{"id":4812,"date":"2025-08-13T08:49:34","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T12:49:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=4812"},"modified":"2025-08-13T08:49:34","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T12:49:34","slug":"dia-through-the-cross","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/13\/dia-through-the-cross\/","title":{"rendered":"DIA: “Through” the Cross"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>
\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each weekday in the month of August, we will pursue \u201cprepositional truth\u201d by zeroing in on a single Greek preposition in a single verse, noting the theological richness so often embedded in the humble words we so often overlook.\u00a0<\/em>

We know them at a glance.

People the world over \u2013 regardless of language or literacy \u2013 can identify at least a dozen of history\u2019s most successful brands just by looking at their symbols. Think of McDonald\u2019s, Coca-Cola, Apple, Microsoft, and Google.

Then there are the symbols that represent ideas and ideologies.

You don\u2019t have to speak English or Mandarin or Arabic or Spanish to recognize the dollar sign. The Red Cross. The Olympic rings. The swastika. The hammer & sickle. The American flag.

Religions have visual representations, too, even though none of them have ever been made \u201cofficial.\u201d Buddhism is associated with an opening lotus flower, Islam a star and crescent moon, and Judaism a six-sided star comprised of a pair of intersecting equilateral triangles.

Christianity is a no-brainer, right? It\u2019s the cross.

But as British theologian John R.W. Stott details in his book The Cross of Christ<\/em>, centuries went by before members of the Jesus Movement began to associate themselves with the brutal execution apparatus on which their founder met his end.

The earliest Christian symbol, believe it or not, appears to have been a peacock. Representations of that colorful bird were found on the walls of the catacombs in Rome, the underground tunnel system where believers buried their dead. During the Empire, Christians made use of the ichthus or \u201cfish symbol\u201d that we highlighted in the reflection of July 31.

Followers of Jesus likewise celebrated their faith with wall paintings of biblical episodes like Noah\u2019s Ark, Daniel and the lion\u2019s den, Jonah and the big fish, and the raising of Lazarus from the dead.

In the end, however, a universal symbol of Christianity simply had to represent something from the life of Jesus. Stott suggests there were at least seven good candidates.

Christians could have chosen a crib or manger as a way of saying, \u201cGod came into the world as a human being.\u201d They could have opted for a carpenter\u2019s bench, pointing out that Jesus spent most of his adult life as a blue collar worker. A fishing boat would have been a means of representing his teaching ministry in Galilee.

Christians could have identified themselves with a basin and towel, remembering Jesus\u2019 humble washing of his disciples\u2019 feet. The stone that rolled away from the tomb on the first Easter morning was another possibility. Jesus-followers could have depicted a throne like the one the Savior occupies in the vivid imagery of the book of Revelation. And of course there was always the dove, representing the Holy Spirit that descended on him at the moment of his baptism.

Instead, they chose the cross.

That symbol of his brutal death proved to be more pivotal to the world\u2019s understanding of Jesus than any reminder of his birth, his ministry, or even his resurrection.

Did it take hundreds of years for Christians to realize that? Actually, the apostle Paul, writing to the Christians in Galatia a mere 20 years after the crucifixion, had already come to that conclusion.

As Paul saw it, the cross was not just one<\/u><\/em> thing that happened to Jesus. It was THE thing that happened to Jesus \u2013 especially because what happened to Jesus that day on Golgotha forever changed our relationship with God.

From the beginning, choosing to spotlight the cross seemed like a public relations disaster.

Crucifixion was a dishonorable way to die. The Romans reserved it exclusively for slaves and traitors. For Jews, crucifixion implied endless shame. If you were hung up on a cross, it meant you were a loser in the game called Who Wants to Be the Messiah<\/em>? Jesus was automatically disqualified.

But Paul persisted.

At the time he wrote Galatians he was in a theological wrestling match with some teachers who insisted that his readers (who were Gentiles) first had to become Jews in order to know God. These teachers boasted about winning converts to their way of seeing things.

