Easter's Defibrillator

There is a whole entire aisle at our local Hobby Lobby dedicated to decorative crosses. Some are rustic while others more intricate and detailed. Some are quite large and others quite small with every size in between available for purchase. There are lots of Pinterest pins on how to make our own and how to best decorate with all types of crosses. 

In my last post, I shared how I was convicted over not truly seeing the cross for the instrument of death that it is. Since then, I've been contemplating how and why a cross, a symbol of capital punishment has come to be a symbol of so much more. 

Internationally, it is THE symbol of Christianity. Radical muslims world-wide burn and destroy crosses, tearing them down from churches and ripping them from the walls of believers' homes. 

Personally, the cross represents so very much more. My feelings toward the cross are much more intimate but far from private. 

Why is the cross a big deal? Why should we boast in the cross of Christ as Paul said? 

• On the cross, Jesus became our curse. (Galatians 3:13)
• On the cross, Jesus brought us to God, putting to death the flesh and making the spirit alive. (1 Peter 3:18)
• On the cross, God nailed our legal record of debt, forgiving us our trespasses and making us alive together with Him. (Colossians 2:13-15)
• On the cross, God made Christ sin so that we might become His righteousness. (2 Corinthians 5:21)
• On the cross, we are delivered from this present evil age according to God's will. (Galatians 1:3-4)
• On the cross, we are ransomed, being made a kingdom of priests to our God for us to reign on the earth. (Revelation 5:9-10)

These are just a few reasons the cross is precious to the believer, to me. It is symbolic of a whole lot more than my religion. As I contemplate the above verses I am humbled. I am left in awe of the significance of this symbol. The "Old Rugged Cross" is the very center of my entire faith, and as a result my entire life. 

The cross is much more than Easter's Electric Chair. The cross is Easter's defibrillator, making a way to bring life into what once was dead. The cross is a symbol of death, but it also offers hope. There is no hope in an electric chair.