Honey, I Shrunk the Cross

Posted on by Ekko Church

“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,  to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” (Ephesians 3:14-21 ESV)

We grow in gratitude and adoration for Jesus when we realize the proper scale of the chasm that lay between us. But the reality is, many of us can be thankful for the chasm that was crossed, and yet we often feel joyless and tired.

The problem is that though we have a growing understanding of the chasm, we don’t have a proper vision of the cross.

“Something crazy has happened, for it’s obvious that you no longer have the crucified Jesus in clear focus in your lives. His sacrifice on the Cross was certainly set before you clearly enough. Let me put this question to you: How did your new life begin? Was it by working your heads off to please God? Or was it by responding to God’s Message to you? Are you going to continue this craziness? For only crazy people would think they could complete by their own efforts what was begun by God…”

“…If you weren’t smart enough or strong enough to begin it, how do you suppose you could perfect it?”

—Galatians 3:1-3 MSG

When the cross remains small, our joy remains small and our efforts becoming tiresome. We begin to embrace a life of performing or pretending.

As we grow in awareness of God’s holiness and our sins, we have a choice; envision the cross properly or shrink the cross and compensate for it. We say, “God is holier than I thought, I don’t know if the Cross was enough to earn approval and right standing before God. I should help Jesus help me earn approval.”

Q: “ What do you count on to give you a sense of personal credibility?” 
(validity, acceptance, good standing)

Heretical Framework:
 Cross + My Contributions = Heresy

Compensating by Performing

We try to help fill the gap between God’s Holiness and the Cross by performing. We become self-righteous.

MANTRA: “I am better than others.” 

Examples:

“I care about the poor and disadvantaged the way everyone else should.” (Mercy Righteousness)

“I don’t drink, smoke, or chew, or date girls who do. Too many Christians just aren’t concerned about holiness these days.” (Legalistic Righteousness)

“I manage money wisely and stay out of debt. I’m not like those materialistic Christians who can’t control their spending.” (Financial Righteousness)

“If you really love God, you’ll vote for my candidate.” (Political Righteousness)

“I am open-minded and charitable toward those who don’t agree with me. In fact, I’m a lot like Jesus that way!” (Tolerance Righteousness)

“Religion has accepted the monstrous heresy that noise, size, activity and bluster make a man dear to God.”
— AW Tozer, The Pursuit of God

Compensating by Pretending

On the flip side, we also compensate for a small cross by pretending; by being in self-denial.

MANTRA: “I am not that bad.” 

Examples:

“I find it difficult to receive feedback about weaknesses or sin. When confronted, my tendency is to explain things away, talk about my successes, or justify my decisions. As a result, people are hesitant to approach me and I rarely have conversations about difficult things in my life.” See, I’m not that bad. (Defending)

“I strive to keep up appearances and maintain a respectable image. My behavior, to some degree, is driven by what I think others think of me. I also do not like to think reflectively about my life. As a result, not many people know the real me.” (Faking)

“I tend to conceal as much as I can about my life, especially the “bad stuff.” This is different from faking, in that faking is about impressing. Hiding is more about shame. I don’t think people will accept or love the real me.” (Hiding)

We can stop pretending and performing by confessing now because of the Big Cross!

“My guilt overwhelms me—it is a burden too heavy to bear.” — Psalm 38:4 NLT

Confess. Instead of compensating for a small Cross, have a proper vision of the cross. This frees us to confess freely.

“How happy he is whose wrong-doing is forgiven, and whose sin is covered! How happy is the man whose sin the Lord does not hold against him, and in whose spirit there is nothing false. When I kept quiet about my sin, my bones wasted away from crying all day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me. My strength was dried up as in the hot summer. I told my sin to You. I did not hide my wrong-doing. I said, “I will tell my sins to the Lord.” And You forgave the guilt of my sin. So let all who are God-like pray to You while You may be found, because in the floods of much water, they will not touch him. You are my hiding place. You keep me safe from trouble. All around me are your songs of being made free.” (Psalm 32:1-7 NLV)

Accept the cross. Stop performing by accepting that Jesus and His work on the cross is sufficient for you to make you holy before the living God.

Be like the thief on the Cross next to Jesus who knew the only thing he could do was believe and accept Jesus’ work on the cross. He knew he couldn’t add anything to it or pretend he wasn’t someone bad.

Preach the Gospel to yourself every day.

Accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior and embrace the Cross every day.

“What will today look like if I knew I was accepted because of Christ. What if I didn’t have to pretend and perform today?”

Pray with us this week:

May the Cross be ever in my focus.

I confess that only You

Are sufficient.

Only through You,

I find joy.

Only in You,

I find rest.

You can listen to the sermon Honey, I Shrunk the Cross from the Ephesians series that inspired this post here.

The above charts have been adapted from The Gospel-Centered Life by Robert H. Thune and Will Walker.

For further reading and resources, please also check out Sonship.

All images and materials are copyright protected and are the property of Ekko Church unless otherwise noted and credited to their maker. Please do not copy or distribute without permission.