By Buster Wilson*

March 2009 – A film coming out in March chronicles the life of my friend Arthur Blessitt. He has walked for 40 years with a 12-foot wooden cross, sharing Jesus with people from every nation on the planet. The movie is appropriately titled The Cross. Arthur has witnessed the power of God in the lives of millions as they were confronted with the simple message of the cross. 

In October 1999, the Lord directed me to take a similar wooden cross and carry it like Arthur to every city in my home state as a part of Mission America’s “Celebrate Jesus 2000.” On New Year’s Day 2000, I started The Mississippi Cross Walk. After nearly 1,000 miles through 22 cites, I had spoken at every major university and had preached in 62 churches. 

I used Paul’s words in Colossians 2:13-15 as the key Scripture for the cross walk: “And you, being dead in your trespasses … He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us … having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”

Paul said that the law, the handwriting of requirements which had condemned us as the sinners that we are, was contrary to us. As the perfect standard of God, the Law was against us. It had condemned us and was contrary to us because, in our sinfulness, none of us are able to keep it. 

The Romans would take a bill of indictment against a criminal and nail it to the door of his jail. When the prisoner’s time had been served, the authorities would write across the bill of indictment the Greek word tetelestai which means “paid in full; satisfied.” 

Jesus took the Law that served as a bill of indictment against us, and after having lived it perfectly Himself, He nailed it to His cross. When Jesus died on the cross of Calvary, he cried out what is recorded in the English Bible as “It is finished.” In the original Greek text, He had actually cried out, “Tetelestai!” Paid in full! Satisfied!

He also disarmed hell’s principalities and powers, triumphing over them by the cross. When a Roman general would conquer a nation, he would strip the opposing army’s troops and parade them in front of the people making a public spectacle of them. Jesus stripped the devil and his army of their dominion, disarming him of his power over us, power that was given him by the fact that we couldn’t keep the Law. Nailing the Law’s requirements against us to His own cross, Jesus triumphed over the devil, granted us forgiveness of all our sins, and made us alive together with Him, all by the power of His cross. 

Over the course of that 1,000-mile Mississippi Cross Walk, the cross had the power to reshape my body, literally forming calloused indentations where it lay on my shoulders. The cross of Calvary has the power to reshape our lives for eternity. In this Easter season, I hope your faith is in the power of His cross to transform your life.  

*Buster Wilson, D.Min., on-air personality with American Family Radio, is pastor of Friendship Baptist Church in Ecru, Mississippi.