In the previous chapter we covered the glorious vision. In this chapter we move on to talk about the way of the cross. Where there is a vision, there is a way. The glorious vision always leads us onto a way. If we have the seeing, there must also be the walking. This walk is the way of the cross.
Many people equate the cross with suffering. Actually, the cross is not primarily a matter of suffering. During the fifteenth century, Thomas à Kempis wrote the book The Imitation of Christ. In China, this book was soon translated into Chinese by the Catholics. There was a thorough discussion of the cross in this book. However, the whole subject was distorted in that it considered the cross a kind of suffering. Even Madame Guyon was under this book’s influence.
We know that in the New Testament, the primary meaning of the cross is not to suffer but to be killed. When a person is nailed on the cross, there is not merely the suffering but also execution. The very person is removed. The New Testament shows us that the first one to be crucified was the Lord Jesus. When men crucified Him on the cross, not only did He suffer, He was being done away with. Hymns, #622 says:
If we take up the cross, will we but suffer pain? Nay, if we bear the cross, be sure that we will die! The meaning of the cross is that we may be slain; The cross experienced the self will crucify.
Once we have seen the vision, the vision will surely send us on the way of the cross. The emphasis of such a way is not suffering but being “no more I.” The way of the cross is the way of being no more I. Those who are on this way have all put themselves aside. There is only Christ, and there is only God.
Many of you are married. Marriage makes the living of two persons one. Before you are married, you can make whatever suggestions you want. But after you are married, you cannot do so as easily. Marriage life requires the cross. The husband needs to die, and the wife also needs to die. If so, then who will live? Christ lives and God lives. All over the world, it is difficult to find a couple which really lives as one. The wonderful thing about us who believe in the Lord is that after we have received the Lord as our life, there are now two persons in our being. We ourselves are one person, and the Lord is another person. Who then has the say? I want to impress you that the meaning of the cross is the putting aside of you. By the cross, your whole being and your whole life is being put aside.
In the New Testament, the self is frequently mentioned and the soul is also. If we compare Luke 9 with Matthew 16, we can see that the self and the soul both point to the same thing. In Matthew the soul is mentioned (16:26), whereas in Luke the self is mentioned (9:25). Therefore, the soul is the self, and the self is the soul. We have a hymn concerning denying the self, and we also have a hymn concerning denying the soul. More than twenty years ago, there was a brother who objected to one of the hymns I had written. He said that it was wrong to deny the soul. According to this brother, the soul is the person. Once you deny the soul, there will be no more you, that is, you will no longer live. He did not know that to deny the soul in the Bible is not to deny the functions of the soul, that is, the mind, emotion, and will. Rather, it is to deny the person of the soul and the life of the self. It does not mean that you will not function anymore. Rather, it means that it is no longer you who live.
This is mysterious. On the one hand, the New Testament tells you to deny your soul and your person. But on the other hand, you still need to act. However, your acting is different from before. Previously when you acted, you yourself were the master. It was you who was the person. Now this person of yours is hung on the cross. It is no longer you as the person but the Lord as the person. “I have been crucified with Christ” (Gal. 2:20). To be crucified on the cross is to be brought to the end. Now it is no longer I who live but Christ living in me. Although the person and the life of my soul has been denied, the function of my soul still remains. I still have the mind, the emotion, and the will. It is only the master who controls all these functions who has changed. It is no longer I but Christ who lives.
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