The Cross - Tozer

The cross…always has its way. It wins by defeating its opponent and imposing its will upon him. It always dominates. It never compromises, never dickers nor confers, never surrenders a point for the sake of peace. It cares not for peace; it cares only to end its opposition as fast as possible. With perfect knowledge of all this, Christ said, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” So the cross not only brings Christ’s life to an end, it ends also the first life, the old life, of every one of His true followers. It destroys the old pattern, the Adam pattern, in the believer’s life, and brings it to an end. Then the God who raised Christ from the dead raises the believer and a new life begins. This, and nothing less, is true Christianity… We must do something about the cross, and one of two things only we can do ”“ flee it or die upon it.
The cross…always has its way. It wins by defeating its opponent and imposing its will upon him. It always dominates. It never compromises, never dickers nor confers, never surrenders a point for the sake of peace. It cares not for peace; it cares only to end its opposition as fast as possible. With perfect knowledge of all this, Christ said, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” So the cross not only brings Christ’s life to an end, it ends also the first life, the old life, of every one of His true followers. It destroys the old pattern, the Adam pattern, in the believer’s life, and brings it to an end. Then the God who raised Christ from the dead raises the believer and a new life begins. This, and nothing less, is true Christianity… We must do something about the cross, and one of two things only we can do ”“ flee it or die upon it.

Reference: The Root of the Righteous, Harrisburg, PA: Christian Publications,

Brother Blaine,

A wonderful book on the cross that I have read many times is "Beyond Humiliation” which was formerly entitled "The Way of the Cross” by J. Gregory Mantle.

Brother Blaine,

A wonderful book on the cross that I have read many times is "Beyond Humiliation” which was formerly entitled "The Way of the Cross” by J. Gregory Mantle.

From "The Way of the Cross" by Gregory Mantle:

Why hesitate, therefore, to bear the Cross by which you may gain the crown? In the Cross is salvation, in the Cross is life, in the Cross is safety from enemies; in the Cross is that peace which the world cannot give, in the Cross is courage, in the Cross is joy; in the Cross is the sum of all virtues, in the Cross the perfection of holiness. There is no salvation for the soul, no hope of eternal life in anything else. The Cross is the beginning and the end; and all who would live worthily must first die with Christ; there is no other way to life and to real inward peace but the way of the Cross.

In times of persecution, those who had an experimental knowledge of this inward crucifixion were able to suffer the most terrible outward inflictions without shrinking or fear, while many of those who knew nothing of this interior Calvary abjured the truth to save their lives. Many instances are on record of such who afterward -- when they had learned to tread this royal road -- came forward of their own will and gave up their bodies to fire and death. Let a man be determined to give over his hateful self-life to the death of the Cross; let him but know the reality of that inward dying; and all suffering from without will fail to move him. He will never fear the lesser dying because he has learned experimentally what the greater dying means.