by David Scott Robertson
1. Consider that the cross -- Actually divided the Trinity
The King James version of the Bible says in 1 John 5:7: "For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one."
One God eternally existent in three Persons - that's the Trinity. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. If you think too hard about the concept of the Trinity you can lose your mind, if you don't think hard enough about it you can lose your place in eternity with God! It's a large thought.
But when He who knew no sin became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ - God necessarily turned His back on sin. That's why Jesus cried out while on the cross: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?'" (Matthew 27:46 NIV) Answer: Because a holy God cannot tolerate sin. Isaiah 59:2 says: "But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear."
So, at the cross, something that had never been before nor will ever be again - actually happened - the Trinity experienced separation. As God withdrew His presence from the sin of the world, embodied in His beloved Son, light went with Him and for three hours the light of the world was gone - and there was a great darkness. That day, the SUN/SON died. But during the darkness, the Bible says in Luke 23:45, "the curtain in the temple was torn in two."
You may be going through a dark period in your life. But I want to encourage you that something powerful might be going on behind the scenes and you wonder if God is even there? The I AM is there and He is very much at work through the power of the cross!
2. Consider that the cross -- Made God "our" Father
The Son of God became the Son of Man so that the sons of men could become the sons of God.
John 1:12 proves this when it says: "Yet to all who received him [Jesus], to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God…children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God." That's what being "born again" is all about. Being adopted into God's family as a permanent relative.
This next verse I'm going to quote, when Jesus said it out loud for the first time, I believe it shook the devil to his core! Why? Consider the implications of Jesus declaration to one of His followers just after His resurrection:
(John 20:17 NIV) Jesus said, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, 'I am returning to my Father and YOUR Father, to my God and YOUR God."
And I can almost hear Satan gasping, in complete and utter horror and disbelief: "What do you mean THEIR FATHER? I know You are the Son of God, even my demons know that, but THE MOST HIGH IS NOW THEIR FATHER?"
You see, the New Testament scriptures had not yet been written - so Satan couldn't read ahead and find out what was going to happen next to Jesus - Satan had no idea that the cross wasn't going to end in defeat but was going to accomplish the purposes of God.
Had the devil realized the power of the cross and what Jesus' death on it would accomplish for mankind I believe he would have modified his strategy and forsaken his plan to kill the Christ. How do I know that?
Because the New Testament scripture written at a later time reveals God's manifold wisdom:
(1 Cor 2:7 NIV) No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.
(1 Cor 2:8 NIV) None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory."
God is now OUR Father by the power of the cross!
3. Consider that the cross -- Scarred the body of Jesus Christ forever
(John 20:25 NIV) So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord!" But he ["Doubting Thomas"] said to them, "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it."
(John 20:26 NIV) A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!"
(John 20:27 NIV) Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe."
Here we have the scarred resurrected Christ! But really, that's interesting but that's not even the point that blows me away! The point I want you to meditate on is what's called "the incarnation." That is, God becoming a man. There are lots of world religions that would have man to become God, but the Christian faith is the only one in which God becomes man.
I am convinced that this side of heaven you and I will never fully comprehend nor appreciate what it meant that God, the infinite God who created quadrillions of stars and has every single one of them named, condescended to become a man and live in a human body. The Son of God / the Son of man. Jesus Christ - fully God, fully man.
See here's the twist: the Bible teaches us in John 4:24 that:
(John 4:24 NIV) God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."
Notice in the Old Testament that whenever Jesus appears in His pre-incarnate state, He is often referred to as "the Angel of the Lord." He didn't get a body until He was born of a young Jewish girl named Mary.
But notice this: Jesus, AFTER His resurrection, REMAINED in a body. God-in-a-body AFTER he had finished the work His Father had prepared for him to do! Think about it!
And to this day, to this hour, He remains in a glorified body, the first fruits of what you and I are going to inherit because of the power of the cross.
4. Consider that the cross -- Was very likely the scene of an unseen showdown
Don't you think that Lucifer and his fallen angels were there at Golgotha that day to boast, brag, and arrogantly belch out their apparent victory to their angelic counterparts?
We can't prove it, but I don't have any problem believing that the entire heavenly host turned out for the event of the ages - I think every last one of them was there to witness the most amazing scene that had ever been since the creation.
The very One whom the angels had worshipped was now terminally tacked up on a cross, bruised, beaten, naked, dripping with sweat and blood and foul smelling spit from the His enemies. How could this possibly be? Can you just imagine the party hell was throwing on a hill called Mt. Calvary?
Can't you just feel the tension and stress of Michael the archangel and thousands of his warring angels just hovering…totally powerless to intervene because they had not received a whisper of an order from Jesus or the Father concerning this matter?
I know they were they because the Lord told His disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane: "Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?" (Matthew 26:53 NIV)
Can you imagine the jeers and taunts of one-third of the fallen angles now established as principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness in high places casting insults on the remaining two-thirds of the faithful angels who stayed behind with God as heaven's Champion lay nailed to a cross?
Did the demons taunt and tease the heavenly host with jabs like: "Who made the right choice? Did we not say join in the rebellion with us? Did not our master Lucifer rightly say he could be like the Most High?"
I don't know if this happened but I find it hard to believe that the devil and the hounds of hell weren't there to witness their finest hour and gloat in their alleged victory. But to the dismay and agony of the angels Jesus gave no command nor called on His Father to do so, but followed through with what He had said earlier: "But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?" (Matthew 26:54 NIV)
The power of the cross.
5. Consider that the cross -- Forever established the "priesthood of believers"
When we come to the cross and repent of our sins, we are transformed by the power of God into what 1 Peter 2:9 says "…a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light."
