1. INTRODUCTION: MEANING OF OUR TITLE
How can a Cross be eternal? The timber of Christ’s Cross
has long ago been destroyed. Yet the principle of the Cross has
ever
been. This is difficult to understand. To speak of the Cross being ‘from
eternity to eternity’ seems mysterious and even bewildering.
However, in the Scriptures we read about the “everlasting covenant” (Isa.
24:5, 61:8, Ezek. 16:60, Heb. 13:20), about an “everlasting
Kingdom” (Dan. 4:3, 34, 7:14, 27, II Pet. 1:11), and such things
as “everlasting joy” (Isa. 51:11), “everlasting
righteousness” (Dan. 9:24), “everlasting light” (Isa.
60:19-20), and so on. The special term in the O.T. and N.T. is “everlasting
life”. How could a person, born in time, have ‘everlasting
life’. The answer is that his mortal life is not everlasting
but the quality of the life given is everlasting, and everlasting,
whilst relating to time, is not bound simply by time measurements.
Somehow or another the Cross has been the eternal intention of God.
In time, but having been intended from, and in, eternity, the Cross
covers all of time, and has its purposes and powers within eternity
itself. |
