Guest Post - Michael Holland

10 Days to the Cross:  Day Four

I've asked our lead team members to share a personal reflection on the cross and what it means to them.  Today's post comes from Michael Holland, our worship pastor. 

When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ my God!
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to His blood.

See from His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down!

Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.

            

When I Survey the Wondrous Cross; Words: Isaac Watts, 1707. Music: Lowell Mason, 1824.

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One of the most poignant and powerful hymns of all time, When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, has in it perhaps one of the greatest stanzas in all worship literature. The final two lines of the hymn strike at the very heart of what it means when we come face to face with the reality of the cross: the love of Jesus, poured out for us as an offering to save our very souls demands a response, and not just any response, but our lives!

We look to that cross today, faced with the same difficult decision Jesus made almost 2,000 years ago: should we, for the sake of love, give our lives to him as a sacrifice? Or do we find ourselves able to simply walk away from what we have seen? If you have walked away unchanged, I encourage you to take a closer look at what went on that day when sorrow and love were pouring from the heart of God:

Romans 6:5-8 (NIV) “If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin--because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.”
The cross of Christ is a call to a new way of life; we are called to put to death our old ways, and in doing so, we are made new in his likeness through the loving sacrifice of Jesus. My encouragement to you this week is this, to take a closer look, to wade through the crowd and the noise and the mockers and the doubters to where the cross is. Just get into his presence, and you will see love like you have never known, and victory like you have never experienced!