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But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself he might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity.                      (Ephesians 2:13-16 NASB)

There is coursing through this passage the theme of one and unity.  This is because of the provision that gives peace opportunity within humanity.  God has done this through His Son Jesus Christ. 

Man searches for peace with his surroundings.  He wants peace because the life lacking it is characterized by unrest, distress, and tension, whether it is missing with his relationship with God, his neighbor or the world around him.  Peace on man’s terms is often elusive or short-lived. How our troubled world needs peace and unity.  Yet it will never come, sad to say. It is naive to expect total peace in our world.  Such a utopia will not take place this side of heaven. Why? Because of what we have already learned of the two groups into which humanity is divided…the word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. And…we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness… (1 Corinthians 1:18 & 23 NASB).

Lack of peace is not something that can be blamed at God. He has reconciled both Jew and Gentile in one body to God. He has done so through the cross. He has brought us all near by the blood of Christ.  The cross of Calvary was the instrument of healing and reconciliation with God. True and complete peace (shalom) is only through the Lord Jesus Christ and His cross.

What about we who are believers though? Can we have peace with God? Yes!  We are told in Romans 5:1 Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Can we have peace with our neighbor?  It is possible and we should make every effort to do so (Romans 12:18).  We have the power of God in the Gospel to extend peace to our neighbor. Acceptance is his responsibility.

Dear reader: is there still one or more to whom you have not yet applied the victory of Jesus and the power of the Gospel? Would it not be to your own peace to let Jesus be their peace through you as well?  What do you have to lose? God did not seek revenge with us; He sought peace and reconciliation so that we could all by faith meet together in His household. Is yours a household needing peace? Jesus is the answer.  Look to His cross and there you will see the wonder of peace.

The Commonwealth of the Cross

Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called ‘Uncircumcision” by the so-called “Circumcision” which is performed in the flesh by human hands –  remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.  But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. (Ephesians 2:11-13 NASB)

It sometimes a good exercise for appreciating today to reflect back on what life was yesterday. When I remember that time when my wife and I were told we would never have children of our own, I recall the hollow feeling of a lifetime without children and the helpless frustration of not being able to change that.  I even wondered (aka worried) what my senior years yet some 50 years away would be like without children.  We struggled to continue in our circle of dear friends because the dominant topic always seemed to be their children.  We would sit in silent pain wishing for a child to keep us up at night or mess up the house. Years later, the Lord proved doctors wrong and blessed us with four children, now adults who know Jesus.  Strolls down memory lane can be so sweet.

When Paul instructs us to remember what life was like when we were unbelieving Gentiles, He speaks of five realities: separated from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth, strangers to God’s covenantal promise, having no hope, and without God in our lives. Uh. I have to say, this is not a sweet trip down memory lane to go back that far.  The point that is being made however is to underscore our total disconnect from God.

Sadly, we did not know these truths about ourselves. Tragically, even if we did, we could not do nothing about it.  Yet that was not to be our permanent existence. Something would change all that.  What? Christ came!

Dear reader.  Think of your life right now please.  Are you still in the past before Christ came? Do these short phrases describe your life: separate from Christ – excluded – stranger – having no hope – without God? If so, then this is a life yet in sin and its deadly consequences.  Do you really want to continue on in that shadow? Would you surrender to the Gospel, believing in Jesus and His life giving blood so that it may be said that you too have been brought near by the blood of Chris.

Or perhaps you are one who has been brought near by the blood of Christ by faith in His saving grace.  Today is a celebration for you.  Remembering back invigorates you to thank the Lord Jesus Christ and causes you to breathe with the breath of life knowing that once you were dead but now are alive in the family of God.

The Commonwealth of the Cross

Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called ‘Uncircumcision” by the so-called “Circumcision” which is performed in the flesh by human hands – remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and stranger to the covenants of promise…(Ephesians 2:11-12 NASB)

Humanity likes to divide itself into little subgroups.  In general we tend to see one another according to skin color, ethnic heritage, language, age, sex, religious denomination, or anything else that might distinguish us.  On the other hand, most of us, while liking to be distinct from one another also want to associate with others of similarity.  So the rich find commonality with the rich, neighborhoods of ethnic similarity are established in cities, friendships are made with people of the same occupation, etc. Even in our churches there are those disdainful little clubs we know as cliques. Having a commonality with others is not the error. The wrong is that many cliques exist to the exclusion of others.

