Meaning of the expression "I cling to cross of Christ" What is meaning of the expression «I cling to cross of Christ»? (1) In the context of this expression, what does the act of clinging mean? Was it an expression or something similar used by early Christians?



Notes


For example, a fragment of the hymn Rock of Ages says:


  Simply to Thy cross I cling;
The type of clinging referred to is one in which the subject does not trust their footing to bear their own weight, but depends on the object to which they cleave to support it. It is a metaphor for trusting in the atoning work of the cross for salvation and standing with God, and completing repudiating any sense of merit in one's own character or works. It is an expression of sola fide which Protestants believe to be consistent with the views of early Christians in general and Pauline soteriology in particular. Although this particular phrase was most likely popularized post-Reformation, there is a sense of it's meaning in St Thomas a' Kempis's De Imitatione Christi:

In cruce salus, in cruce vita.
tr: In the cross is salvation, in the cross is life.