Your Father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad. - Gospel of St. John
8:56
CRUX is the
Latin word for cross. The English language is much influenced, in its
derivation of words, by the Latin. For example: excruciating is our English
word for severe pain whose intensity is so great that it is incomprehensible.
It is made up of two Latin derivatives: EX, meaning from, or out of, and Crux,
which is cross. When joined together, its combined meaning is pain as from the
cross.
The word crux in English means the “essential point, or deciding
factor.” For all of humanity, the Cross of Christ is the great point of
decision for all time and eternity. It is the most profound event that has ever
occurred, or will ever occur, in the history of the world.
Let us go on a journey in time - a journey of the imagination.
Remember back to a time preceding your own birth, further back to the great
Reformation, back still further to the time of Christ. Continue back in time to
the days of Abraham, Noah, Adam.....back still further when the world was “without
form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep.” Back still
further to a point in time when there was not even this formless mass we call
Earth...back to a point in Eternity Past when there was only God. This is a
point in Eternity where there was only the Powers of Heaven to comprehend all
of reality - a point during which the Triune God and His great Heaven existed
apart and alone from all that we know as Time. “.....for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.”
- Gospel of St. John 17:24.
The Great Father God determined in His omniscient Wisdom that He would
create a world whose canopy would be the starry expanse of celestial lights and
beauty. And in that world, He would place the crowning achievement of His
creative genius - Man. The imperative that Man would need a Savior did not
escape the foreknowledge of this Creator God. “But with the precious Blood
of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was
foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last
times for you.” - 1 Peter 1:19-20
The Cross of Christ was ordained of God the Father to be the CRUX of
all time and eternity - an epochal event of utmost cataclysmic proportion. The
single event which divided, not only earthly time, but the timeless scale of
Eternity into two divisions: before and after. It is so crucial to the history
of the earth that we base all our calendar calculations on the periods Before
Christ (B.C.) and after His dominion (A.D. or Anno Domini). All the righteous
of the centuries preceding this great event looked forward to His coming; and
all believing peoples of our day look back in the Hope and Sure knowledge of
that great event which enabled us to approach the Throne of Grace through His
shed blood at Calvary.
But the great Redemptive act of Christ would have profited us nothing
except that the events of that first Easter morning should have transpired.
Though others, such as Enoch and Elijah, were translated directly to God, and
still others awakened from the deep sleep of death, yet no man had ever risen
by force of His own Word from the eternal sleep of death; yet Christ rose,
“according to the scriptures” on the third day following these events.
The faith of the Saints of ages past yearned, in their graves, to see
this great event - an event that would free them from eternal darkness and
arouse them from the depth of their sleep to the eternal life assured them, and
all others, who were in Christ. On that first Easter morning, Christ defeated
death and Hell for us and thereby made it possible for us, the elect of God, to
have everlasting Life in Christ. Being in Him, we too shall arise from the
power of death to eternal life. For He it is who paid our sin penalty and
reconciled us to the Father. He has become our Ark of Hope in these latter days
so that, just as surely as the Ark of Noah was lifted up above the turbid
waters of the Flood, so may each of us be lifted above the ruin and damnation
which will surely come upon the earth to those who do not believe. It was the
events of Easter morning, two thousand years ago, which enabled us to enjoy
eternal Life in Christ.
My friends
- brothers and sisters - are you and your loved ones securely aboard the Ark of
Christ? This is the most pressing matter in your conscious life upon this
earth. Please, without delay, make your salvation sure in Christ this moment
while the great door of the Ark is open and you are being invited to board.
~ by Jerry Ogles
