The Message of the Cross: How shall we respond?

Once we have heard and understand the message of the cross it remains only for us to choose how we shall respond to the message. So how should we respond to the message of the cross? Let us consider the counsel of Paul.

"What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.

"Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

"Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.

"What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness." (Romans 6:1-18)

The message of the cross is the message that we have been freed from sin. We are no longer the slaves of sin, bound to obey its lusts, but we are now free; free to stop sinning and free to give ourselves to righteousness. Through the cross we have been crucified with Christ; crucified to the world, crucified to our old way of life, and crucified to sin.

Through the cross we have been given a precious gift; the ability to say "no" to sin. Previously we were slaves of sin dutifully obeying its will, but now we have been set free, free to say "no" to sin and "yes" to God. Because we have received this free gift through the cross, Paul charges us to "not let sin reign in your mortal body." Our response to the message of the cross is to put an end to the reign of sin in our mortal bodies. Paul further confirms this when he says,

"So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh — for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live." (Romans 8:12-13)

Now that we have been set free from sin through the power of the cross we must now put to death the deeds of the flesh; to put an end to sin in our bodies. The cross has made us able and now, through the help and power of the Holy Spirit, it is time to cease from sin and begin to live a life of righteousness.

What a glorious gift we have been given. What incredible good news is ours through the cross. What hope we now have; a hope of righteousness. Given this good news and our new and holy calling in God, Paul commands us,

"Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." (Ephesians 4:1-3)

Paul commands us to "walk worthy," not that we might become worthy, but because we are already worthy. Jesus, through His death and resurrection, has made us worthy of Him, His kingdom, and His calling. Seeing that we are worthy, let us walk in a way that demonstrates that worthiness. Let us walk in a way that outwardly expresses the righteous and worthiness we have in our spirits; let our outward expression reflect the inward reality we have in Christ. We are worthy, so let us act like it.

This is our response to the message of the cross; to put away sin and to live the new life that has been purchased for us by Christ. Our response is to live righteously and holy before God that we might fulfill what was spoken by God so long ago, "be holy, for I am holy." (Leviticus 11:45)

David Robison

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The Message of the Cross: What's in it for God

We often think of the Bible as God's message for us. We read it to find out what God has given us. For many, the Bible has become their personal promise box. Our whole perspective of the word of God is how it relates to ourselves and not to God. However, the Bible is as much a record of what God has done for Himself as it is a record of what He has done for us. Jesus died on the cross not only for what it would do for us but also for what He would gain through the cross. Jesus went to the cross not only for us but also for Himself; that He might purchase something for Himself.

"Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." (Hebrews 12:2)

Jesus went to the cross because of the Joy that was set before Him. He knew that something would be accomplished through the cross that would bring Him great joy and it was because of the hope of this joy that He endured the cross and its shame. So what was that Joy? It was not just that we might be saved but that He might have us with Him.

"For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren." (Romans 8:29)

Jesus was not content to conquer death Himself but His desire was that through the cross many would conquer death and that, as a result, he would have many brethren. "For which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, 'I will proclaim your name to my brethren.'" (Hebrews 2:11-12) The Joy that lead Jesus to the Cross was not the hope of His own glory and honor but us. Jesus hoped to win us for Himself through His death on the cross and that hope was his joy.

"Who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds." (Titus 2:14)

Through His death on the cross Jesus purchased us for Himself. We cannot receive the things Jesus provided for us through the cross until we first become His. Jesus purchased us and it is only as His that we can receive the benefits of the cross.

Jesus died for us to have us. Jesus does not want our scarifies, our works, or even our worship, He first and foremost wants us; that we might be His people, that we might be His brethren. Our journey through the cross begins by becoming His and continues as we learn to discover the things He has provided for us through His love.

David Robison

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The Message of the Cross: What's in it for me (part 2)

In the last post in this series we looked at some of the things that are ours because of the cross. Here are a few more.

"He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Through Jesus' death on the cross we have been made righteous; not a righteousness based on the law but one based on faith. "For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes." (Romans 10:4) This righteousness is by faith in that it is not based on our own good works; we are righteous apart from keeping the law. This is what Paul meant when he said,

"What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith; but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. " (Romans 9:30-32)

This is not to say that our behavior is not important, but only that we do not obey the law to become righteous rather we seek to live righteously to express the righteousness of Christ that we have already become. We are made righteous by faith and now called to live out that righteousness with God and man.

"Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us — for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree" —  in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." (Galatians 3:13-14)

Not only are we given a righteousness that is not based upon the law but we have also been freed from the law that we might live according to the law of Christ. Jesus came to establish a new covenant with mankind. However, we are not free to join ourselves with the new covenant as long as we are bound to the old.

"Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter." (Romans 7:4-6)

Jesus freed us from the law not by abolishing the law but by fulfilling it, "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill." (Matthew 5:17) and by paying the price for our sins that the law demands. Because Jesus died for us on the cross we are now free to live for Him in a new covenant.

"'Behold, days are coming,' declares the Lord, 'when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,' declares the Lord. 'But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,' declares the Lord, 'I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 'They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, "Know the Lord," for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,' declares the Lord, 'for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.'" (Jeremiah 31:31-34)

More to come... David Robison

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The Message of the Cross: What's in it for me (part 1)

Over the last two posts we saw how the cross testifies against us that we will never be good enough and we will never be wise enough to find our way to God. God is too high above us and we cannot ascend to find God because the distance is too great. However, the good news of the cross is that what we could not do ourselves, God did for us in sending His Son to live and die upon a cross. We could not ascend to God so He descended to us.

