Worship #6 – Celebrating Christ’s Work through the Cross

Many in the world today probably think that our preoccupation with the cross of Christ is peculiar. That’s not surprising. Paul wrote, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18).

Celebrating Christ’s work through the cross is a high point of our worship. Our sanctified imagination draws us toward the cross of Christ both theologically and experientially.

Just this past week as I thought about Good Friday, I jotted down some familiar lines in my spiritual journal.

• Jesus keep me near the cross. Be my glory ever.

• Beneath the cross of Jesus, I freely take my stand.

• Upon that cross of Jesus, mine eye at times can see, the very dying form of One, who suffered there for me.

How often during our personal time with God or during a Communion service our thoughts and meditations fly to the cross. We stand at the foot of the cross. We witness again the death of our great Savior. We are there.

As we visualize the cross, we confess our unworthiness. We receive God’s forgiveness. We express our wonder and awe. We lift our love and gratitude to God.

I often reflect on three benefits of the cross:

1. I am redeemed “by the blood of his cross” (Colossians 1:20, ESV). I am forgiven and have peace with God. I have access to God and can approach God freely in prayer. I experience God’s wonderful love because of Christ’s finished work on the cross.

2. I further identify with Christ in his death on the cross and his resurrection. When Christ died, I died in him. When Christ rose, I rose with him.

Paul summarized this rather well for me: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

3. Because of the cross, I also have victory over the powers of darkness. Christ’s death on the cross is the fulcrum for overcoming all the accusing thoughts and lies of the enemy. “And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he [Jesus] made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross (Colossians 2:15).

What reflections on the cross lift you to worship?

~ Pastor Dave