What kind of Cross do we bring?

Part I
By
Lewil Dale Rosario

“Our calling is not primarily to be holy men and women, but to be proclaimers of the
Gospel.”-Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

Before Christ ascended back to the Father, He commanded his disciples to “go ye into the
world and preach the gospel to every creature (Mark 16:15).” Christ gave all true
believers, and not just the clergy, the holy privilege of sharing the gospel of Christ to the
lost. God gave us the opportunity of being a part of his plan in the salvation of men.
Unfortunately, many of us who call ourselves Christians, do not see how privileged we
are to be vessels of God’s love. If we really understood what the gospel is we cannot be
content, and we should not be content of being spiritual gluttons in our church, always
absorbing God’s blessings, without being a blessing to others. There is so much
reluctance among so called Christians that they would rather stay in their spiritual
comfort zones or even die in church blessed than share the gospel of Christ. Many who
professed to be followers of Christ would rather keep quiet, while wolves in sheep’s
clothing continue to ravage the flock by preaching and teaching another gospel. The
problem could be because we are either ignorant of what the gospel is or we have not
experience God’s goodness and are lost.

There is an urgent need for us to re-evaluate our understanding of the gospel. A.W. Tozer
once warned that a new cross has come. A new kind of Cross “which is like the old
cross, but different: the likenesses are superficial; the differences, fundamental.” Tozer
further explains that “the old cross would have no truck with the world. For Adam's
proud flesh it meant the end of the journey. It carried into effect the sentence imposed by
the law of Sinai. The new cross is not opposed to the human race; rather, it is a friendly
pal and, if understood aright, it is the source of oceans of good clean fun and innocent
enjoyment. It lets Adam live without interference. His life motivation is unchanged; he
still lives for his own pleasure, only now he takes delight in singing choruses and
watching religious movies instead of singing bawdy songs and drinking hard liquor. The
accent is still on enjoyment, though the fun is now on a higher plane morally if not
intellectually.”

In this present generation a new kind of preaching and teaching is being propagated in the
churches. It is the kind of gospel which teaches that in order to reach the world one has
to be like the world taking out of context the statement of Paul. A new kind of preaching
that calls men to live their best life now. Others preach that Christ died in order to restore
man’s dignity and self-worth. Still some teach that a mere confession in the name of
Christ is enough. So the question is amid so many teachings on the gospel which of these
is true? What really is the gospel? It is important for us to know what the gospel really is
because “it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth (Romans
1:16).” In 2nd Corinthians 11:9, Paul warns that “if any man preach any other gospel unto
you than that you have received, let him be accursed.” That’s why it is important to re-
examine the gospel otherwise our preaching has no power and we may find ourselves
accursed. In the next parts of this series I will try to discuss the essentials of the gospel.