“And He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? For what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.” Mark 8:34-38

The primary message of Jesus was that of the kingdom of God (Mark 1:14-15). But, as the time of His death approached, His focus was on the cross. The cross has become the primary symbol of Christianity, displayed in and on church buildings, elegantly adorning necks as jewelry, and serving as a logo for church websites and stationary. As such, it has largely lost its radical meaning. These words of the late Ray Stedman can help us regain a greater appreciation:

“(The cross) means the end of the natural, the end of what we call “self-sufficiency, “self-reliance” … Somehow there lingers in each one of us a desire to have a part in our salvation, to offer something to God that He can use and that He would not have if we did not give it to Him … But the cross ends all that, wipes out everything that is of the natural. Nothing that we have by virtue of being born is ever worthwhile or acceptable in the sight of God. A cross wipes a man out. It does not improve him, does not better him in any way; it wipes him out.” (1)

As the cross was where the physical life of Christ was wiped out, so it is to us. Christ’s cross bids us come to die; to be emptied of anything we dare think we can offer to God in exchange for entrance into the coming kingdom.

The kingdom message elevates our hope and excitement, but the cross is the sobering entrance requirement that we be drained of all self-righteousness in order to obtain that kingdom hope. Thus we see the critical balance in the true gospel of “the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ” Acts 8:12. We aspire to inherit the kingdom, but we must be wiped out by the cross to do so.

The balance between the message of Jesus and the cross of Jesus frames our walk with Him. As such, may we live today with the excitement and anticipation of the kingdom, even as we are emptied of self in pursuit of it by the cross.

Be sure to also see Amazon ebook & print devotional and podcast: New Day Dawning.