Cross Meditation

Edward Donnelly, of Reformed Theological College in Belfast, Ireland writes the following in his foreward to the book, The Cross He Bore-Meditations on the Suffering of the Redeemer:

We are too apt to hurry past the cross, to undervalue, in spite of ourselves, the supreme mystery of the ages by a shallow assumption that we know it all. We don’t and never will. But we need to take time to learn as much as we can. We need to ‘behold’, to ’survey’, to ’stand and stare’.

The author of the above mentioned book, Frederick S. Leahy (1922-2006), continues the theme in his introduction:

As the cross is central in God’s decrees, and in the actual redemption of his people, so it should be central in the thinking and experience of the individual Christian. It is my conviction, and at times my sad experience, that as the cross goes out of focus in the Christian’s life, coldness and backsliding set in…. If our meditation on the cross be meager, can our love for the Saviour be great?

May contemplation of the cross increase our awareness of the depths of our sin, the terror of God’s wrath, the extremity of Christ’s sacrifice, and the wonder of God’s grace and love. The Suffering Savior is our Substitute and “we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:4).