The shadow of the cross is where we are meant to live, to draw from and to run to. Galatians 5:24 says “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passion and desires.” The day I made my covenant with Christ I crucified my sinful desires and passions, so that I could live in the shadow of the Cross. I traded my old heart for a new one [Ezekiel 36:26], a new heart with new passions and desires to glorify my father in heaven. So often I get caught up in the flesh, in what the world around me is counting beneficial, but that is when I need to run to the shadow and remind myself that “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law [or what I can do myself] Christ died for nothing” Galatians 2:20. I have been set apart by Christ [Jeremiah 1:5] but not to set aside the grace that God freely gives. He has not set me apart just to do righteous things but to comprehend the depths of the grace he freely gives for the moments I don’t quite measure up and must run to that shadow. In this, he produces a new identity for me, not one I can make for myself [because if that were so I would be a condemned sinner] but He has made for me through the cross. I am no longer identified as the condemned sinner- I am righteous, holy, and set apart through the resurrection of Jesus himself. The shadow of the cross holds all the strength I need to live a life sold out for Christ.
For a shadow to exist there must be a source of light, and something for that light to reflect on. This world is full of light and shadows, moments we are overjoyed and moments where we are over sorrowed, but when we get the picture of the cross and the shadow it casts everything changes. Everything. Those dark moments where we are so sorrowful that we don’t know if we can make to the next day is replaced with what the shadow of the cross has to offer us. For the moments when sin seems to have a grip on us, when we are entangled in doubt and frustration we have the shadow of the cross.
In the shadow of the cross I find who I really am. I find freedom and victory. I find refuge and stability from this world. I find my identity. I find my joy, my peace, and my passion. I find the strength to keep going.
