To Walk under the Shadow
of the Death of the Cross

To bear the cross in a fine way is to "live within the Cross's shadow." The second stanza of Hymn #631 expresses this experience:

If I'd have Christ formed within me,
I must breathe my final breath,
Live within the Cross's shadow,
Put my soul-life e'er to death

If no death, no life,
If no death, no life;
Life from death alone arises;
If no death, no life.

EXPERIENCING THE CROSS OF CHRIST BY CONTACTING THE LORD AND BEING FILLED WITH HIM

In God's New Testament economy, Christ has accomplished incarnation to become Immanuel. He also accomplished crucifixion to terminate us and resurrection to germinate us. In resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit. Today we should experience Him as Immanuel through the life-giving Spirit by putting everything concerning us to death. This is to experience the cross in a fine way.

Having seen this vision of the experience of the cross, we can realize that the church life among us is still very short. No one is able to do this in themselves. This is the reason that we must contact the Lord and have fellowship with Him, being revived every morning in our spirit. We must touch the Lord and be filled with Him. Then He Himself as Immanuel and as the life-giving Spirit will be experienced by us as the reality of the cross and resurrection. The Spirit will become our experience of the cross and resurrection. Actually, in our experience, there is no distance between the cross and the Spirit. The cross goes with the Spirit, and the Spirit carries the cross. Receiving the Spirit consummates in the cross. In order to experience this, however, we must be persons who contact the Lord all the time in resurrection.