In the Old Testament, to be a priest, you had to be a Levite. A male Levite. A male Levite between the ages of twenty and fifty unblemished without defect. And even if you made the cut, the farthest you go in your priestly role was into the holy place in the tabernacle or temple.
As a ordinary priest you couldn't get into the Holy of Holies, the place where the glory of God dwelt - ("the glory" was a miraculous, supernatural, physical, visible glory cloud called "the shekinah" that hovered over the ark of the covenant) - and only the high priest was permitted to go in to the Holy of Holies, and even then only one time per year.
But because of the cross, everything's changed.
Now YOU AND I, by God's personal invitation no less, extended to us in Hebrews 4:16: can "…come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need."
When the twelve tribes of Israel were receiving their royal inheritance from God, eleven tribes received land, one tribe received the priesthood - the Levites. God Himself was their inheritance. The priests were privileged to minister unto the Lord. In the same fashion, God has chosen us to be in HIS ministry and join Him in HIS work. And what ministry might that be?
(2 Cor 5:18 NIV) "All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:
(2 Cor 5:19 NIV) that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
(2 Cor 5:20 NIV) We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God."
Our job is to go and make disciples. It's called the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20). It's God's dream and will and desire that none should perish but all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).
The cross has transformed us from sinners to saints, from servants to sons, and from pagans to priests of God Most High to win the lost and make disciples.
The power of the cross!
6. Consider that the cross -- Proved that God loves us
(John 13:1 NIV) "It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love."
What was the full extent of His love?
(Rom 5:8 NIV) "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
(John 15:13 NIV) Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.
Since we were children many of us were brought up singing:: "Jesus loves me this I know / for the Bible tells me so…"
God loves me. God is love. We've heard it so much it's old news. If we're not careful we can become jaded, desensitized to its impact. How many of you reading this are parents? How many of you have only one child in your family? Would you be willing to give up your child to die for a terrorist? How about a child molester? What about sacrificing your beloved offspring for a serial killer? A backslidden housewife? Even if you had twelve children, would you be willing to let even one of them die for somebody else's mistakes?
But that's exactly what God did for us through the power of the cross. There's an old chorus of a hymn that says it so well: "Amazing love how can it be that thou my God should die for me?"
7. Consider that the cross -- Purchased forgiveness for mankind's sin: Past, Present & Future
God's not up in heaven with a cosmic baseball bat ready to thump us on the head every time you and I mess up. The Bible says that "…But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound" (Romans 5:20).
Another wonderful promise of God that we can count on concerning obtaining forgiveness for our sin, even those we consider most despicable, is found in Isaiah 1:18:
"Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool."
We don't have a "revolving door" salvation experience. That is to say, that every time you and I make a mistake that God blots our name out of the Lamb's book of life.
1 John 2:1 teaches "My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense--Jesus Christ, the Righteous One."
No matter how bad you think your mistake is, it cannot overcome the power of the cross:
(1 Cor 1:18 NIV) For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."
8. Consider that the cross -- Provided for all our needs in this life
Everything we need pertaining to life and godliness God provides. God knows you've got to eat, send the kids to school, pay your taxes, and put gas in the car.
Our Heavenly father knows that you need to pay your cable bill, buy that new bass boat, get a new set of clubs…(Sometimes what we perceive as a need God knows is really a desire.)
Goes DOES NOT have a problem with you having things as long as things don't have you. As a matter of fact, He LONGS TO BLESS YOU and give you the desires of your heart and put you on display to this entire world that there is a difference between those who serve God and those who do not. He's not trying to keep something FROM YOU but He's trying to get blessing TO YOU through your obedience!
The cross provides for all our needs and they come in a thousand varieties. (Phil 4:19 NIV) And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus."
Every need supplied through the power of the cross and the resurrected Christ!
9. Consider that the cross -- Gives us power over the devil
Jesus said in Luke 10:19:
"I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you."
Because of the power of the cross, it's not a fair fight. You see, "No weapon formed against us shall prosper!" (Isaiah 54:17).
On the other hand, the weapons that God has equipped us with work very well:
(2 Corinthians 10:4-5 KJV) "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds; Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ…"
Because of the cross, we have been clothed in the righteousness of God in Christ - we are dead and our lives are hidden with Christ in God - hidden - Jesus is our "cloaking device" that hides us in the secret place of the Most High under the shadow of the Almighty (Psalm 91)!
Under our robes of humility we are encased in the full armor of God - we're covered with His blood. If the devil could get through the blood of Jesus he'd be a saved devil.
And if that's not enough, "The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them." (Psalm 34:7 NIV)
The cross gives us power over the devil!
10. Consider that the cross -- Breaks the chains that bind us
There's not a hook, a habit, a bondage, a chain, a scheme or a plot hatched in hell that is so strong and powerful that it can withstand and overcome the power of the cross of Jesus Christ.
"So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed" (John 8:36 NIV).
The apostle Paul wrote in:
(Phil 1:19 NIV) "for I know that through your prayers and the help given by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance."
Did you ever stop to think that you may be going through what you're going through so that later you can help somebody else get through what you got through?
What the devil means for harm in your life, God is going to turn around for your good! God absolutely delights in taking the arrows that the enemy shoots at you and has the splendid ability to catch them in mid-air and transform them into blessings to lay at your feet.
How is that possible? Through the power of the cross! Because Jesus reconciled us with our Creator and dealt a fatal blow to the sin issue that separated us from God, we have been set free from fear and lust and pornography and dope and any and every weight that we have tolerated or invited to be part of our lives.
The power of the cross of Jesus Christ and His mighty resurrection effectively deals with legal and illegal intrusion into our life by our adversary, the devil!
The writer of the old hymn was absolutely right when they wrote:
At the cross / at the cross / where I first saw the light / and the burden of my heart rolled away / it was there by faith / I received my sight / and now I am happy all the day.
DSR
3/8/03