the way of the cross

I remember listening to Gordon Ferguson's Romans series on tape, using a Walkman. What an incredible series of lessons that is. 

People always talk about the book that changed their life. Even though literature is one of my passions, and something I've studied and taught and continue to learn and write about, I can't really say that any literature has truly been life changing. I suppose in a way it has - like Wuthering Heights and some other books definitely occupied me and interested me and moved me...engaged me, but I don't think it's literature's job to change my life, in the sense of changing and shaping my values and my view of the world. The Bible definitely has changed my life, but it's not purely the literary aspect of it that has done so. 

That brings me to the Romans series. Those lessons have changed my life. They have influenced my behavior and the way I view the world. One of the lessons in particular that has done that is 'the way of the cross'. 

Jesus is without sin and yet he took the blame and the punishment for our sin. That is the way of the cross....taking the blame when you don't even think you're in the wrong. Just like Jesus said, look at your own sin first. Stop focusing on the sin of the other person. It's so powerful when we take that approach. 

We get so upset when we feel like we are being falsely accused. We're outraged. It's so unfair. We want justice. But what did Jesus get? He didn't get justice. He got the opposite. He was brutally killed, for us, the ones who are in the wrong. 

So, the way of the cross is, when you have a conflict with someone, you take the blame. You stop thinking, I'm right and they are wrong. You might be right. Jesus is right, but he took the blame for what we do, so we ought to follow his example. It changes situations and it moves people when you take this approach - when, instead of attacking the other person, you acknowledge your own part in the problem. You take the log out of your own eye so you can see to take the speck out of the other person's eye.