At The Cross

Read John 19:16-19, I Peter 5:4

I can only imagine what heaven will be like. I’ve never seen walls of jasper, gates of pearl or streets of purest gold. I do not know exactly what heaven will be like, but I do know that I want to be there. I can picture my loved ones and I also get a glimpse of Him, but I really do not comprehend exactly what it will be like.
Heaven is something that we like to talk about, but the only way that we will find heaven is to first locate the cross. The cross is the first place that you and I have the opportunity to receive access into heaven. Without finding the cross, we cannot hope for heaven. No one knows exactly where the cross of Christ was located. We have many guesses and ideas, but I believe that God has allowed it to be hidden in uncertainty so that we will not treat that place as an idol. His cross is wherever you are at the moment that you respond to Him.
The reason that the cross is so important is that it is the place of crucifixion. I Peter 2:24 allows us to see that the price of our sins hung on that tree. Christ was crucified to remove the death sentence that was hanging over our heads. Galatians 3:13 also lets us see that it was at the cross that Christ became the curse for us. He became the curse so that the promises to Abraham would be available to the Gentiles. The cross is a place of separation. Sin separated us from divine communion. The cross reversed this by ushering in a new divine communion that separated us from sin. The cross separated the sinner from his sin, and it also separated the repentant sinner from the unrepentant sinner. Have you ever looked at it that way, that the only difference between you and an unrepentant sinner is the cross?
Finally, it is at the cross that the cares of life can be laid to rest. Jesus invited all the weary to Him and He would give the rest. The cross, according to Hebrews 4:16, allows us access to His presence where that rest may be found. Peter encouraged us with these hopeful words in I Peter 5:7, “casting all your cares upon Him, for he careth for you.” It is at the cross that we gain the opportunity to cast cares at His feet knowing that they are falling into the nail pierced hands that care for us. Today, remember this, I have held many things in my hands and have dropped them all, but everything that I have placed in His hand, I still possess.

“God, to redeem us at the deepest portion of our nature - the urge to love and be loved - must reveal His nature in an incredible and impossible way. He must reveal it at a cross.”
- E. Stanley Jones