Towards the end of his letter, Paul simply explodes: \u201cMay I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,\u00a0through<\/u><\/strong><\/em> which\u00a0(DIA<\/strong>) the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world\u201d (Galatians 6:14). \u00a0

The preposition DIA<\/strong> is simple. And humble. It can mean \u201cthrough\u201d in a physical sense, such as traveling through the woods. It can mean \u201cthrough\u201d in an emotional sense, such as going through a stormy chapter of life.

It can also mean \u201cby means of,\u201d which seems to be Paul\u2019s sense in this verse. Somehow, in a way we cannot fully grasp, what cost Jesus his life is what gives life to us.

Something horrible happened that Friday. But something wonderful was made possible for each of us. \u00a0If I \u201cbelieve into\u201d Jesus as the one who loves me and gave his life for me, my old life is nailed to Jesus\u2019 cross. My track record of sin is dead and buried. I now have the capacity (through God\u2019s indwelling Spirit) to live a new kind of life.\u00a0

Paul understood that this was just crazy talk for many people.

\u201cJews demand signs\u00a0and Greeks look for wisdom,\u00a0but we preach Christ crucified:\u00a0a stumbling block\u00a0to Jews and foolishness\u00a0to Gentiles\u201d (I Corinthians 1:22-23). Paul did not emphasize Christ in the manger. Or Christ baptized. Or Christ the carpenter. Or Christ teaching on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. Or even Christ alive again on Easter, although that was unquestionably a key foundation block of his theology.

\u201cWe preach Christ crucified.\u201d<\/em> It is through<\/u><\/strong><\/em> (DIA<\/strong>) Jesus\u2019 death, and his death alone, that we have life.

This truth has transformed many of history\u2019s greatest songwriters.

One of them was Isaac Watts, known as the “boy genius” of hymn-writing in the 18th century. Today we might call him a snarky teenager.\u00a0

Watts was about 18 years old when he complained to his father about the boring music of the Anglican Church. His dad called his bluff:\u00a0\u201cYou think you can do better?\u201d Within hours Watts had composed a hymn that so impressed his local church that they asked if he would be willing to write another one.

That he did.\u00a0

Watts composed a brand new hymn for 222 consecutive Sundays <\/em>(that’s a span of more than four years)\u00a0despite a crippling stroke that left him able to speak but unable to write apart from the help of a secretary.

Watts\u2019 hymns \u2013 which were dismissed at the time by some people as outrageous \u201ccontemporary music\u201d \u2013 are still being sung around the world three centuries later.\u00a0Besides more than 600 songs, Watts published 52 major works, including a book on logic still valued in universities, along with volumes on grammar, philosophy, astronomy, and geography.\u00a0 \u00a0

Surprisingly, Watts wrote not only one of the most famous Christmas carols (Joy to theWorld!<\/em>) but one of the hymns most associated with Good Friday.

It’s called\u00a0When I Survey the Wondrous Cross.\u00a0<\/em>Notice that the second verse was clearly inspired by Galatians 6:14:

When I survey the wondrous cross, on which the Prince of Glory died<\/em>
My richest gain I count but loss, and pour contempt on all my pride.<\/em>

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, save in the death of Christ my God:<\/em>
All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to his blood.<\/em>

See from his head, his hands, his feet, sorrow and love flow mingled down!<\/em>
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet? Or thorns compose so rich a crown?<\/em>

Were the whole realm of Nature mine, that were a present far too small;<\/em>
Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.<\/em>

May Christ\u2019s love \u2013 so amazing, so divine \u2013 carry you through<\/u><\/strong><\/em> whatever you are facing this week.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here\u00a0 Each weekday in the month of August, we will pursue \u201cprepositional truth\u201d by zeroing in on a single Greek preposition in a single verse, noting the theological richness so often embedded in the humble words we so often overlook.\u00a0 We know them at a glance. People the world over \u2013 regardless… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4813,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[749,473,750],"class_list":["post-4812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-cross","tag-prepositions","tag-symbols"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4812"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4814,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4812\/revisions\/4814"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}