We can understand
someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone
good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on
the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no
use whatever to him. Now that we are set right with God by means of this
sacrificial death, the consummate blood sacrifice, there is no longer a
question of being at odds with God in any way. Romans 5:7-11
As
the church has understood for more than 2,000 years, the Cross was not merely
Jesus “entering into our suffering.” It was a sacrifice of incredible
proportion, made necessary because of our sin. This is so important for us to
name, because in our age the concept of sin has almost completely disappeared
and what has replaced it are words like “brokenness” and “woundedness.” Just
the other day a good man, a true disciple, was telling me a story of some
egregious evil committed against him. In the next moment, he said, “They were
just acting out of their brokenness.” This is the common spin, and it is partly
true. But what is missing is the forthright naming of sin. If brokenness is all
that we needed help with, Jesus certainly wouldn’t have had to go to the Cross.
Now—you
know we spend a good bit of time healing human brokenness here at Ransomed
Heart. All the more reason for us to give some reflection to the fact that
Jesus went to the Cross for our sins, or we will lose our gratitude for it. And
there is so much more.
Christ
redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is
written:
“Cursed is everyone
who is hung on a tree.” Galatians 3:13
Here
again we have the clear view of Atonement—Jesus is judged so we wouldn’t be.
But another dynamic is being described here. The Cross breaks the power of all
curses. This too is so important to name at this time when so much envy, hatred
judgment and cursing is taking place in social arenas. When someone judges you,
when they pronounce words of hatred or judgment against you, those words have
real effect. Both Testaments take blessing and cursing very seriously.
“Life and death are
in the power of the tongue” Prov 18:21.
So
it is a great relief to bring the power of the Cross against those words and
judgments spoken against us. Witchcraft is also on the rise in this pagan
culture; many curses are being pronounced on Christians from the dark side. How
wonderful that our God has provided the solution: we are able to bring the
Cross of Christ against all curses and cancel them in Jesus name.
Can
you feel your appreciation of the Cross deepening as we name these things?
Paul
explains later in Galatians, through the Cross of Christ we are crucified to
the world and the world to us:
May I never boast
except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been
crucified to me, and I to the world. Galatians 6:14
The
Greek word used here for “world” includes the entire human family. The Cross of
Christ changes every human relationship. In a world where so many relationships
are unhealthy, where people try and control us or exert unholy authority over
us, where people often attach their needs and longings to us, the Cross is our
rescue. It is so helpful to pray the Cross of Christ into every relationship so
that only what is holy and good can pass between us.
And
of course the Cross is what sets us free not only from the penalty of sin but
from the very power of it:
We are those who have
died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us
who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?...In the same
way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Romans
5:2-3,11
Anyone
trying to live a whole and holy life knows the grief that comes—regularly—when
we cannot seem to live beyond our sin and addictions. You must understand: the
unholy trinity Scripture names as the world, our flesh, and the evil one
conspire to undermine your character. In that swirling mess, it can feel like
you want to (fill in the blank…yell at your kids, look at porn, envy your
friend’s success, indulge bitterness, etc.) but what we must, must cling to is
that we have died with Christ in the Cross; sin no longer has to rule over us.
We have a choice!
The
Cross was not only then, it is now. Every day. We do have a choice to make, and
the essential choice we face every day is whether we will let the “self” life
reign in us, or will Christ reign in us? By the “self” life I simply mean that
part of us that wants to reign as lord of our lives. The first issue is never
sin; it is what we do with our internal, natural inclination to play lord of
our life. All the hatred and envy you see in social media—that is the “offended
self” lashing out. When Jesus invites us to take up our Cross daily, he is not
saying we have to crucify our every hope and desire. He is saying we must
choose not to let “self” reign—neither in our internal nor external world.
Christ is Lord of both.
Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If
anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and
follow me. Matthew 16:24
No comments:
Post a Comment