Love and the Cross

Posted on July 4, 2014 Written by Mark McIntyre 2 Comments

“Only love for Christ has the power to incapacitate the sturdy love for self that is the bane of every sinner, and only the grace of Christ has the power to produce that love” – Paul David Tripp

Tripp goes on to point out that death of self is a prerequisite to fulling loving Christ. Jesus tells us in Luke 9:23 that we are required to daily take up our own cross. This is not a one and done type event but a continual process that requires discipline.

It was love for us that put Jesus on the Cross. It is love for Jesus that compels us toward our own cross. It is love for Jesus that motivates us to die to self. Love always involves a cross; love requires the death of our own desires for the sake of the one we love.

I know that I have only a partial understanding of what it means to take up my cross. What would it look like if I died a complete death to self? My self is a stubborn old coot and refuses to die.

Consider these verses from Paul:

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20, ESV)
“And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,” (Colossians 1:9, ESV)

One takeaway from these verses is that while I must participate by taking up my own cross, I cannot do it in my own strength and wisdom. Christ must empower me to do so. It was Jesus’ love that bound him to his cross on my behalf and it is his love that can propel me toward my own cross. As David Trip reminds us in the quotation above, only Christ’s love can conquer my stubborn self-love. Apart from his love, I have no available power to conquer my pride and self absorption.

About Mark McIntyre

A follower of Jesus Christ who shares observations about how Scripture should impact the church and the world. Mark is the original author and editor of Attempts at Honesty.

Os Guinness – In the World but not of the World

But when the church, through its faithfulness and its discernment of the times, lives truly ‘in’ but ‘not of’ the world, and is therefore the City of God engaging the City of Man, it touches off the secret of its culture-shaping power.

Augustine on Divine Providence

“To the divine providence it has seemed good to prepare in the world to come for the righteous good things, which the unrighteous shall not enjoy; and for the wicked evil things, by which the good shall not be tormented. But as for the good things of this life, and its ills, God has willed […]

What is creation?

It is probable that most people that read this question in the catechism in 2016 zoom in on the words “in six days.” So let me say from the beginning that it is OK for believers to disagree on how the word day should be interpreted. Some hold to a literal 24 hour day and others think day represents a much longer period of time.

What if we lived out what we say we believe?

A woman beginning her ninth decade laughs when she is told that she will bear a son. Her husband is ten years her senior which adds to the seeming impossibility. In response to her laughter, God asks Abraham a question, “is anything too hard for the LORD?” (Genesis 18:14)

That same question remains for us.

On gadflies and prophets in the church

The prophets in Israel had the job of confronting the king to speak God’s word into his life. The “gadflies” in the church do the same. Leaders need to listen to them and not simply label them as troublemakers.

The antidote to hypocrisy

Jesus was also hard on the Pharisees, so the lesson I learn from this is that God has a low tolerance threshold for religious hypocrisy. He doesn’t like it whether it is in the Pharisees of Jesus’ day or in you or me.

Share

About Mark McIntyre