There are many things we see each day that capture our attention because of their beauty. Whether it be a gorgeous painting, a new shiny car, an exquisite home – they all draw our attention to them in admiration.
There is one picture that comes to mind that has a different effect. It’s not pretty, shiny or expensive (at least in terms of money); yet it catches our attention and should move us to amazement. It is the cross – the old, rugged cross. And the effect it should produce in us is humility and love. The cross should transform us into people who love, live for and serve God with the kind of intensity Jesus had for you and me when He knowingly and willingly was nailed to the cross to die as a guilt offering for our sins. The view of the cross in our mind’s eye not only causes us to admire Jesus for what He did for us – it produces a changed life of loving God, loving others and giving up our lives as living sacrifices to God (Romans 12:1-2).
The apostle John wrote:
We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
1 John 3:16
What impact does the cross have on you? Does it move you to live more for Him? Does it produce a life committed to Jesus as Savior and Lord? Does the old, rugged cross cause you to pledge total allegiance to the Lamb of God? If the cross changes you into becoming more like the One who died on it then it has had the proper effect as you walk humbly with Him through this life and on into heaven.
…Mike