Lent is a time of repentance and self-examination of the heart. We pray that this video will help you understand the meaning of Lent as we meditate on the suffering and death that Christ endured in our place. Lent is a solemn season clearly set apart to contrast powerfully with Easter Sunday, when our alleluias return, loud and clear, in celebration of Jesus’ resurrection and the new life we have in Him! Blessings to you this Lent as we reflect on the cross of Christ, our King.
LENT: It’s About the Cross the Believer Bears
And [Jesus] said to them all, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.” Luke 9:23-24, KJV
What is Lent? The word “lent” means spring. In the holy Christian Church, Lent is known as a time to reflect on Baptismal rebirth – the time when we spring forth from death into life. It begins with Ash Wednesday when we ponder our own mortality–our return to the earth from which God formed us; and continues through Easter Sunday as a time of penitence, cleansing, and discipleship. Historically, Lent is a time of Catechetical study during which adult candidates for Baptism are instructed in the Christian faith in preparation for Easter Baptisms and participation in the Holy Communion of the Lord Jesus Christ. It has become a general time of preparation of all Christians for Easter.
This preparation of penitence, cleansing and discipleship invariably takes us to the cross of Good Friday.
- Penitence is sinners confessing they truly deserved the cross upon which Christ suffered and died.
- Cleansing is accomplished through the blood Christ shed on the cross applied to us sinners through the preaching, teaching, Baptism, and Communion of His Word.
- Discipleship is a life lived under the cross by which Christ conquered death, both receiving and sharing His Word and the faith once delivered to us through it.
The cross the believer bears, and in which the believer delights, is the cross that tells us that Jesus Christ died for the sins of all the world. This is called God’s Universal Grace: Jesus died on the cross for everyone.
For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. 1 Timothy 2:5-6, KJV
And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. 1 John 2:2, KJV
The cross the believer bears, and in which the believer delights, is also the cross apart from which no one is saved to eternal life with our heavenly Father. This is the salvation by Grace through Faith alone of which the apostle Paul writes in Ephesians 2:8-9. Only those who believe in God’s grace as Christ’s work on the cross instead of their own will be saved.
He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. John 3:18, KJV
He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. Mark 16:16, KJV
There are some individuals and churches who believe, teach and confess that if God’s Universal Grace is true then salvation by Grace through Faith alone cannot be true. There are other individuals and churches who believe, teach and confess that if salvation by Grace through Faith alone is true then God’s Universal Grace cannot be true.
But as we see from God’s Holy Word, the cross of Christ tells us both that He died for everyone, and only by believing this will any single one be saved. And both His work on the cross, and our believing that work is for us, are necessary because we sinners cannot do the work of salvation ourselves.
The righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Romans 3:22-24, KJV
This is Lent and the cross the believer bears—the cross born once for all by Jesus the Christ, the Son of the Living God, who sent His Son and gives us His Word because He desires, “all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.” 1 Timothy 2:4, KJV
Article ” LENT: It’s About the Cross the Believer Bears” was originally published in the Davis County Clipper, a local newspaper in Utah; used by permission of the author, Rev. Jason Krause