It has been said as a commentary on the eating habits of most men, that there are only two basic food groups…salt and meat. Our text would tell us that the world’s people are divided into only two basic groups: The “Uncircumcision” or the “Circumcision’. Birth has determined which group you fall into.  Grace offers which group you shall live in.  It is not skin color, ethnicity, occupation, sex, age, or any other determinant that distinguishes these two groups of people. The dividing factor is found in the word “covenant”.

Circumcision was instituted by God with Abraham as an act of faith of the covenant relationship the Lord offered to the Hebrews.  As He would point out on occasion, there was nothing special about them nor did they have some redeeming quality that God choose the Hebrew people.  Solely by His grace were they brought into covenant with God, out of whom He would bring the Messiah of all people.

God’s desire and His design have always been to bring humanity back into one again.  What He intentionally began with the confusion He brought upon the people at the Tower of Babel, He has sought to restore as one, except now the people of one would be united not under the authority of their own rebellious will, but under the lordship of His Son.

We are asked to do something this morning as we enter into the second day of Holy Week of His Passion.  We are to remember that we were at one time separate from Christ.  There is wisdom to take a few moments today to recall your life without Christ.  Would you do so please, for tomorrow we’re going to look at this in more detail?

The Cancellation of the Cross  –  Sounds of Victory

When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him. (Colossians 2:15 NASB)

Do you hear it – the echo of the ringing of metal against metal and the muffled thud of the nails going into the wood of the cross?  What a horrible sound.  What a discouraging sound since it’s happening to the one you’re supposed to follow as your winning Savior.  Do you hear the jeers – the jeers of the people walking by and stopping in front of the cross to vocalize their disdain for the middle cross’ occupant?

Did you hear the cheers – the cheers of the masses as He rode into Jerusalem just five days earlier?  Even though they had mistaken the nature of His kingship, still they welcomed Him and cheered Him on (Zechariah 9:9-10, Matthew 21:6-11.)

Shortest reign ever to occur.  The long awaited king lasted about five days, not even enough time to set up office and establish His kingdom.  To have your Messiah beaten by your foe and nailed to a cross is far worse than your or my favored sports team losing scoreless in the championship game. At least that’s how it appeared to the eye of unbelief.

We’re reminded today that both scenes, the ride into Jerusalem that we know as Palm Sunday and the Cross of Good Friday are events of victory. His entry into Jerusalem with jubilant fanfare by the crowds was truly a victory.  Jesus came in in spite of Roman rule and against the grain of the Jewish religious hierarchy.  The crowds ate it up. He was here – their king. Their misunderstanding of this king would lead to a lot of disappointment and disbelief because of what would happen five days later.

To the eye darkened in sin, Jesus was the loser on the cross.  Nothing could be further from the truth. God defeated every wicked foe with His Son nailed to the cross.  There was nothing they could do. They had played with the master chess player and lost horribly.  The cross of Jesus Christ was the great display of God Himself defeating evil.

As He hung there naked, Jesus wasn’t the spectacle.  No, the real exposure was of the rulers and authorities of evil.  God “undressed” them on the cross.  They were exposed and defeated.  Our human eye can’t see this either, but it happened and we each live our life in the victory of this event. This is the courage that the church goes out into the lost world and does its work of the Gospel.  Jesus won.  The victory is ours.  The battle with the spiritual darkness has been fought and won.

As awful as it sounded and as painful as it was, the sound of the nails hammered into His body was the sound of victory.

Oh victory in Jesus, my Savior for ever. He sought me and bought me with His redeeming blood.  He loved me ere I knew Him and all my love is due Him, He plunged me in victory beneath the cleansing flood.

Victory in Jesus by Eugene M. Bartlett

The Cancellation of the Cross

…having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.  (Colossians 2:14 NASB)

In the earlier years of our marriage, like most couples, my wife and I assumed some debt.  Some of this accumulation of debt was done out of necessity and with more wisdom than others. Regrettably, none of these decisions were bathed in prayer because I wasn’t a Christian at the time.  I remember however a strange behavior on my part.  Rather than be appreciative of those who financed these debts, I held a spirit of resentment toward them.  Isn’t that odd?  To hold ill feelings toward the one(s) who would help me when I needed financial help.  The source of my resentment was that someone held something over me. I owed them. (That’s pride and envy by the way.)  The ill feeling was rekindled every month when the premium was due and so little of the actual debt was removed.

