| The Christian Life | October 1940 |
Cross-Bearing
THE world today is passing through the greatest trouble it has ever experienced. There is distress and perplexity on every hand—business reverses, domestic troubles, loss of friends and dear ones. We sometimes hear it said: “The cross is too hard to bear.” This, however, is not bearing the cross of Christ. The burden under which the poor creation groans from the cradle to the grave, and which weighs so heavily upon the world today, is that which the great adversary of God and man has brought upon them. As expressed by the Prophet, “the way of transgressors is hard.”—Prov. 13:15
Yes, the poor world has a hard taskmaster, and their burden is a heavy one. Many today have much of this world’s goods, but they are not happy. Many of these, having indulged in the world’s pleasures and pastimes, have undermined their health, and would give all their earthly riches to regain their health.
We recall the words of Jesus to the rich young man. This young man had much of this world’s goods, and had kept the law from his youth up, “then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.” (Mark 10:21) The Lord tells what the taking of the cross really means to those who become His disciples. He warns us that carrying the cross would be a serious matter. We are to count the cost. The Lord emphasized this fact when He said, “No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the Kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:62) If we take up the cross we are entering into a life-long contract—not for a month, or a year, or to some particular date.
There is unspeakable joy in bearing this cross, for He who bore the cross to Calvary has promised to be with us always “even unto the end of the age.” Further, we have the privilege of helping others to bear their cross. Thus, we read, “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” (Gal. 6:2) Our blessed Lord did not have any earthly companion who could help Him bear His cross. Even His closest earthly associates, Peter, James and John, in the garden of Gethsemane could not watch with Him one hour. The last day and night of His earthly ministry had sapped His physical strength to such an extent that He was unable to bear the cross to Calvary, and we read that, “they laid hold upon one Simon, a Cyrenian … and on him they laid the cross.”
Are we inclined to envy Simon this privilege? Wonderful privilege indeed! Fortunate man, that his sturdy and robust body had won for him this honor. Would that we knew the conversation that ensued between the Lord and His cross-bearer. What Jesus said to Simon was for him and him alone. If disposed to envy Simon his privilege of assisting the Master in the bearing of the cross, let us reflect that many of the Lord’s people are daily bearing symbolic crosses, and that it is our privilege to assist them and that the Lord reckons such service done to His faithful followers as though it were done to His own person—“In as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me.”—Matt. 25:40
How often we miss this opportunity of assisting those of like precious faith with little deeds of kindness, or words of comfort and encouragement, which often mean so much to those who are passing through severe trials, and whose cross is becoming too heavy for them to bear. He has promised that not even a cup of cold water, given in His name, will go unrewarded. Let us, therefore, be swift to grasp every opportunity to lend a helping hand, or speak a word of comfort to those who may be passing through severe trials.
Soon the sacrifices of atonement will be finished; soon the promise will be fulfilled, “If we suffer, [with Him] we shall also reign with Him; if we be dead with Him, we shall also live with Him.” (II Tim. 2:11,12) From that time onward the redemptive work takes on a larger scope. As soon as the last members of the body of Christ shall have suffered with Him, He will apply the full payment to Justice on behalf of all the remainder of mankind, and the penalty, the curse, will then be cancelled.
That will be the fulfillment of the oath-bound promise to Abraham that in his seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
“Oh glorious future hope, oh bliss beyond compare,
Through all eternity His love and work to share.”
This is the blessed portion of those who have borne the cross of Christ faithfully to the end of their earthly lives. They will be co-workers with Christ Jesus, as His beloved Bride in dispensing the blessings of life, joy, peace and happiness to all the families of the earth.
The Psalmist, seeing the purposes of Jehovah with a prophetic eye, declares: “How excellent is Thy loving-kindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Thy wings. They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of Thy house; and Thou shalt make them drink of the river of Thy pleasures.” (Psa. 36:7,8) Those whose eyes have been opened to see God’s great plan of deliverance for all the families of the earth from sin and death, and who have heard the call to lay down their earthly lives in sacrifice that they might thus share with Him in dispensing the blessings of life to others, have not counted their earthly lives dear unto them.
Thus the Apostle Paul in writing to the Church at Thessalonica says: “We ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure: which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the Kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer.” (II Thess. 1:4,5) These take it joyfully when they suffer and are persecuted for their faith in the Gospel, because, to them it is a token of their faithfulness to their covenant of sacrifice. These declare in the words of the Psalmist: “Because Thy loving-kindness [favor] is better than life [the earthly life which they have laid upon the altar of sacrifice with Christ Jesus], my lips shall praise Thee.” (Psa. 63:3) This is indeed Gospel [good news] and they are willing yea, anxious to tell it forth to others, thus fulfilling their commission to “comfort all mourners; to grant unto the mourners of Zion,—to give unto them ornament in the place of ashes, oil of gladness in the place of mourning, garments of praise in the place of a grieved spirit.”—Isa. 61:2,3, Leeser