The Cross and Early Religious Freedom
As I look around today I see many people with the cross tattooed on their shoulder, worn around their neck, or in the window of a shop. It has become such a broad symbol for Christianity, also a broad symbol for eternal life.
Just as Emporer Constantine, after having a vision of a cross, wore it into battle believing it would bring him vistory. The same way people march into life with the symbol of a cross believing to be victorious.
There seemed to me to be a turning point in the way people viewed the cross around the 4th century. Something that was once feared like the electric chair today turned into hope for conquering death. Jesus transformed the picture of the cross when He conquered the grave, and death itself!
The cross stands at the center of church history and marks the New Testament for us. Now we may have victory over death through Christ and what He finished on the cross.
Emperors, monks, and the common believer have cherished the symbol of the cros even as some of them served various other gods. Just as believers and non-believers today cherish the symbol.
To truly find the salvation and life the cross represents we must take up our own cross as in Matthew 10:38. We must die to ourselves to find life! Just as Christ did. There is freedome in dying to ourselves and taking up the lifestyle of Christ. The cross is our salvation message, the only way to eternal life. It is Christ’s finished work, the hope for all men!
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it can remind of the salvation message to those who already know it.
it's fascinating to read about the evolution of the cross as a Christian symbol. we take so much for granted.