The Cross Divides

Although we know that the manner in which our Lord died was the subject of prophecy, Ps. 22; Isa. 53. 8, it is not until we get to the detailed narratives in the Gospels that we can see further significance in the arrangement of the crucifixion. From Luke chapter 23, we know that Jesus was crucified between two thieves. One of the thieves was saved and the other was lost. Even in the Lord’s dying moments, He had time to speak to a thief who was repentant. This act symbolizes something much deeper than the conversion of the thief; it shows that the cross of Christ divides mankind. On the one side are those who acknowledge their true position as sinners in need of salvation and on the other side, those who reject the claims of the loving Saviour. The physical division of the cross between these two men would have been clear for all to see. The spiritual division was one that only God could see, yet it is one that we are privy to. The physical division symbolized the spiritual division of the cross.

Scripture does not tell us whether it was the thief on the right or the thief on the left who was the repentant sinner. The Lord talks about a judgement and division of the sheep and the goats. The sheep are to the right and the goats are to the left, Matt. 25. 33. The Lord uses the metaphor of ‘sheep’ to refer to those who have trusted in Him. The ‘goats’ are those who have mixed with His ‘sheep’, who bear some resemblance to His ‘sheep’, but are not His ‘sheep’. It may be that it was the thief who was on the right who was the one to repent, and the one on the left was the one who did not.

The division between individuals is not the only place where the cross divides. The cross divides families, Matt. 10. 21. Missionary Charles Marsh, in an account of his work in North Africa, outlines cases of people being converted to Christ who were then subject to murderous attacks from members of their own family. Testimonies abound of saints converted from some religion only to be subject to malicious attacks from their own kith and kin. We may know of cases where people have been ostracized by their family following their conversion. The cross of Christ does divide families.

People of the world are often talking about peace, but a peace which is only a cessation of hostilities between men. The gospel message is about peace between God and man, which leads to peace between man and man. However, the cross divides to such an extent that there may be hostilities. ‘Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division’, Luke 12. 51. The cross may bring the sword, but this is to be expected because what the cross stands for is antithetical to all that the world stands for.

The cross of Christ strikes at the very heart of people’s concept of God. Religion would not have a god who condescends to become man and suffers a humiliating death. The god of man’s imagination is easy-going, sometimes distant, unpredictable, even arbitrary. The God who is revealed by the cross of Christ is one who is loving, caring, intimately concerned about His creation and its redemption.

The cross divides the truth from falsehood, for the cross of Christ is a part of the revelation of God. Folk religions have no such revelation; they are founded in man’s superstition and vain imagination.

The cross confronts and challenges those who seek signs and special revelations. The Gospels record the Jews’ penchant for signs, John 2. 18; 6. 30. Paul mentions the Greeks seeking for wisdom, 1 Cor. 1. 22. What both groups missed in the cross is that it is the greatest sign that could be given and displays the most profound wisdom ever displayed.

The cross challenges our value systems. On the one side of the cross, we serve God; on the other side, we serve mammon. We cannot serve both, Luke 16. 13. Do we try to cling to what is transitory or to what is eternal? The Pharisees serve as an example. Their love of money put them and kept them on the wrong side of the cross. They were like the thief who did not repent. Both derided Jesus. The value system adopted will determine how one views the cross and the Saviour.

The cross divides the wise and the foolish, Matt. 25. 1, 2, the perishing from the saved, the condemned from those who have everlasting life, John 3. 15, those who are in the kingdom of God from those who are not, those who are for Jesus and those who are against Him, Luke 9. 50, those who have life from those who are already under condemnation, John 5. 24, those who see and hear from those who will not see and hear.

The final division we shall examine is the one between Jesus and His God, Mark 15. 34. The One who was made sin for us, 2 Cor. 5. 21, was forsaken of His God. The perfect, spotless Lamb of God, who died in our place and on our behalf, knew what it was to suffer. Indeed, He said that it was necessary for Christ to suffer, Luke 24. 26. It seems that during this suffering, He was forsaken of His God. What loneliness, what solitude, what anguish must have racked His soul! Whatever the break was, He experienced forsakenness, which was the result of the cross. All this was done for us and our salvation.

As we can see from this brief survey, the cross of Christ divides, and, where it divides, the divisions have eternal consequences.