The cross is more than a symbol, it is a reminder that our lives are not are own, they belong to Christ who died so that we might live. The life that we live in this world is not as citizens of earth but heaven…as pilgrims who are just passing through. A.W. Tozer writes:
"The weakness of so many modern Christians is that they feel too much at home in the world. In their effort to achieve restful 'adjustment' to unregenerate society they have lost their pilgrim character and became an essential part of the very moral order against which they are sent to protest...The world recognizes them and accepts them for what they are. And this is the saddest thing that can be said about them. They are lonely, but neither are they saints”.
Saints are those who live sanctified lives.This is why the cross of Jesus is radical. It is radical in that it calls us to live radical lives. When Jesus said "take up your cross", He did not mean necessarily take up His. We all individually have a cross to bear and through living a sanctified life of sacrifice we indirectly bear His cross too. We sacrifice because Jesus sacrificed.
As those who have been crucified with Christ, we do not feel right in this world, and we yearn for the day in which we can continue in everlasting fellowship with our Savior. In the meantime we perpetually die to self and sin and with Jesus on the cross…the radical cross.
“And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23)
“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20)