The Crux of the Matter – 24 May 2021, Anno Domini (In the Year of our Lord)

 

 

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OUR Father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.  (John 8:56)

 

 

CRUX is the Latin word for cross. The English language is much influenced, in its derivation of words, by the Latin. For example: excruciating is our English word for severe pain whose intensity is so great that it is incomprehensible. It consists of two Latin derivatives: ‘EX’ meaning from, or out of, and ‘Crux’ which is cross. When joined together, the combined meaning is ‘pain as from the cross.’ 

 

The word crux in English means the “essential point or deciding factor.” For all of humanity , the Cross of Christ is the great point of decision for all time and eternity. It is the most profound event that has ever occurred, or will ever occur, in the history of the world.

 

            Let us go on a journey in time - a journey of the imagination. Remember back to a time preceding your own birth, further back to the great Reformation, back still further to the time of Christ. Continue your journey back in time to the days of Abraham, Noah, Adam....back still further yet to a moment when the world was “without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep.” Back still further to a point in time when there was not even this formless mass we call Earth...back to a point in Eternity Past when there was only God. This is a point in Eternity where there were only the Powers of Heaven to comprehend all of reality - a point during which the Triune God and His great Heaven existed apart and alone from all that we know as Time. “.....for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.” - Gospel of St. John 17:24

 

            The Great Father God determined in His omniscient Wisdom that He would create a world whose canopy would be the starry expanse of celestial lights and beautiful skies called the heavens. And in that world, He would place the crowning achievement of His creative genius - Man. The imperative that Man would need a Savior did not escape the foreknowledge of this Creator God. “But with the precious Blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you.” (1 Peter 1:19-20)

 

            The Cross of Christ was ordained of God the Father to be the CRUX of all time and eternity - an epochal event of utmost cataclysmic proportion. The single event which divided, not only earthly time, but the timeless scale of Eternity into two divisions: before and after. It is so crucial to the history of the earth that we base all our calendar calculations on the periods Before Christ (BC) and after His dominion (AD or Anno Domini). All the righteous of the centuries preceding this great event looked forward to His coming; and all believing peoples of our day look back in the Hope and Sure knowledge of that great event which enabled us to approach the Throne of Grace through His shed blood at Calvary.

 

            But the great Redemptive act of Christ would have profited us nothing except that the events of that first Easter morning should have transpired. Though others, such as Enoch and Elijah, were translated directly to God, and still others awakened from the deep sleep of death, yet no man had ever risen by force of His own Word from the eternal sleep of death; yet Christ rose, “according to the scriptures” on the third day following the events at Jerusalem and Calvary.

 

            On that first Easter morning, Christ defeated death and Hell for us and thereby made it possible for us, the elect of God, to have everlasting Life in Christ. Being in Him, we too shall arise from the power of death to eternal life. For He it is who paid our sin penalty and reconciled us to the Father. He has become our Ark of Hope in these latter days so that, just as surely as the Ark of Noah was lifted up above the turbid waters of the Flood, so may each of us who are in Christ be lifted above the ruin and damnation which will surely come upon the earth to those who do not believe. It was the events of Easter morning, two thousand years ago, which enabled us to enjoy eternal Life in Christ.

 

            My friends - brothers and sisters - are you and your loved ones securely aboard the Ark of Christ? This is the most pressing matter in your conscious life upon this earth. Please, without delay, make your salvation sure in Christ this moment while the great door of the Ark is open and you are being invited to board.