If I was driving along the highway and saw this, I would stop and take a picture too. OK, the light isn’t the best and clouds are a little off, but still, I think the picture is genuine. This reminds me of Constantine, who supposedly saw a vision of the cross in the sky and thought it was a message for Christians to overcome the non-believers. Rome was never the same after that.
Thinking of the cross, I turned to the Scriptures and here are some of them; they speak for themselves...
The Cross and the Gospel are intertwined
Romans 1 ( World English Bible )
15 So, as much as is in me, I am eager to preach the Good News to you also who are in Rome.
16 For I am not ashamed of the Good News of Christ, for it is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes; for the Jew first, and also for the Greek.
17 For in it is revealed God’s righteousness from faith to faith. As it is written, “But the righteous shall live by faith.”
The Cross is NOT FOOLISHNESS
1 Corinthians 1 ( WEB )
For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are dying, but to us who are saved it is the power of God.
God, giving his life for our sins.
Colossians 2 ( WEB )
9 For in him all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily,
10 and in him you are made full, who is the head of all principality and power;
11 in whom you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ;
12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.
13 You were dead through your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh. He made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,
14 wiping out the handwriting in ordinances which was against us; and he has taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross;
15 having stripped the principalities and the powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.
Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross brought us near to God
Ephesians 2 ( WEB )
13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off are made near in the blood of Christ.
14 For he is our peace, who made both one, and broke down the middle wall of partition,
15 having abolished in the flesh the hostility, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man of the two, making peace;
16 and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, having killed the hostility thereby.
17 He came and preached peace to you who were far off and to those who were near.
18 For through him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father.
19 So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God,
The Cross is a separation from the world
Galatians 6 ( WEB )
14 But far be it from me to boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
No matter how good I am, I cannot save myself. I have no power in myself that can wipe away my sins. Jesus did it for me on that instrument of torture- The Cross. The perfect sacrifice of his body and shed blood alone have the power to save. All I can do is to humbly obey his Gospel and receive God’s gift. Imagine, one event, so long ago, that saves everyone who truly believes and is baptized will be saved. Absolutely mind boggling!
You know, I wish that I had taken that picture; it says more that thousands of words!