There is only one thing that is potent enough to kill pride, the cross. When we see the Son of God nailed to an elevated plank of wood something changes in the heart. We realise that there is only one human being who deserves to be lifted high, and he is Jesus.

Never further than the cross,

Never higher than thy feet!

Here earth’s precious things seem dross,

Here earth’s bitter things grow sweet. 

These four lines could change your week; these four lines could change your life.

Let’s start with the first line. What does it mean? In one sense, at least historically, the cross is behind us. The event of Jesus’ death happened two thousand years ago. What is the hymn writer suggesting? What does it mean to stake one’s ground permanently at the cross and to refuse to move beyond it? 

A lot of religions are built on the metaphor of ascent. The goal of a devotee is to climb progressively from one degree of self-renunciation to another, or from one stage of perfection to another. If Christianity was reduced to this trite formula, the cross would be stage-one of a multi-stage journey. We would visit the cross, perhaps benefit by way of purification and illumination, and then pack up and leave. We would graduate from the cross in the same way that a student graduates from algebra and moves onto trigonometry.

But Christianity does not match the shrunken form of man-made religion. The cross is not just the site of initiation; it is the place of strengthening, worship, and transformation. The Christian can no more advance beyond the cross than the body can outgrow its need for air, sunlight, and food. At the cross we see the clearest revelation of God available to mortal eyes; at the cross we drink of the fountain of divine love; at the cross we find a holy fire that purges our deepest passions. There is no place beyond the cross because the cross is the landing place of human worship. To pass beyond the cross could only result in loss, not gain. It would be death, not life.

Read More