The cross that He gave may be heavy

Question: Does the cross become heavier or deeper?

Answer: There is a hymn that says, "The cross that He gave may be heavy, / But it ne'er outweighs His grace" (Hymns, #722). This kind of utterance is not scriptural; we cannot find it in the Bible. In experience, however, this utterance is correct. This is like the experience Madame Guyon describes in her book Fragrance of Myrrh. However, we must carefully study this saying, because it has too much of the Catholic background. Catholicism understands the cross as a suffering, and this concept has spread to Christianity in China; thus, many Christians also regard the cross as a suffering.

Thomas a Kempis once said that if we remove one cross, we will receive a heavier one. How many crosses are there? There is only one cross; there are not many crosses. From the experience of the Mystics, the expression that a Kempis used is correct but not scriptural. From the perspective of the truth, there is only one cross. The Mystics had such an experience because they loved the Lord, earnestly desired the Lord, absolutely put themselves aside, and let the Lord reign in them. However, they did not receive the light that we see. They considered their wives, their superiors, and the leading ones in the church as crosses. How this differs from the light the Lord has given us! The thought that the cross becomes heavier is the result of insufficient light concerning the cross. The work of the cross can be deeper but not heavier; only suffering is heavier.

We need to be clear that suffering is not the cross. Both the Catholic Church and Christianity think that the cross is a suffering. However, even though suffering and the cross are somewhat related, suffering is not the cross. The cross is for our termination. When Christ puts the demand of the cross in us, His intention is to terminate us; He requires us to surrender to Him. When He shows us that certain aspects of our personality are too strong, the cross requires us to be broken; however, we may be unwilling to submit. Then He must use an outward environment of suffering to intensify the light of the cross in us, to the extent that we will surrender and completely yield to Him. Even though we should surrender and be broken, we may be unwilling; even though we know that the Lord has an inward demand, we may be unwilling to obey. At such times the Lord will raise up the environment to deal with us, to compel us, and to defeat us. This is the reason Catholics say that the cross is a suffering. However, the cross itself is not a suffering. When we are unwilling to submit to the demand of the cross, God uses the outward environment as a means to help us. God uses the light of the cross inwardly and the dealing of the environment outwardly to subdue us. In brief, the cross is the inward light; the suffering is the outward environment.