The truth is that God has never planned that His children should live forever stretched upon a cross. Christ Himself endured His cross for only six hours. When the cross had done its work, life entered and took over. “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name.” His joyful resurrection followed hard upon His joyless crucifixion. But the first had to come before the second. The life that halts short of the cross is but a fugitive and condemned thing, doomed at last to be lost beyond recovery. That life which goes to the cross and loses itself there to rise again with Christ is a divine and deathless treasure. Over it death hath no more dominion. Whoever refuses to bring his old life to the cross is but trying to cheat death, and no matter how hard he may struggle against it, he is nevertheless fated to lose his life at last. The man who takes his cross and follows Christ will soon find that his direction is away from the sepulcher. Death is behind him and a joyous and increasing life before. His days will be marked henceforth not by ecclesiastical gloom, the churchyard, the hollow tone, the black robe (which are all but the cerements of a dead church), but by “joy unspeakable and full of glory.”
Verse
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place / and gave him the name that is above every name. Philippians 2:9
Thought
The life that halts short of the cross is but a fugitive and condemned thing, doomed at last to be lost beyond recovery.
Prayer
Praise Your name, Gracious Father, because of the cross, death is behind us, and life eternal awaits us!