In my own experience I attempted to fill the void in my life through inappropriate means that eventually took on an addictive life of their own. My pietistic background insisted that the void be filled with greater devotion. My evangelical background insisted that the void be eliminated through discipline and correct understanding. Both methods were attempts of rescue and ended in failure. No amount of devotion could fill the void for long and no doctrine, no matter how "correct," could extinguish its presence. Devotion left me empty after the devotional aura had passed; doctrine simply covered the void with religious plating. The void remained and eventually filled itself.

A true application of the cross brings acceptance of the void as a very real, inherent part of the human condition in its finitude. The void is not to be filled or covered but endured as an integral part of my human condition. This is bearing the cross. The void cannot be escaped, not can I be rescued from it. However, in the grace of God I can enter its domain and endure its pervasiveness in the strength of the cross. Jesus is my example and his cross is my victory. The cross he bore in life was his existence in the midst of fallen humanity, a cross he bore in faithfulness to his heavenly Father. It ended in a literal cross with saving import to all who follow him. He experienced no rescue from the cross of life or the cross of Golgotha. Resurrection vindicated his faithful human existence.

The rescue offered by Evangelicals does not rescue but further deepens the condition in which its adherents find themselves. Consequently, it has to be repeated again and again. The Evangelical cross of rescue relieves the believer from that very condition he or she needs to encounter. Salvation is in name only; the condition remains, only more deeply submerged beneath the religious rhetoric. The message of the cross is lost amid the euphoric panacea of the moment. Evangelicals will one day weary with all the rescue attempts and deplete themselves of all rescue materials. Perhaps at that point they will once again be driven to the cross.