CHEAP CROSSES HAVE NO VALUE

Edwin Anderson I asked an acquaintance who had recently returned from a business trip to Central America: “What impressed you the most?” He smiled, pursed his lips in thought, and answered, “Well, I can tell you in just two words: ‘Cheap crosses!’ ” I stared in surprise, “Cheap crosses! What do you mean?” He replied: “I came to a place where they were having an important religious festival. Everywhere I turned, everywhere I looked, I saw crosses - crosses of all kinds and sizes, all the way from the most expensive down to the crudest of home-made affairs. I learned later that it was required that everyone either carry or display a cross on that special day. “I shall never forget turning into a side street and coming upon a small cart with its drowsy donkey and its equally drowsy peddler. He had only one kind of product for sale and the cart was loaded with them. They were wooden crosses, poorly put together. What struck me most was the sign on top of that pile. It read, ‘CHEAP CROSSES’. Religion here was obviously a matter of convenience, and he was doing his bit in meeting it…” “Cheap crosses!” It can also be written over a good deal of what passes for religious observance in this day! Many people desire a belief which does not cost much, or press too sharply on their bank balance. But it is good to remember that that which is without cost is likewise without power - however attractive the purchase price may be. Let us not be content to apply this principle to a lost world alone. The Holy Spirit wants to arouse Christians with this same searching, uncomfortable, cutting truth. There is a personal price - a high cost connected to belief in Christ. In these last days it is more than necessary for each of His blood-bought own to enter more thoroughly into the heartfelt declaration of David: “Neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the Lord my God of that which doth cost me nothing” (2 Samuel 24:24). It probably required a long and drastic exercise of heart, and much prompting of the Holy Spirit, before David reached that pinnacle. We live in a time of ease, comfort, and carnal carelessness. The desire of people to “get something for nothing” is a curse on us. It is also causing many to seek delightful detours and smooth side-paths rather that the clear, high line of Christian duty. We need to look long and lovingly at Calvary, again and again, to learn that there simply cannot be any cheap crosses. We must catch a glimpse of the infinite cost of “so great a salvation”. We must behold the blessed One in the fierce battle of Gethsemane, sweating “as it were great drops of blood,” crying out to the Father, “Not MY will, but THINE, be done!” We need to go back to the portrait of the Saviour which Paul presented: “Christ Jesus…made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” There at Calvary, love reached its wonderful limit; there grace spanned the farthest extent of its glory; there mercy magnified itself beyond degree. When the Son submitted Himself to Calvary, He was demonstrating the fathomless cost of redemption. Even now the Holy Spirit presents the power of the Cross, as a penetrating persuasion to win our complete and undivided allegiance. We need to experience the power of the Cross in our lives continually. The privilege of walking with God must not be lightly esteemed. There is no natural desire in the heart of man to behold the agonies of the Cross, or to take up one’s personal cross and follow the Saviour daily; but when we become overwhelmed with the price He paid to redeem us, we cry with Paul, “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Galatians 6:14). The Spirit is continually dealing with us, cutting across the comfort and convenience and complacency of our lives, in order to make us willing to pay the price of carrying our cross. He who spared not His own Son, will surely not spare us the keenest sort of judgment if we spare ourselves in any way from making a full surrender. There are no “cheap crosses” for those who would walk with God! [From: The Evangelist]