The Pain Of The Cross

But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by His wounds we are healed. Isaiah 53:5.

The terms of the Cross that Christ bore. The Roman guards did not have to hog tie Christ to take Him to the Cross at Calvary. He walked, He bore His Cross upon His back and with His mangled, broken body He stumbled and drug that Cross through the streets of Jerusalem to a place outside the city of David. Up a hill called Golgotha, the tail of the Cross dragging in the dirt behind Him marking a line in the earth forever separating damnation from Salvation.

When the soldiers laid the Cross upon the ground to fix the man of Nazareth upon it they did not lay a hand upon Him. He lay himself on that rugged Cross and outstretched His hands allowing them to do their work.binding and nailing His flesh to the wood of the Cross. no one had ever been crucified willingly to atone for their transgressions, their crimes. Christ did willingly because He was a man of no crime and of no personal transgressions. He did so willingly because He was their that day, that moment in eternal history to pay the price for our sins, past, present and future. He had come to shed His blood to atone for us. It was the only way. God made that clear to Him in the Garden of Gethsemane when Christ asked His father in prayer, "Father, if there is any other way, take this cup from me". But there was no other way. The is no other way to accept that our sin debt has been cancelled by the shed blood of Christ than to be at the foot of the Cross letting His blood, His grace and mercy wash over us.

The Bible says on Luke 9:23 ²³ Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.That is why I go to the Cross daily. My pain drives me there because of the desperation and brokenness that wait for me away from the Cross cannot sooth my afflictions. I cannot be a Disciple of Christ anywhere except with the Cross. I cannot find comfort to endure another day except with the Cross. I can do nothing that Christ commands of me except with the Cross. The Cross is my comforter when I am in pain. The Cross is my shield when under attack. The Cross is my hope when I am weak. I pray that I am never not in need of the Cross.

The Cross is also the way to transcend from Discipleship to Disciple. The Apostles became Disciples of Christ because of the event of the Cross on Calvary. Before then they were students of The Christ. Never fully understanding the power and responsibility that the Cross would represent in their lives and in the life of everyone that has ever lived. On Calvary that day when Christ said "It is finished". He meant He had completed His Father's will. He had paid the price for all our Salvation. He had paid the debt of sin for all time and in the process He had made His apostles who had been in discipleship into disciples. The way for us today that choose to carry the Cross daily is the transition from discipleship to Disciple.