Why Do Christians Love the Cross?

As Christians, we love the Cross. To us, it is a symbol of our redemption. For it was on a cross that Jesus died for our sins. He purchased us. He paid the price we owed. He absorbed the wrath of God in His own person. If not for the work of Christ on the cross, we would have no hope of Heaven. That’s why we sing about the wonder of the cross.

 

Over the centuries, the offence of the cross has diminished. People see it as jewellery, no more significant than a star or a peace sign. But what if we wore a hangman's noose on a chain around our necks? Or an electric chair? What if we sang songs about the wonder of those things? “Oh, the wonder of the noose!” See how absurd and wrong it seems to say that!

Then we see how offensive the cross was to the people of the first century. It was an instrument of torture and execution, a place reserved for the worst criminals. It was, to modern sensibilities, cruel and unusual punishment. It was not the quick death of a lethal injection, a guillotine or even a firing squad.

Why do Christians love to talk about the death of this One? In the hymn, O Sacred Head, it says, "Yet though despised and gory, I joy to call Thee mine."  

We see it through eyes of faith. If Christ had not suffered there, the Just for the unjust, we would have to pay for our own sins. It is, in one symbol, or one word, an image of what Christ accomplished for us. His victory is our victory. That's why we glory in the Cross!