The book "The Radical Cross" is a compilation of excerpts from many books written by the prolific 20th century author A.W. Tozer. The excerpts all deal specifically with the nature of the Cross of Jesus Christ and how we as followers of Christ need to bear up and carry our own crosses in order to truly identify ourselves as His disciples.
Tozer takes a very in depth look at Jesus' Cross and presents a portrait that is odious and even other-wordly, in comparison to how the Cross is often portrayed in contemporary religion. The reason Tozer's description of the Cross is so vastly different than what most Christians today are used to, is because he recognizes it for what it has always been, an instrument that was caused by the evil of our sin and which brought about the abolition of sin through the excruciating suffering of the holy Son of God. Tozer put it in these words, "Though the cross of Christ has been beautified by the poet and the artist, the avid seeker after God is likely to find it the same savage implement of destruction it was in the days of old. The way of the cross is still the pain-wracked path to spiritual power and fruitfulness."
As soon as you see the true nature of the Cross that Jesus bore for us, Tozer then convicts the reader in strong and firm words the importance of each Christian to take up their own painful and self-denying cross as their Master did. As Tozer noted, "In every Christian's heart there is a cross and a throne, and the Christian is on the throne till he puts himself on the cross; if he refuses the cross he remains on the throne. Perhaps this is at the bottom of the backsliding and worldliness among gospel believers today. We want to be saved but we insist that Christ do all the dying. No cross for us, no dethronement, no dying. We remain king within the little kingdom of Man-soul and wear our tinsel crown with all the pride of a Caesar; but we doom ourselves to shadows and weakness and spiritual sterility."
For those who wish to attain a more deep, intense, and realistic representation of the Cross of Jesus Christ, as well as to learn how to properly bear your own, the "Radical Cross" by A.W. Tozer will provide the answers to those two categories of utmost spiritual significance.
"The cross not only brings Christ's life to an end, it ends also the first life, the old life, of every one of His true followers. It destroys the old pattern, the Adam pattern, in the believer's life, and brings it to an end. Then the God who raised Christ from the dead raises the believer and a new life begins. This, and nothing less, is true Christianity."
- A.W. Tozer, The Radical Cross, Section 1, Chapter 1
