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| Photo Credit: Microsoft Clip Art |
It is hard to imagine crucifixion as a
good thing. Its history dates back all the way to the Assyrian Empire … the
same empire that ended up destroying the northern kingdom of Israel in 725 B.C.
It was a rather rudimentary procedure … they basically took a log, sharpened
the end, impaled a person through their stomach and then placed the log in a
hole in the ground to let the person slowly die. By the time the Romans arrived
on the scene and the Jewish leaders chanted crucify, crucifixion had become a
perfected art form, designed to cause the most excruciating death possible. Crucifixion
could take hours, or days, or even up to a week to claim the life of its victim.
With all that in our minds it is hard
to see the cross as anything but gory. So we have canceled all that out. We now
look at the cross as a decoration for our churches and our homes. We now wear crosses
on our necklaces. We now use the symbol as a marking that we belong to Christ.
Why? Because of what Christ did on the cross. Christ paid our debt on the
cross. The cross which was gory has now become a symbol of glory.
It is through Jesus that the terrible
cross became beautiful. Think about that as you listen to the words of Selah’s
song Beautiful Terrible Cross. If you cannot see the video in your RSS reader or email click here.
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