Stumbling Toward EternitySample

THE BEAUTY OF HAVING NOTHING TO BRING

The cross will always be a source of stumbling as we brave this life and move toward eternity because it doesn’t yield to demands for bargaining. It is the great equal­izer of existence. It is the supreme revelation of holy love colliding with human impotence. The cross is the eternal reminder that we have nothing to bring to the table but our surrender.

I cringe at how often this hard word still bites me. I know real freedom is found by coming into the light, but it is painful because I don’t like my idols and weaknesses exposed more than anyone else does. Sometimes, it’s just too costly, the path too nar­row, and my flesh too lazy, so I wander, looking for some semblance of certainty in everything but the One who is truly certain, Jesus. He has finished the work and invited me into the impossible possibility of His wholeness. And yet so often, in the freedom that flows from His perfec­tion, I return to the climb, repeating what the apostle Paul condemned when he asked the church of Ga­latia, “Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being per­fected by the flesh?” (Galatians 3:3)

Paul asked, “Why are you negating the Spirit’s ap­plication of Jesus’s perfection to your lives by attempting to add to what is already perfect?” His work can’t be im­proved upon, but it can be missed; it cannot be dimin­ished, but it can be rejected. A life of freedom will never be found climbing ladders. The gospel is down-to-earth, with the cross of Christ at its center.

Jesus is the ladder, and it is in Him, by Him, and for Him that we are saved. Yes, in Him, real joy and peace are found. In accepting His love and our impotence, His radical grace collides with our crippling brokenness. Our strug­gle is the reason He came, and it is in His cross that we find the paradox of death in life and life in death.

The cross is not something to climb. It is something to die on. Again and again.

How has this week’s devotion changed how you view God’s view of you? How does a deeper understanding of the cross change how you perceive those who disagree with you? Why?

We hope this plan encouraged you. Learn more about Stumbling Toward Eternity by Josh White here.