What exactly does Paul mean when he says he boasts in the cross by which he is crucified to the world and the world to him? Does modern Christianity still adhere to the preaching of the Cross? Notice how in the Spirit-filled version of the Bible there are hardly any references to suffering or self-denail because the cross has become a means to an end for most charismatic believers who seek the gifts more than the giver. We need to re-address our interest in the Cross and begin to understand its awesome power to change our lives. If we avoid the cross we have no power to change our sinful lives. It is through the power of the Cross that we can overcome sin and self and break Satan's power in our flesh. This is a battle and a painful one – for flesh fights for survival even in the midst of reformation!The awesome power of the Cross
2003/08/16

Galatians 6:14
14 But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

The cross is ‘stauros’ in Greek and refers to a well known instrument of most cruel and ignominious punishment, borrowed by the Greeks and Romans from the Phoenicians; to it were affixed among the Romans, down to the time of Constantine the Great, the guiltiest criminals, particularly the basest slaves, robbers, the authors and abetters of insurrections, and occasionally in the provinces, at the arbitrary pleasure of the governors, upright and peaceable men also, and even Roman citizens themselves

Stauros comes from the base word ‘Histemi’ in Greek that gives the idea of a pointed stick being set in its place and becoming established so that it has a definite authority that makes it immovably strong, standing unwavering and unharmed in the face of all opposition. It is a stake set in the ground that forms a sure foundation for a building. The Cross is the foundation for the Church.

1 Corinthians 2:2
2 For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

The Cross should also form the basis of our crucified lives with Christ so that we may experience his resurrection life. But most modern believers try to avoid the cross in their lives instead of picking up their cross before they try to follow the Master.

CROSS. As the emblem of a slave’s death and a murderer’s punishment, the cross was naturally looked upon with the profoundest horror. But after the celebrated vision of Constantine, he ordered his friends to make a cross of gold and gems, such as he had seen, and “the towering eagles resigned the flags unto the cross,” and “the tree of cursing and shame” “sat upon the sceptres and was engraved and signed on the foreheads of kings.” (Jer. Taylor, “Life of Christ,” iii., xv. 1.) The new standards were called by the name Labarum, and may be seen on the coins of Constantine the Great and his nearer successors. The Latin cross, on which our Lord suffered, was in the form of the letter T, and had an upright above the cross-bar, on which the “title” was placed. There was a projection from the central stem, on which the body of the sufferer rested. This was to prevent the weight of the body from tearing away the hands. Whether there was also a support to the feet (as we see in pictures) is doubtful. An inscription was generally placed above the criminal’s head, briefly expressing his guilt, and generally was carried before him. It was covered with white gypsum, and the letters were black.

During the Old Testament period, there is no evidence that the Jews fastened people to a stake or a cross as a means of execution. The Law directed death by stoning (Lev. 20:2; Deut. 22:24). But the Law did permit the public display (or “hanging”) of a lawbreaker’s body “on a tree” (Deut. 21:22), strictly commanding that the “body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall surely bury him that day” (Deut. 21:23; also see John 19:31).
Grisly as such a practice seems today, it did set Israel apart from other nations. The degrading practice most often used throughout the ancient world was to allow the victim to rot in public. Persons so displayed (or “hanged”) after execution by stoning for breaking Israel’s Law were said to be “accursed of God” (Deut. 21:23). This helps explain the references to Jesus’ being killed “by hanging on a tree” (Acts 5:30; 10:39) and the statement that Jesus was “cursed” in Galatians 3:13. Although Jesus died in a different manner, He was publicly displayed as a criminal and enemy of the state.

Following the conversion of the emperor Constantine to Christianity, the cross became a sacred symbol and its use by Romans as a means of torture and death was abolished.
Those sentenced to death on a cross in the Roman period were usually beaten with leather lashes—a procedure that often resulted in severe loss of blood. Victims were then generally forced to carry the upper crossbeam to the execution site, where the central stake was already set up.
After being fastened to the crossbeam on the ground with ropes—or, in rare cases, nails through the wrist—the naked victim was then hoisted with the crossbeam against the standing vertical stake. A block or peg was sometimes fastened to the stake as a crude seat. The feet were then tied or nailed to the stake.
The recent discovery near Jerusalem of the bones of a crucifixion victim suggests that the knees were bent up side by side, parallel to the crossbeam, and the nail was then driven through the sides of the ankles. Death by suffocation or exhaustion normally followed only after a long period of agonizing pain.

The authors of the gospels tell us that the Lord Jesus spoke of the cross before His death (Matt. 10:38; Mark 10:21; Luke 14:27) as a symbol of the necessity of full commitment (even unto death) for those who would be His disciples. But the major significance of the cross after Jesus’ death and resurrection is its use as a symbol of Jesus’ willingness to suffer for our sins (Phil. 2:8; Heb. 12:2) so that we might be reconciled (2 Cor. 5:19; Col. 1:20) to God and know His peace (Eph. 2:16).
Thus the cross symbolizes the glory of the Christian gospel (1 Cor. 1:17): the fact that through this offensive means of death (1 Cor. 1:23; Gal. 5:11), the debt of sin against us was “nailed to the cross” (Col. 2:14), and we, having “been crucified with Christ” (Gal. 2:20), have been freed from sin and death and made alive to God (Rom. 6:6–11).
The cross, then, is the symbol of Jesus’ love, God’s power to save, and the thankful believer’s unreserved commitment to Christian discipleship. To those who know the salvation that Christ gained for us through His death, it is a “wondrous cross” indeed.

The cross has been a major stumbling block in the way of the Jews, preventing the majority of them from accepting Jesus as the MESSIAH. The apostle Paul summed up the importance of the crucifixion best: “We preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:23–24). Out of the ugliness and agony of crucifixion, God accomplished the greatest good of all—the redemption of sinners.

Crucifixion was practised by the Phoenicians and Carthaginians and later used extensively by the Romans. Only slaves, provincials and the lowest types of criminals were crucified, but rarely Roman citizens. Thus