The whole picture

We’ve probably all seen an image like this right? On one side is sinful man, on the other is Holy God, in the middle is the pit of death with the Cross of Christ as our only way across. What’s the first word that comes to your mind when you see this image? Salvation right? Well I think all too often we as believer tend to forget that this is the cornerstone of our faith. It doesn’t have to do with only our salvation, but the very way we live our Christian life. Oh I don’t mean that we totally forget a bout this image or what it symbolizes. Instead we focus only on one aspect. We need to take in the whole picture, and see how all the pieces fit together in a totally cool way that God designed.

A focus on Sinful Man
Too often we focus on us-the sinful man. Indeed the bible does call us to examine our lives and root out the sin, but as Romans 13:13-14 points out, we are not only to take off the sinful man, we are to also put on Christ.

Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in
lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and
make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.

God has given us a desire to be fulfilled, content, and happy. If we’re not looking to God to fulfil that, then I can assure you that we will look somewhere else.


A focus on the Cross
The cross is one of the most well known and well loved symbols. The cross represents for us the cost that was paid to take away our sin. However we forget the words of Matthew 6:24-25

Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and (B)take up his cross and follow Me.

What? You mean we have to take up a cross too? Yup. You mean just being thankful for the cross is not enough? Yup. Suppose a fireman were rescuing you from a burning building. Your legs were broken and you were completely incapable of saving yourself. You are extremely thankful that the fireman is saving you, but as he carries you through the burning building, you find out that burning buildings tend to be hot. Quite hot as a matter of fact. All of a sudden you don’t like where the fireman is taking you. “Why this seams to be the hottest part of the building” you tell yourself. “Why in the world is the stupid fireman taking me here?” You start to kick. You don’t like this. You want down, but the fireman hangs on to you. He’s strong enough that no matter how hard you pull, you can never get out of his arms. Finally he stops and turns you around so you can look at him. He explains to you that this is not only the quickest and best way, it is also the only way out. You see being thankful for the Cross is not enough. We must also not shrink away from the molding and shaping that God is doing in our lives. However it is not us who are doing the shaping, but Christ. However as the saying goes “we can do this the easy way or we can do this the hard way.” In our focus on the cross, we must not forget that God is Holy, We are Unholy. It is God who is molding us; we are only his vessels.

A focus on Holy God
Ever heard a little boy who dreams of being a baseball player some day declare “someday I want to be just like (famous baseball player)”. You see it’s only natural for us as human beings to long to be like someone who we view as “the best” in a category and God most certainly rules in the Holiness category. It’s simply unnatural for us to study God and not long to be like him. As much as a 7-year-old boy longs to meet the best baseball player in his town, so also as we get to know God, we also want to draw closer to him.