"For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." (Romans 8:3-4)

In this post we want to look at what God appropriated for us through His death on the cross.

Forgiveness

"But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him." (Isaiah 53:5-6)

All of us have been born in sin and we continue to live our lives in sin. Our sin stain has separated us from God. We are sinful and He is holy. The question is, how can unrighteous man be reconciled to a righteous and holy God? We have tried to keep the law but failed. Even on our best days, we fall far short. "For all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment." (Isaiah 64:6) While God loves us and wants us to be reconciled to Him, He is also a God of justice and His justice demands that our issue of sin be dealt with. The penalty for our sin is death. "For the wages of sin is death." (Romans 6:23) God can not simply wink at our sins, they have to be dealt with and paid in full. So God came to Earth Himself in the person of His Son and died in our place that the penalty of our sin might be paid and we set free to be reconciled back to God. "But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:23) Jesus death on the cross appeased God's justice and set us free from the condemnation that was against us. Jesus became the solution to our sin problem, "He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus." (Romans 3:26) The message of the cross, for us, is a message of forgiveness.

Healing

"And by His scourging we are healed." (Isaiah 53:5)

Jesus' death on the cross not only paid for our forgiveness but also made provision for our healing. His scourging and torment, which so marred His body to the point that He was almost unrecognizable, purchased for us healing and wholeness in our bodies; His brokenness for our wholeness. There is a lot that can be said about healing and we certainly live in the time between what was and what should be, but we should never loose faith or stop contending for healing. Jesus paved the way for our healing through the suffering He experienced as He was lead to and crucified on a cross. The message of the cross is, for us, a message of healing.

More to come. David Robison

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The Message of the Cross: What it says about us (Part 2)

In the previous post we looked at one reason why the message of the cross is offensive to many people. In this post we look at another reason.

We will never be wise enough

The platonic philosophers had the concept of two realms: the material realm in which we live and a higher realm of truth; a realm in which god lives. The problem for the philosophers was understanding how man, living in the lower realm, could ascertain truth, which was in the higher realm. To answer this question, Plato came up with the concept of the "Logos". Logos is a Greek word for reason. Plato's idea was that by applying reason, man could ascend into the higher realm and take hold of true knowledge. It was though the Logos that mankind could find the truth and, in the end, find god.

Plato got a lot of things right. He believed in a single creator god, he understood the divide between god and man, and he realized the need for something to bridge that gap. However, he failed to identify the true nature of that bridge. Man in all his wisdom, reasoning, and contemplation will never be wise enough to bridge that gap and ascend into the higher realm to know truth and to know God.

"Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe." (1 Corinthians 1:20-21)

Worldly wisdom has a way of puffing us up, making us proud, and making it hard for us to receive the true wisdom of God. We think we can figure it out on our own. We despise the simple truths of the Gospel and treat the message of the cross with contempt; preferring our own intellect, reason, and beliefs to that which God has revealed. However, if we are to have any hope in obtaining truth and the knowledge of God, we must first humble ourselves and submit ourselves to God's wisdom.

"Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age, he must become foolish, so that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God. For it is written, 'He is the one who catches the wise in their craftiness'; and again, 'The Lord knows the reasonings of the wise, that they are useless.'" (1 Corinthians 3:18-20)

More to come. David Robison

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The Message of the Cross: What it says about us (Part 1)

Paul says that the message of the cross has become for us "the power of God." (1 Corinthians 1:18) However, for many people the cross has become an offense. How can something that was meant to bring the "power of God" result is such offense to so many people? The reason is because of what it says about us.

"For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." (1 Cor 1:22-24)

To the Jews the cross is a stumbling block, to the Gentiles it is foolishness, but to us it is wisdom and power. However, to find that wisdom and power we must be willing to press beyond our fleshly reaction to the cross. We must be willing to accept what the cross has to say about us.

We will never be good enough

The Jews had spent thousands of years trying to achieve a righteousness that was based on their law. God, through Moses, gave the Israelites a law that was holy and good. Their law, given by God, was what made them unique among the rest of the nations around them. "Or what great nation is there that has statutes and judgments as righteous as this whole law which I am setting before you today?" (Deuteronomy 4:8) And along with the law, God gave them a promise, "So you shall keep My statutes and My judgments, by which a man may live if he does them; I am the Lord." (Leviticus 18:5). And for two thousand years the Jews were committed to the law. It not only defined what their righteousness was to be but it was also their very identity.

However, all their efforts were failures. Try as they might, no one could keep the law; no one could find righteousness through the law. God's own testimony about mankind is,

"There is no one who does good. The Lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one." (Psalms 14:1-3)

Paul also confirms this when he stated, "nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified." (Galatians 2:16) This is not to say that the law was not good and holy, it was, however it was unable to impart life and righteousness to us because the weakness of our flesh, because of our sinful nature.

The message of the cross tells us that we will never be good enough. No matter how holy and good the law is, regardless of how great our efforts are, we will all ways fall short. We can never be good enough to earn God's righteousness and His favor. Our own righteousness will never draw us close to God nor grant us right standing before him. "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23) "But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin." (Galatians 3:22)

For those who have spent their entire life trying to be good enough, trying to establish their own righteousness, this is bad news. For those who love self righteousness, this is an offense. But the truth is we will never be good enough, we will never be righteous enough, we will never ascend high enough. We cannot ascend to heaven to find God, we cannot do it ourselves, we need a savior.

More to come. David Robison

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