God's Cross of Glory (part1)

I was thinking today how religion apart from the Christian faith robs God of his glory. The all encompassing love of God is obscured when his sacrificial love on the cross is diminished or ignored.  It is by the cross that we understand the very heart and character of God.  The Son comes to a broken and dying world, and is broken and killed to restore and reconcile the fallen creation he loves.  By the love of God we see how to love.  He is truly the light of the world and anything that takes away from the blazing significance of his partaking in the suffering of his creation, robs God and attempts to rob us of his presence and compassion. God has joined us in our suffering to free us through it (we partake in suffering with God) in Christ.  In the end we are healed and not destroyed.

God is not sitting on a throne light years away demanding we suffer in faith against injustice, persecution, and all kinds of evil.  His word is not an abstract manual of does and don’ts, punishments and rewards, but word made flesh and suffering on a cross.  I am beginning to understand what it means to see the living God, and when I meditate on the cross and his divine offering, the light is so bright I cannot believe it took so long to see.
(I will have to continue in  future post).