This is the underlying feeling we all had toward God at the time when He made us alive together with Christ.  While we may not have been aware of this certificate of debt spoken of by Paul, we, while still in our unredeemed sin, hold a grudge toward God. Yes it’s true, even if now alive in Christ we don’t want to admit it. We resented God and just about everything about Him. We were also unaware and unappreciative of what He was doing for us even while dead in our trespasses and sins.  He tells us so though Paul because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so (Romans 8:7 NASB).

We resented and were even hostile toward the Lord because we owed Him this debt. We were angry with Him over the guilt He would stir whenever some sin was revealed by the Spirit.  We felt deprived by Him because His joy-killing Law restricted the lusts of our flesh.  We held animosity against Him for how demanding His Law is and yet no matter how hard we tried, He was never satisfied. Aggravating all of this was the reality that our payments were not satisfying the mortgage against our souls.

For those of us who were once under the shadow of a home mortgage, there was that joyful day of celebration when the last of the monthly payments was made.  Do you remember the relief, the joy, and the sense of freedom that day? What about when Jesus became your Redeemer-Savior who cancelled your certificate of debt on the cross?  Do you recall the day when you became aware of your sin and your need for a Savior and Jesus pulled you in? Are the rigors of everyday life or the gravity of unconfessed sin pushing aside the memory and the sweet reality that your certificate of debt has been paid? If so, hear the Gospel’s Good news: He has made you alive together with Him having cancelled out the certificate of debt.

The Cancellation of the Cross

 He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.  (Colossians 2:13-14 NASB)

I can’t seem to get enough of this truth…He made you alive together with Him -Jesus, the victorious living Savior, still true man and true God. How it does my heart good to hear this every day, to be reminded of my state of being with Jesus. To share life together with Jesus on earth while waiting my eternal abode in heaven.  This certainly helps keep life’s struggles, disappointments and set backs in the right perspective.  This phrase catches the essence of the Lenten season and the aim of our 40 days of reflection otherwise overshadowed the rest of the year.

By the time a person comes to the end of this brief passage, he or she ought to be convinced of the extent and assuredness of the Lord’s making us alive. We see how He has made us alive.  Yesterday we noted that it was having forgiven us all our transgressions. Today we see further confirmation of how He has made us alive with Him…having canceled out the certificate of debt.

You might be saying, “What certificate? I didn’t know there was one held against me.  While the English term certificate is used what is literally expressed by Paul is the handwriting that is held against us in decrees speaking up from this paper. 

Think of it this way, there is a mortgage on your soul for your sins.  The same is true of me. This is not a friendly accounting document.  Like the servant in Jesus’ parable owing ten thousand talents to his master, there is absolutely no way any of us can pay off this certificate of debt. But Jesus did.  He cancelled it…totally wiped it out…paid it off…obliterated it…removed it out of our lives. How? He nailed it to the cross!

Think about that.  As sure as Jesus was nailed to the cross, so too has the debt owed for your sins, my sins been nailed there as well.  When those Romans soldiers nailed Him to the cross, they were unsuspecting servants of God who unknowingly were nailing their own certificates of debt, the Jewish leaders’, mine, and yours to the cross with Him. Do you believe Jesus was nailed to the cross of Calvary? Then you should also believe He nailed the total price you owe to God for your sin there as well. Now that is something to rejoice.

Are the sins of your past and even today getting in your way? You might wonder; “Where is that certificate now?  Can it ever be held up against me again?”  Friend, it’s been cancelled.  You could spend the rest of your life looking for it as some kind of Indiana Jones character searching after some lost artifact.  The difference is, this certificate of debt will never be found because it is not lost, it has been cancelled. This we know and receive by faith.

We live in a world of technology yet fearing we might lose something we may want to reference later on. So we are constantly “backing up” our files, programs and other documents using various memory devices.  Not so your transgressions.  God hasn’t backed up this certificate so that He might print off a copy in the future and wave it in front of your face the next time you sin. No not at all.  He doesn’t want to dig it out, because He has chosen a different route:

“FOR I WILL BE MERCIFUL TO THEIR INIQUITIES, AND I WILL REMEMBER THEIR SINS NO MORE.“ (Hebrews 8:12 NASB)

The Cancellation of the Cross

  He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, (Colossians 2:13 NASB)

He made you alive together with Him.  How did He do so?  By having forgiven us all our transgressions. Forgiveness.  What a powerful thing it is.  Forgiveness is synonymous with salvation.  The simple equation is: Forgiveness by God = Salvation for sinner.

