The Cross And Revival

By Rich Carmicheal

    This issue of the Herald focuses on the theme of the Cross of Christ and His call to each of us to deny self, take up the cross and to follow Him.  One of the paradoxes of the Christian life is that we find abundant life in Christ when we deny ourselves and surrender our lives to the Lord.  As Christ teaches, “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it” (Matt. 16:25).  He also teaches that “…unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain” (John 12:24).

    F. J. Huegel, in his book Calvary’s Wondrous Cross, points out that from a Christian’s innermost being, rivers of living water are to flow forth to a world that sits in darkness and the shadow of death.  But these rivers cannot flow from us unless the Holy Spirit makes us profound participants in the Savior’s Cross.  “The Cross must overthrow the great dikes of self-life which wall me up within myself; the Savior’s death must be wrought into the structure of my being, leveling the great barriers of self-centeredness, the so-called ‘flesh,’ ere I can be a channel for the outflow of the life of God.  …Only co-crucifixion can make of little me, a glorious Mississippi [River] of life-giving streams whose source is the throne of God and whose recipient ocean is humanity’s pain and sin.”

    Huegel goes on to write, “At the Cross the believer breathes in the oxygen of heaven.  It is here he dies, to live, and to the degree in which he appropriates death, does he live.  …Let ‘Self’ be crucified with Christ according to Galatians 2:20, and at once something akin to the wonders recorded in the Book of Acts takes place.  Here is the much-needed revival for which the church prays so earnestly.”

    May the Lord work through the accompanying messages to help us embrace more deeply the meaning of Christ’s death on the Cross, and to deal with any self and sin in us so that the life of Christ may fill us and overflow to the blessing of many!  “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Gal. 2:20).