The Cross is our proof of God’s love, the trophy of our redemption.
A trophy is a sign of victory, but in the ancient world a trophy was something you took from an enemy, fastened to a wooden stake, and put on display. All who saw that wood wearing that Trophy would know exactly to whom the Victory belonged.
Nailed to a slice of wood, Christ became the human being in whom all humanity has been pulled from the camp of death and set up as evidence of God’s power to work new life. That new life is available to one and all—there’s just one small catch: you have to die to get it.
You have to die to yourself and give your life to Christ.
Adapted from Why God Died, previously called Dying for a Fix