For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 1 Corinthians 2:2, NKJV

A friend of mine recently shared a book with me that challenges readers to focus their lives around one word for an entire year.  Instead of making self-improvement resolutions or goals that we tend to fall short of, the author suggests reflecting on our heart needs and then letting God lead us to a single word He wants to use to bring meaning and purpose to our lives.  It's an inspiring invitation, and I think there's a biblical precedent behind it.  David sings about "one thing I have desired of the Lord" (Ps. 27:4).  Jesus tells us there's "one thing" that is needed (Lk. 10:42).  And Paul describes the "one thing" he would do to press forward in his journey with Jesus (Phil. 3:14). In another place, Paul applies this narrow focus to his preaching ministry.  If there was one word or one theme that he chose above all other things, it was "Jesus Christ and Him crucified" (1 Cor. 2:2).  This was the one thing Paul wanted his message to revolve around, and ultimately it was the one thing he wanted his own sense of worth and significance to revolve around (cf. Gal. 6:14).  What happens when we let "Christ and Him crucified" become our one thing?

PERSONAL TRANSFORMATION

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.  1 John 3:16

When we allow our minds to dwell on Christ and His sacrifice for us, we begin to understand what love truly is.  We discover that God's love for us is not contingent upon us, our behavior, or our performance.  After all, "God demonstrates His own love of us in this:  While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."  The cross of Calvary allows us to see the full dimensions of that love "which passes knowledge" so that we can be "filled with all the fullness of God" (Eph. 3:19).  And in this way, beholding God's love as a secure reality before we ever deserve it generates personal life change.  

We don't change in order to merit God's love, we experience change as a result of receiving God's sacrificial love in Christ.

Listen for the transforming impact of dwelling on Jesus' sacrifice described Ellen White:

It would be well for us to spend a thoughtful hour each day in contemplation of the life of Christ. We should take it point by point, and let the imagination grasp each scene, especially the closing ones. As we thus dwell upon His great sacrifice for us, our confidence in Him will be more constant, our love will be quickened, and we shall be more deeply imbued with His spirit. If we would be saved at last, we must learn the lesson of penitence and humiliation at the foot of the cross. (The Desire of Ages, 83)

So what happens when we let Christ and Him crucified become our one thing?  We develop a more constant confidence in Him, our love for God and others is made alive, and the values that drove Jesus become things that drive us.

DEEP IDENTIFICATION

The question of the old spiritual:  "Were you there when they crucified my Lord?" is deep and moving.  But let me ask you this:  Why is it that "sometimes it causes me to tremble...tremble...tremble"?  While there may be several factors that play into the sobering impact of thinking upon Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection, one of them is that we're supposed to see ourselves in the story.  In other words, we're supposed to see Calvary not only as a story of what God did for us but also of what we did to God.  "But wait a minute," we might object.  "If I were there, I wouldn't have rejected Jesus let alone crucified Him!"  And that's the piercing question -- were you there?

I came across Psalm 106 in my personal reading this week, and one line in particular gave me pause:  "We have sinned with our fathers, We have committed iniquity, We have done wickedly" (v. 6). The psalmist lived thousands of years after his "fathers in Egypt" who "rebelled by the Red Sea" (v. 7), but he confesses that he "sinned with" those previous generations.  In other words, he takes ownership and identifies with the rebellion and disobedience of his ancestors.  Daniel -- the upright prophet in whom no fault could be found -- speaks with similar language of identification in his prayer of repentance (Dan. 9:5, 6).  The psalmist and the prophet weren't there with their predecessors, but they confess that they in fact "sinned with" them.  It requires deep honesty, humility, repentance to genuinely identify with the sins of those who have gone before and confess, "I was there."  It was my self-sufficiency that denied Jesus.  It was my hard-heartedness that rejected Jesus.  When my expectations and convenience ran counter against God's purpose, I chose self rather than the Savior.  

That's a hard pill to swallow...and it causes me to tremble.

But glory of glories, when we are willing to identify ourselves as ones responsible for the cross, we are in prime position to receive the One who identified Himself with those who deserved the cross.  Dwelling on the closing scenes of Christ's life ultimately leads us to

behold the One who takes ownership of us, who identifies with our sinfulness so we can identify with His holiness.  

The unfathomable exchange of the gospel is that "God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Cor. 5:21).  Receive. This. Gospel.

Go ahead.  Don't just read the next few lines...sing them.

O soul, are you weary and troubled?

No light in the darkness you see?

There’s light for a look at the Savior,

And life more abundant and free!

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,

Look full in His wonderful face,

And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,

In the light of His glory and grace.

Friends, will you join me in looking to Jesus -- the crucified, risen, and soon-coming Savior?  Let Him be lifted up in our attention and affection as we enter this Resurrection Weekend.  And as Jesus is lifted up, may we find that our hearts are drawn to Him (Jn. 12:32) and transformed by Him today and everyday.