We have been released from the grip of spiritual death’s jaws.  God has released us by forgiving us of all transgressions.  He has done so through Jesus Christ’s atoning sacrifice thereby making us alive together with Him.  God used His Son that forgiveness would come through Him and with forgiveness life.

What a power forgiveness is.  Forgiveness is what takes place in the heart of the offended.  Is there anything you are carrying around today believer in your backpack of burdens that God has forgiven you of in Christ? It is life-draining to not live in the reality that all your transgressions are forgiven.  The psalmist tells us that as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us (Psalm 103:12). Our forgiven transgressions and we ourselves have taken a course in opposite directions in Christ and never shall we meet with them.  This is what it is to be made alive. 

It is life-threatening to hold back from repenting and confessing sin in your life when the Holy Spirit has revealed and convicted you.  Either you are forgiven of all sin, or none.  You cannot be partly saved or nearly a Christian. Forgiveness comes to the repentant of heart. True repentance protects not or favors or entertains one single sinful habit.  True repentance wants to forsake all sin.

Forgiveness is powerful in the lives of others.  What relationship(s) still exist in your life where the death grip of unforgiveness has its hold?  Do you need to go and ask forgiveness of someone in whom a root of bitterness holds them prisoner? Imagine the change to come to them if you went and broke through by asking their forgiveness. 

Yet there is one more thing. To whom do you need to grant forgiveness?  Is there that someone whose life is wasting away living in the shadowed prison of guilt because you will not forgive them? Oh what power you hold over that poor soul.  Dear believer in Jesus, you have been granted a new life in Christ by God the Father having forgiven you all your transgressions.  Would you not want to grant a new life to this one being held prisoner?  You have the power in Christ to set that one free. Why not grant them a gift this Easter season.  Give them an Easter to remember in Christ. Set them free.

Today we begin looking at some of the practical work that Jesus did on the cross for us.  Our text for this week is Colossians2:13-15 where the Lord speaks to us of…

The Cancellation of the Cross

And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him (Colossians 2:13 NASB)

Those who do not know Jesus Christ as personal Savior are far worse off than they could ever imagine. We’re told that our condition was grave when the Holy Spirit began His work to make the objective work of Jesus our own subjective reality. We were dead in our transgressions.  This death is a spiritual one.  Current medicine wrestles to define death now that new technologies and quicker care are snatching people out of the jaws of death under certain conditions.  God has no such problem to define our spiritual state.  Spiritually dead is what we are without a personal saving faith in Christ.  Just as Paul states as well in Ephesians 2:8, we have not a spark of spiritual life in us.

We are then if dead, helpless to bring spiritual life to ourselves.  Common logic would conclude then that it is futile for man to attempt his own restoration or revival back to spiritual life.  This should tell us as well how much involvement we are capable of in the salvation of our own soul. What can a dead person do? The Bible would say we are capable of nothing.  Believer, you have nothing to boast of in the salvation of your own soul. We cannot even add a synergistic effort to our own salvation, to roughly quote one of my seminary professors, “we were not flailing away on the top of the water waiting to grab the life preserver thrown to us by Jesus in the boat. No, we were lying dead on the bottom of the lake where He went down to get us.”

Uncircumcision of the flesh would indicate we were out of the life giving covenant.  We were dead because we had this foreskin of a spiritual nature.  It had to undergo a spiritual excising…a removal, yet we were dead in it and could do nothing to remove it. 

There is much mercy in this verse; in fact the whole passage we are looking at is filled with it.  It speaks volumes of the heart of God and His power.  But God. Oh what two wonderful words for the human ear to hear when we are in a condition of hopelessness and helplessness…but God. There is no greater ally on man’s behalf that an all powerful God who is merciful and willing to take pity on a hopeless and helpless humanity.  What a wonderful God we worship.

