Cross symbol of salvation
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Editor,
Montana is a unique place with all of its roadside crosses that consistently line our highways. Christian churches are most often identified with a cross. Nearly every day, I see a cross at the three churches on Highway 93, north of the bridge. There are also three crosses standing together near the highway at the foot of Sunny Slope hill. Our neighbors had three lighted crosses among their Christmas lights. Lots of people wear a gold cross on a chain around their neck. I’ve a grandson who has a cross tattooed between his shoulder blades. The Romans used a cross for punishment and death. Jesus died on a cross.
For Christians, the cross is a symbol of salvation. It is by Christ’s death on the cross that God is justified in forgiving sinners; which he does for every sinner who acknowledges their need of salvation. Jesus Christ died as their sin-bearer. God saves them through the punishment of his own sinless son, thus Jesus could declare on the cross, “it is finish” (John 19:30). Jesus laid down his life as their substitute. He paid sin’s debt with overwhelming finality. God then raised Christ from the grave in attestation that His eternal redemptive purpose is complete, inexorable and without revocation. The idea of adding anything to Christ’s finished act of dying, by human efforts of goodness, or by church sacraments, or other religious orders, is like holding up a candle to increase the light of the sun (Ephesians 2:8-9).
Thank God, the Savior’s atonement is complete, perfect, final and forever. When anyone accepts Jesus as their Savior, they are forgiven, acquitted, justified, regenerated; their sins are gone. They have new direction, new desires, new spiritual perception, new moral strength, a new sense of God’s presence in their life. They’ve been born again.
“Jesus replied, ‘I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God’” (John 3:3 NLT).
Harvey A. Town
Polson
