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The Greek word stauros means ‘stake’, ‘pole’ or ‘post’; but it is always translated ‘cross’
in the New Testament. When a banner or image is attached to a pole, it becomes a standard. This is the imagery from the Old Testament that Yeshua uses to teach on His purpose.
John 3:
14 And as Moses lifted up the (brass) serpent in the wilderness, even so must
the Son of Man be lifted up,
15 that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
John 12:
31 Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out.
32 And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.
33 This He said, signifying by what death He would die.
The standard of Christ is a simple statement:
“Death to the sin nature”
Revelation 12:11. They overcame by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives even in the face of death.
Hebrews 12:4. You have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.
Committing to the Standard
Mark 8:34. When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said
to them, Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross,
and follow Me.
This statement makes more sense when understood as ‘pulls up his stakes and follows me’.
We find a statement familiar in all ages as an expression of someone leaving his permanent dwelling to follow the Lord. This has been The Standard from the origins of Messiah.
Genesis 12:1. Now the Lord had said to Abram: Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you.
Hebrews 11:
8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would
receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.
9 By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents
with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise;
10 for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
The Heavenly Hope
Luke 9:62. But Yeshua said to him, No one who has put his hand to the plow and
looked back is fit for the kingdom of God.
Hebrews 11:
13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
14 For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland.
15 And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out,
they would have had opportunity to return.
16 But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not
ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.
1 Peter 2:11. Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly
lusts which war against the soul.
To abstain is only accomplished by abiding in the promised Holy Spirit.
Three testimonies from 1 John 3:
Whoever abides in Him does not sin. V.6.
Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God. V.9.
Now those who keep His commandments abide in Him, and He in them. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit He has given us. V.24.
The Standard of Christ is love
SS 2:4. He has brought me to the banquet house and his standard banner
over me is love.
1 John 3:14, We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our
brothers and sisters. The one who does not love abides in death. .
To make the cross an icon of the church is to repeat what Israel did with the
bronze serpent from the wilderness. It became an idol in Israel which was
destroyed by Hezekiah hundreds of years later.
2 Kings 18:4. He removed the high places, and broke the images, and cut down the groves, and broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan(that brass thing).
Exodus 20:4. You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.
The Standard for Life: Crucified with Christ
Romans 6:
5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also
shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,
6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.
7 For he who has died has been freed from sin.
Galatians 5:24. Now those who belong to Messiah have crucified the flesh with
its passions and desires.
Galatians 2:20. I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
in the New Testament. When a banner or image is attached to a pole, it becomes a standard. This is the imagery from the Old Testament that Yeshua uses to teach on His purpose.
John 3:
14 And as Moses lifted up the (brass) serpent in the wilderness, even so must
the Son of Man be lifted up,
15 that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
John 12:
31 Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out.
32 And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.
33 This He said, signifying by what death He would die.
The standard of Christ is a simple statement:
“Death to the sin nature”
Revelation 12:11. They overcame by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives even in the face of death.
Hebrews 12:4. You have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.
Committing to the Standard
Mark 8:34. When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said
to them, Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross,
and follow Me.
This statement makes more sense when understood as ‘pulls up his stakes and follows me’.
We find a statement familiar in all ages as an expression of someone leaving his permanent dwelling to follow the Lord. This has been The Standard from the origins of Messiah.
Genesis 12:1. Now the Lord had said to Abram: Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you.
Hebrews 11:
8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would
receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.
9 By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents
with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise;
10 for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
The Heavenly Hope
Luke 9:62. But Yeshua said to him, No one who has put his hand to the plow and
looked back is fit for the kingdom of God.
Hebrews 11:
13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
14 For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland.
15 And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out,
they would have had opportunity to return.
16 But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not
ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.
1 Peter 2:11. Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly
lusts which war against the soul.
To abstain is only accomplished by abiding in the promised Holy Spirit.
Three testimonies from 1 John 3:
Whoever abides in Him does not sin. V.6.
Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God. V.9.
Now those who keep His commandments abide in Him, and He in them. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit He has given us. V.24.
The Standard of Christ is love
SS 2:4. He has brought me to the banquet house and his standard banner
over me is love.
1 John 3:14, We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our
brothers and sisters. The one who does not love abides in death. .
To make the cross an icon of the church is to repeat what Israel did with the
bronze serpent from the wilderness. It became an idol in Israel which was
destroyed by Hezekiah hundreds of years later.
2 Kings 18:4. He removed the high places, and broke the images, and cut down the groves, and broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan(that brass thing).
Exodus 20:4. You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.
The Standard for Life: Crucified with Christ
Romans 6:
5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also
shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,
6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.
7 For he who has died has been freed from sin.
Galatians 5:24. Now those who belong to Messiah have crucified the flesh with
its passions and desires.
Galatians 2:20. I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
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