I love the words of this old hymn: On a hill far away stood an old rugged Cross, the emblem of suffering and shame, And I love that old Cross, where the Dearest and Best, for a world of lost sinners was slain. And then the amazing refrain, So I’ll cherish the old rugged Cross, till my trophies at last I’ll lay down. I will cling to the old rugged Cross and exchange it someday for a crown. I wonder sometimes if believers who are familiar with this hymn have paused to consider how strange these lyrics would have sounded to the Greco-Roman culture of the first-century Roman Empire. The Latin term, "crux", was considered a by-word in the day of the Apostle Paul. It was a disgusting instrument of torture. It was also despised by the Jews. In fact, we are told in Deuteronomy 21:23 “his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God.” Paul refers to this same verse in Galatians 3:13 where he directly references the crucifixion of Jesus: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us--for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree’".

The perception of the crucifixion of Christ in the first century is clearly highlighted in First Corinthians 1:18 where Paul writes “the word of the Cross is folly to those who are perishing”. The word translated “folly” (also translated as “foolishness”) is the Greek word moria from which we derive our English word “moron”. In other words, the preaching of Jesus’ death on the cross is perceived by unbelievers as moronic – silliness and absurdity. To understand the strangeness of the preaching of the Cross and a hymn like The Old Rugged Cross in our own time, it would be like singing, To the old electric chair I will ever be true ... I will cherish the old firing squad ... I will cling to the hangman’s gallows ... the gas chamber and the smell of death in the air has a wondrous attraction to me! Pretty strange, huh? That’s how the first century unbelievers perceived the early church’s preaching about the death of Jesus on a cross.

Yet the rest of 1 Corinthians 1:18 says “but to us who are being saved it is the power of God”. Why do believers consider the preaching of the Cross of Christ to be the power of God? Because it is the message of Jesus’ death on the Cross and His subsequent resurrection which has, is, and will save us from the penalty of our sins and make us God’s adopted children. So for clarity’s sake, it is not an instrument of torture, the Cross, which we glory in and praise – that would be idolatry. No, when we sing about and glory in the Cross, our exulting is in the wisdom of God and His plan of redemption which is fulfilled in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. So it is not the Cross, a piece of bloody wood, that we rejoice in, but instead it is the message of that bloody Cross.

Those who think they are wise reject the message of the Cross to their own eternal peril. They imagine that being good enough or being baptized or attending church or being a church member will get them to heaven. Yet it is only those who humble themselves under the redemptive plan of God and trust only in Jesus’ finished work on the Cross to save them from their sins who will receive eternal life. They understand that God is infinitely offended by their sin and their only hope of salvation is in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the Cross.

Augustus Toplady sums up the born again believer’s only ground of assurance in the words of The Rock of Ages, which he wrote in 1776: Rock of Ages cleft for me, let me hide myself in Thee. Let the water and the blood, from Thy wounded side which flowed, be of sin the double-cure, save from wrath and make me pure! ... Nothing in my hands I bring, only to the Cross I cling! . . . Could my tears forever flow, all for sin could not atone, Thou must save and thou alone!

Praise God for the Cross. Praie God for the Empty Tomb. Praise God for Jesus.