Do we talk about the cross “too much”? My answer is absolutely not! May we never forget what the cross accomplished for you and I! May we never forget the sacrifice Jesus Christ made on our behalf. How can the cross become “old” to talk about?
We do however have a tendency to stop remembering the cross, and to start depending on self-effort. Jerry Bridges encourages us in Disciples of Grace “to preach the gospel to yourself….this means you continually face up to your own sinfulness and then flee to Jesus through faith in His shed blood and righteous life.” By preaching to ourselves we can identify with this statement from Charles H. Spurgeon: “Jesus is ‘mighty to save,’ the best proof of which lies in the fact that He saved you.” The cross also provides encouragement to you and I through times of suffering. C.J. Mahaney states in The Cross Centered Life: “I point to the cross of Christ, for there’s no greater encouragement, and no greater motivation for everything God has called you to do and experience in life, than to recognize His love for you in His darkest hour, and to receive His care for you in your darkest hour.” Puritan Thomas Watson put our suffering in perspective to our sin when he stated, “Your sufferings are not so great as your sins: Put these two in the balance, and see which weighs heaviest.”
So I encourage you to remember the cross. John Stott says in The Cross of Christ: “It was by his death that he wished above all else to be remembered.” And then as you remember the cross also boast in it as Galatians 6:14 says: “But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” Amen!
