JackHammer

Crucifixion is one of the most cruel forms of execution mankind has conceived.  It is a punishment reserved for only the most vile criminals.  No self-respecting citizen would want anything to do with someone who is punished in this way.  Crucifixion means shame, reproach, mockery, and ostracism for everyone who aligns themselves with the one that is executed in this way.  That the philosophy of someone who was crucified would be helpful in any way is pure foolishness and it’s true that anyone who’s hanged on a tree is cursed.

Crucifixion not only executes; it stigmatizes.  So when the Apostle Paul writes,

But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross or our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.

there is significance to a Christian and culture that cannot be ignored.  Galatians 6:14 teaches us that the world and its culture deserves from Christians all the shame, reproach, mockery and ostracism that a crucified criminal deserves.  It also teaches us that Christians should live in a way that receives all the shame, reproach, mockery and ostracism from the world and its culture that a crucified criminal receives.

Christian, the cross of Christ should change the way you view the world.  It should change your worldview. Can you despise the world? Can you mock the world? Can you heap shame and reproach on its culture?  Alternatively, does the world approve your lifestyle or reproach you for it?  Are your worldly friends ashamed to be around you or do you fit right in?  Does your Christianity make you do anything that is a mockery to our culture? You see, the cross of Christ changes a man so that the world views him differently also…

…the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.

Last 5 posts by Jeff Voegtlin

• What to Practice? - September 18th, 2008
• What Instrument? - August 19th, 2008
• Who's Advising? - August 8th, 2008
• Sons Go Because the Son Was Sent - July 8th, 2008
• Sons Go (drive-by post) - June 26th, 2008