(A)The...
Illustration
(A)
The sole purpose of the brazen serpent being liftedup in the wilderness was to save the Israelites from the death which resulted from their rebellion against God. They looked and were healed. Even so, the sign of the cross today is to remind us of Christ's death for our rebellion against God. We believe and we are healed. There's an interesting statement in Theologica Germanica, a fourteenth-century European classic: "Nothing burns in hell except self-will." According to the unknown author, one of the ways a person comes into ultimate Christian perfection is by the willing endurance of all sorts of temptations and trials. This is a reminder
that Christ suffered, denying himself for the sake of humankind's sin. Self-will is rebellion against God's will. We hear much today about "burn out" as persons come to the end of their own resources. This can be extremely bad, unless one has learned to have faith in the lifted-up Son of God, whose grace fills the "burnt-out" spaces. He is the one who came to atone for the sins of the whole world. The cross is a "power-full" reminder of that because it includes us.
-- Dean
The sole purpose of the brazen serpent being liftedup in the wilderness was to save the Israelites from the death which resulted from their rebellion against God. They looked and were healed. Even so, the sign of the cross today is to remind us of Christ's death for our rebellion against God. We believe and we are healed. There's an interesting statement in Theologica Germanica, a fourteenth-century European classic: "Nothing burns in hell except self-will." According to the unknown author, one of the ways a person comes into ultimate Christian perfection is by the willing endurance of all sorts of temptations and trials. This is a reminder
that Christ suffered, denying himself for the sake of humankind's sin. Self-will is rebellion against God's will. We hear much today about "burn out" as persons come to the end of their own resources. This can be extremely bad, unless one has learned to have faith in the lifted-up Son of God, whose grace fills the "burnt-out" spaces. He is the one who came to atone for the sins of the whole world. The cross is a "power-full" reminder of that because it includes us.
-- Dean
