~ From Chapter 10 of The Cross of Christ
All quotes by John R. W. Stott
[Christ’s] self-giving on the cross was not just to save isolated individuals, and so perpetuate their loneliness, but to create a new community whose members would belong to him, love one another, and eagerly serve the world.
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The community of Christ is the community of the cross.
Having been brought into being by the cross, it continues to live by and under the cross. Our perspective and our behavior are now governed by the cross. All our relationships have been radically transformed by it.
The cross is not just a badge to identify us and the banner under which we march; it is also the compass that gives us our bearings in a disorientated world.
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Boldness, love and joy [marks of those who have been redeemed by the cross] are not to be thought of as purely private and interior experiences, however; they are to distinguish our public worship.
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So the community of the cross is a community of celebration, a eucharistic community, ceaselessly offering to God through Christ the sacrifice of our praise and thanksgiving.
The Christian life is an unending festival.
And the festival we keep, now that our Passover Lamb has been sacrificed for us, is a joyful celebration of his sacrifice, together with a spiritual feasting upon it.
In this celebratory feast we are all participants.
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And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying,
“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”
Revelation 5:13
Read more on Chapter 10 at Challie’s site
