strangers among shadows, knowing that this present world is passing away.  Yet the heart that clings to Christ walks with quiet confidence, for the cross we carry today will become the crown we cast before His throne.

The apostle said, “I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”  To know Christ in this way is to see everything else fade into its proper place. The Christian’s whole outlook must be governed by the cross. Our thoughts, our ambitions, and our very identity are to be crucified with Him.  Only then do we see how hollow the applause of the world really is, and how solid the hope of glory.

When a believer learns to rest in the finished work of Jesus, he no longer hungers for the praise of men.  His joy is drawn from a deeper well — from the endless grace that flows from Calvary.  The mind that once chased after the wisdom of this age now finds satisfaction in knowing Christ.  The heart that once trembled at death now rejoices in the promise of resurrection life.

This is not theory; it is transformation.  The gospel is not a call to improve but a call to die — and to rise again in Him.  The Spirit forms within us a new affection, a longing for the things above.  We begin to see our sufferings not as obstacles but as instruments shaping us into the likeness of our Lord.  Here is true freedom: to be bound only to Jesus, and to walk through the world as those who already belong elsewhere.

So let us fix our eyes upon Him.  Let every thought, every plan, every heartbeat revolve around the cross.  For in knowing Christ crucified, we find everything our souls were made to seek — wisdom, righteousness, redemption, and peace.  Nothing but Christ, and in Him, everything.

Bryan Dewayne Dunaway