“I’ll cherish the old, rugged cross till my trophies at last I lay down, and I will cling to the old rugged cross, and exchange it someday for a crown.” These are some of my favorite lyrics in the Christian faith. I think the Apostle Paul would have loved the song, The Old Rugged Cross. He wrote in Galatians 6:14, “But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”
Death by crucifixion was not a Jewish custom. The cruel execution of the cross was designed by the Romans. As Paul planted churches throughout the Roman empire, the cross was a symbol of shame and rejection. Today, crosses are worn proudly, even as jewelry. There is even a cross that hangs in the Roman Colosseum in Rome itself, but this was not the case in first-century Christianity. If you were to share your faith with a neighbor and explain that the God you worship hung naked on a cross and died a criminal’s death, it would have been much more complicated to explain how that is the Gospel.
Yet Paul says in Romans 1:16, writing to Christians in Rome itself, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” The reason Paul was not ashamed of the Gospel and boasted in the cross is because he experienced its power. He writes in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Has the cross made a difference in your life? Is it more than jewelry or decorations? You and I are called to carry our cross. Jesus said in Luke 9:23, “And he said to all, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me’.” One day you and I will exchange that cross for a crown. This is why, like Paul, we can boast in the cross of Calvary!
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