What a miracle this is when the Lord performs spiritual CPR on a sinner.  It is a known medical fact that the vast majority (over 95%) who are resuscitated from the brink of death often suffer great medical limitations for the rest of their lives.  Not so for the sinner brought out of spiritual death.  We are made alive together with Jesus, the resurrected living Christ…full of life…full of hope…filled with a future. Through Jesus, God cancelled our spiritual death certificate with which we were born.  Is that not something to praise and worship Him for today?

The Conquest of the Cross

Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. (1 Corinthians 1:17-25 NASB)

Were you ever involved yourself or witness to (when you were in grade school) one of those schoolyard verbal skirmishes that would erupt when some claim made by one kid regarding his father was challenged by another? The conversation quickly deteriorated to ever escalating boasts by the parties involved of whose father was stronger, or had the most money, or whose dad was the bravest, or knew the most, or whose father…Most often the tit for tat exchange would end when one of the contestants would make a ridiculously exaggerated claim upon his father that was an obvious desperate attempt to regain ground lost to the truth. I don’t ever remember a clear winner, just some boys with red faces and a lot of mumbling retreating back into the schoolhouse. Saved by the bell so to speak.

Could the Apostle Paul be doing a little exaggerating about his heavenly Father? Has he too, like the schoolboy debater overstepped with his claim that the foolishness of God is wiser than men or the weakness of God is stronger than men?  In his zeal has Paul attributed to God the attributes of foolishness and weakness? If the Bible is God’s inspired Word, then is God foolish and weak to any degree? This is where the original language speaks clearer than our translated English.

Conservative Lutheran theologian R.H. Lensksi points out that what is spoken of is “the foolish thing of God is wiser than…” and “the weak thing of God is stronger than…”  The ‘thing’ is the cross, God’s instrument upon which Christ would make atonement.  This whole conversation has to always be drawn back into the context of the conquest of the cross. What would appear as a foolish thing and a weak thing is still far more than man’s wisdom or his strength.  On the cross, where Jesus died, God proved His wisdom and His power not only to defeat sin, death, and the devil but to also leave man’s pride in a smoldering heap. Like the kids in the schoolyard, there is no intelligent comeback to this claim.

When we ponder the cross upon which Christ died, what He suffered on our behalf, and what He accomplished for our sake, all by God’s predetermined plan born out of His love, planned out by His wisdom, carried out by His strength, we should be left speechless. The life changing work of the cross is when our own heart in one of His conquests. Only words of thanks and the sacrifice of praise should come from our lips. “It has seemed good to me to declare the signs and wonders which the Most High God has done for me.  (Daniel 4:2 NASB)

The Conquest of the Cross

 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 Corinthians 1:23-24 NASB) 

Sometimes our attention can be distracted by how individuals react negatively to God’s power, the word of the cross and Christ crucified at the expense of the positive working of this power in others.  Preaching Christ crucified is not aimed to prove itself as a stumbling block or to appear as foolish.  No we are told these realities so that we might understand that the preaching of Christ crucified is a entity of power taking place every Sunday morning in our churches or in the tents of evangelism or along the trails of missions into the jungles and wilderness of virgin lands new to the Gospel. 

The preaching of Christ has an effect on everyone who hears…it elicits a response.  We see too that its work is no discerner of ethnicity, race, sex or even religious heritage.  To preach Christ crucified is power and the wisdom of God for His called…His church.

This means that the preaching of Christ crucified to those who are the called is not only a life giving power, it is also a life living power.  Christ crucified becomes then the way of life.  Christ crucified is the power of God for this earthly life unto eternal life.  Christ crucified is the wisdom of God for His people.  It is therefore, wisdom granted unto His people to live life.  Christ crucified becomes extremely and intimately practical for the true believer.  We don’t live life on our own by our own.  Not in the least.  We are as Paul says, to be transformed by the renewing of our mind.  This power and the wisdom are the sources of this transformation to take place.

Common sense would bring us to conclude as well that preaching Christ crucified is a constant necessity for God’s people to hear.  Much like the passengers in a pressurized airliner depend upon the constant provision of pressurized air flowing into the cabin, so too believers are dependent upon the constant life giving flow of God’s power and wisdom for their lives through the preaching of Christ crucified.  To try and live otherwise, can only lead to spiritual depravation and even spiritual death.

Lord, I thank you for this power and wisdom given to me through the Gospel message.  May I always look to and sit at Your feet.  Jesus keep me near the cross, there a precious fountain, free to all who healing stream, flows from Calvary’s mountain.