The Secret of the Cross

by Andrew Murray, 1998
The Secret of the Cross

“The question often arises: How is it, with so much churchgoing, Bible-reading and prayer, that a Christian can fail to live a life of complete victory over sin and will lack the love and joy of the Lord? One of the most important answers, undoubtedly, is that he does not know what it is to die to himself and to the world. Yet without this, God’s love and holiness cannot have their dwelling place in his heart. He has repented of some sins, knows not what it is to turn not only from sin but from his old nature and self-will.

“Yet this is what the Lord Jesus taught. He said to the disciples that if any man would come after Him, he must hate and lose his own life. He taught them to take up the cross. That meant they were to consider their life as sinful and under sentence of death. They must give up themselves, their own will and power, and any goodness of their own. When their Lord had died on the cross, they would then learn what it was to die themselves and the world and to live their life in the fullness of God.

“I have sought to explain the chief words of our Lord and of His disciples on this subject. May I point out two things to my reader. First, take time to read over what you do not understand at once. Spiritual truth is not easy to grasp. But experience has taught me that God’s words taken into the heart and meditated on with prayer help the soul by degrees to understand the truth. And second, be assured that only through the continual teaching of the Holy Spirit in your heart will you be able to appropriate spiritual truths. The great work of the Holy Spirit is to reveal Christ in our hearts and lives as the Crucified One who dwells within us. Let this be the chief aim of all your devotion: complete dependence on God, and an expectation of continually receiving all goodness and salvation from Him alone. Thus will you learn to die to yourself and to the world, and be kept through the continual working of the Holy Spirit.”—Andrew Murray

This book is a thirty-one day devotional.

Also by Andrew Murray:
Absolute Surrender
Humility
Divine Healing
The Master's Indwelling
State of the Church
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