The Parsonal Computer

The List of the Cross

When Louis XII became king of France, he made a list of all those who had been his enemies and persecutors in the years before he obtained the throne. Before each of these names he placed a large black cross. When word of his act spread, those on the list quickly fled the country, fearing punishment or death.
When Louis XII heard of this, the king had them all sought out and brought back to the palace. He then told them that he had put a cross beside each name, not as a symbol of death, but of the cross of Christ. It would be a constant reminder and example for him to do as his Lord had done on the Cross, saying, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”

The enemies of Louis XII fled from him because they saw the cross beside their names as a sign of death. However, the king put it there as a sign of forgiveness and life. They ran in terror from the very act that brought them life.

The same is true for us today. Many of us see the cross as punishment and death. We run from it because we think it means death. We think it means the end of our lives. However, through Christ, the cross has become a sign of forgiveness and life. God places a cross by the name of all who have faith in Christ, not as a sign of despair, but of hope and life.

“When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”
Colossians 2:13–15 (NIV)