Jesus NEVER said put and keep the cross before you. He said take up your cross and follow me. I don’t know how you can have the Cross in front of you when you have it on your back and you are following the risen Lord forward. You would be constantly turning around trying to look at it because it is on your back and that is what the church does, it turns around.
I should say, the cross behind me, the risen Lord before me because when we lose it, we look back at the Cross and remember what the Lord has done for us, we remember how He took all our sin and shame and MADE us His Justice. and we never forget that, but then we get up and move forward toward the goal of the high calling that is in and through the risen Lord. We are raised with Him not left at the foot of the cross. The meaning of the song is correct but in these last days what someone wanted to say is not going to cut it. We must be precise and focused on what the word of God really says and who we really are.
We must always see our mistakes in light of the cross and receive our forgiveness and cleansing 1 John 1:9 and then forget that we did that just as He does. Too many people just hang around the cross, that is WRONG, it brings condemnation and then it keeps one in a circle of bondage, we have risen with Him and sit TOGETHER with Him on the throne of grace and must rest in His finished works. and stand or stand on the victories HE has already given us. As He is SO ARE WE in this world. We control what surrounds us with this victory, when we do that, we win every time.
We must see who we have become as a result of the cross and act like it and if we keep our cross up front and look back at the world there is a temptation to go back. So that song annoys me. The cross in front of me, the world behind me… really? No no no no no!!
When one knows WHO they are, then they can learn what they have and then learn to use it and live in it. As Paul said in Romans 12:1-2 first you present your body, already holy and pleasing, to Him a LIVING sacrifice (goes with what Jesus said take up your cross and follow me, don’t stand before it) THEN renew your mind to the word so that you do not conform to this world and when and how you do it you will clearly see the good (first) acceptable (second) and perfect (final) will of God in every situation. But he went on to say that he thanked God for the GRACE given to every man to no longer think of himself because we all have THE measure of faith and members in one another. Although our gifts differ, we all have the same grace and faith. (WE MUST DEVELOP IT BUT IT IS THE SAME BECAUSE IT IS YOUR FAITH) So when we realize that, we can get into where everyone should be in the body.
If we again do not know who we are because of the cross, we will not know what we have and we will never enter into that grace of where our part in the body is. Paul said in Galatians right after he said that Christ redeemed us from the curse and blessed us with the Blessing of Abraham because of what Jesus did on the cross, he said that if the heir is still a child, he is no different from a servant although he is lord of everything but he is under teachers and school teachers (teachers, prophets, pastors, evangelists, etc.) until he grows up and when he grows up he will know not only who he is but what he has and he will be ready to be lord of everything, like it was his Father’s original intention and he dared to take what is his because he knows his Father’s Love and will in it.
Now, in the natural, we can’t give a child a car or a gun or much of anything if he isn’t taught how to use it and isn’t developed to maturity to use it. We teach them, we train them, we prepare them for it and as they grow they see more and more what is given to them as children of their parents and they learn to use it with boldness. But if that child does not know his parents and does not know his love; They will never use what is rightfully theirs, they will recoil in fear and in the disbelief of uncertainty, and they will never be what they can be.
So too we must rise from the cross and see who we are as risen lords with our Lord Jesus Christ and become skillful in the word of knowledge apprehending what is ours through his Blood. Rev. 1:5-6 we are the lords and kings and priests under our Lord and King and High Priest Jesus and that is not on the cross, it is because of the cross but it does not stay there. The cross took sin and defeat, when Jesus rose and sat at the right hand of our Father as High Priest, he completed the work and THAT is where the victory is and where He seated us.
The people know this, but it is not a revelation to them, so they are not trained in the use of their weapons. They don’t need to be saved again, they don’t need behavior modification, they need to learn and become familiar with who they are as the righteousness of God in Christ and the outward manifestations of righteousness will show and win. They will not want to sin, they will not want to do bad things, it will be a natural effect of justice, they will bear fruit, not works but fruits of that justice and a true and lasting change will take place, by grace not by works. By grace we are saved, through faith, not by works, it is the gift of God and when people realize that and stop condemning themselves at the foot of the cross and GET UP, they will see fruits and move forward. It all starts with knowing who they are and not just telling them how to change their “works,” but learning to live like the righteousness of God in Christ. When they realize this, then they will bear righteous fruit and external behaviors will change.