The term cruciform has been used to refer to things that are formed in the shape of a cross. I’ve been in church sanctuaries that were laid out in a cruciform pattern—an arrangement that, while symbolic theologically, feels like it would be a communication and acoustical nightmare. When I was a kid my grandmother, every Easter, used to bake cruciform tea cakes—cross-shaped sugar cookies. I was recently in a church that, in their lobby, had a collection of crosses hung on the wall in a cruciform arrangement.
However, I’ve seen this little-known word used in a totally different way in recent years—to express what the life of a devoted Christ-follower is supposed to look like. Just as Jesus demonstrated the essence of His character/obedience/trust in God not by avoiding the humiliation of the cross but, rather, embracing it, so our lives should have the shape of the cross to them. The cross should not only be the means by which our sins are forgiven and our destiny is assured, but it should also be the pattern for our lives in this world. Jesus’ death forms a standard for the outworking of a life modeled after Him.
This is something he repeatedly taught. He said the essence of following him was to pick up our cross daily (Luke 9:23). He said we should love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us (Matt. 5:44-45) … that we need to lose our life in order to find it (Matt. 10:39) … and that greatness is associated with humility and innocence (Matt. 23:11-12). He also, in his exchange in Matthew 20 with the wife of Zebedee and the mother of James and John, turned the common notion of power on its head by associating it with a willingness to serve others.
The apostle John, in 1 John 3, says the cross is the ultimate demonstration of the love that ought to characterize us as His followers (v. 16). And the apostle Paul, in 1 Cor. 4:12-16, points to the cross as not only the means of righteousness with God but also a framework for Christian living—it’s a template for dealing with the curses and slander of others. In Romans 12, he talks about the need to bless those who persecute us (v. 14) … never repay evil for evil (v. 17) … to never exact revenge (v. 19) … and to overcome evil with good (v. 21). Passages like these make it clear the cross was not merely something God did for us. It is every bit as much something that should serve as an example for us—a paradigm that is to form and shape our life in the world. God’s desire is that the cruciform love that distinguishes and defines His nature transform and flow through us to the people around us.
As followers of Jesus, we are to emulate one whose path of obedience to his Heavenly Father led him to a cross. Just as Calvary is, as Oswald Chambers said, “the mirror of God’s nature focused in one point in history,”, so the lives of those of us who follow Him should be characterized by self-emptying love—doing nothing out of selfish ambition, trusting not in our own wisdom, seeking not our own advantage, and giving up our lives for the sake of the lost, vulnerable, and forgotten.
In many ways, cruciformity is the essence of holiness. If the cross is the supreme revelation of the character of God, and if the gist of holiness is that the character of God be formed and replicated in us, then a holy life is a cruciform life. The more fully our life aligns to the measure and standard of the cross, the more fully the holiness of God will be formed in us.
Because of Calvary, the cross Jesus asks us to daily pick up and carry is not an oppressive burden or a harsh encumbrance, but a divinely appointed privilege. As people see us doing so—not being slavishly legalistic or excessively pouty or religiously pious, but merely going about our daily business reflecting the character and values that Jesus demonstrated—we will attract the attention of, and exert influence on, a skeptical and unbelieving world. For holiness, when it is cruciform in nature, is appealing and attractive to people. It’s the cheap facsimile that is repulsive and turns them off.