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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.

The Conquest of the Cross

God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. 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, (1 Corinthians 1:21b-23 NASB)

For indeed Jews ask for signs, and Greeks search for wisdom. We all want our say in matters don’t we, yet eventually some people come to find comfort in the wisdom of God in our lives.  Who do we try to satisfy?  Who would God want to appease is the real question.  Does He act in such ways to please me, or should it be you, or maybe someone else you know? The answer becomes obvious doesn’t it?  Then what does this also say about the church’s message?

If a church and her people want to be faithful to the victorious Jesus and true to the will of God, then they must be intentional and ever watchful to the ministry of its pulpit.  The focal point of her preaching must be… we preach Christ crucified.  For integrity’s sake the church must be open and honest of its devotion to preach Christ crucified.

The church must do so with full knowledge of the consequences. The church and her people have to be committed to this message and appreciate the spiritual battle inherent to the Gospel because the message of Christ crucified will have its opponents… For indeed Jews ask for signs, and Greeks search for wisdom..

The church must also be disciplined if her intent is to preach Christ crucified even willing to forsake popularity and peace should compromise threaten her message of Christ crucified. There are today as when the church began those who attempt to dictate to the church the subject matter of her message. Some do so by verbal bluntness while others are deceptively diplomatic using innuendo and subtle hint to let be known their opposition to the cross’ foolish message. Others communicate their dispute with the preaching of the cross with their feet removing themselves from the fellowship and regular Sunday attendance. Yes not only the Jews find the preaching of Christ crucified to be a stumbling block to their comfort and security in the church and relationship to God.

But Christ crucified is what has given rise to the church (Acts 20:28) and it is the preaching of Christ crucified which  builds His church. The church is built upon and grows on the Good News of Christ crucified. 

We’re reminded again today of why we need to be under the preaching of the word of the cross; why preachers must not ever hold back the message of the cross, no matter how he himself sees the flock in sin before him.  The Law will awaken the heart but it will never convert it.  The Law will bruise and crush the soul, but it will never console it.  The Law will hammer away the wayward will of man, but it will not change it.  No only the hope of the Good News of Christ crucified for us will do that.

What did you hear today in church? Did you hear only Law and its demands?  Was the fault the preacher or your own heart?  If we live in defiance with unconfessed sin in our lives, we will only hear Law until we are broken to repent, for the Law is out tutor to lead us to Christ. Certainly the whole counsel of God is to be proclaimed and taught, but is it not God’s desire, to the glory of Jesus His Son and for the well-being of His children that again this Sunday we hear the man of the pulpit preach Christ crucified.

The Conquest of the Cross

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 1:20b-22 NASB)

Back when I was much younger, I knew even less about mechanical matters than the minute knowledge I now hold. Once I was stumped by my inability to turn a nut off a bolt I needed to remove.  The harder I pulled the wrench, the less the results.  Finally this vast storehouse of knowledge and ability toward mechanical things, aka my father, walked by and enlightened me with the words, “it probably has left-hand threads, you’re turning it wrong”.  I was going at it from the wrong way. By then my frustration level was over powering any need to feel embarrassed. It was a relief to have the wisdom of my Dad.

Many people are turning to God in the wrong way and it is leaving them frustrated and holding to a false understanding of how well a person can come to know Him.  Consequently they conclude that God pushes man away if he gets too close, that He keeps us from getting to know Him much like a recluse hides himself from society. To them, there can be no intimacy with God and so the Bible is filled with contradictions when God supposedly says, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden...(Matthew 11:28 NASB).  They begrudgingly resign that the relationship one can have with God is mechanical, distant and even cold, i.e. no love, which reminds them of another contradiction: the Bible says, “God is love”.

Such folk are experiencing what everyone does who attempt to come to know God by their own method and ability.  They think the answer to knowing God is a gaining of knowledge and wisdom. This is what Gnosticism of old and New Age of today subscribe to. God is gained by gaining knowledge.  Besides being wrong, this approach is also dangerous. It misrepresents God’s heart for mankind and advances the notion that only a very select few achieve such degrees of wisdom.   The lie of course is that they too will never reach what they are searching for.  Why? They have it exactly backward. For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God…

How is it to be then that anyone can come to truly know the Lord?  Friend, if this is the frustrating question of your heart, the answer is God with great pleasure does this through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. It is by faith.  This faith must come first as the Apostle Paul reminds us of the heart of God who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:4 NASB). Filling our heads by man’s wisdom thinking that will yield a relationship with God won’t work. It can’t work because it’s not God’s plan. Praise be to God, because this is nothing but another form of works righteousness of what I have to achieve to be saved.  God opens the door to all through the cross.

I praise you Jesus that I am saved through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The salvation of my soul doesn’t rely on me, my wisdom or even the degree of my faith. It relies on You and Your wonderful, powerful, all sufficient work on the cross! I thank You for the conquest You achieved over my own wisdom and for the patient and enduring work of the Spirit to defeat the sin-polluted reason of my fallen nature.

The Conquest of the Cross

For 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.  For it is written, “I WILL DESTROY THE WISDOM OF THE WISE, AND THE CLEVERNESS OF THE CLEVER I WILL SET ASIDE.” Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? (1 Corinthians 1:18-20 NASB)

When it comes to the salvation of man’s soul, the Lord had totally disarmed the two greats man has put up on his pedestal of pride: his wisdom and his cleverness.  In his daily commerce of common life, man busily and confidently employs his wisdom and own ingenuity to better himself and to get ahead of the ‘other guy’. We boast of the person who is sharp of mind or has the business acumen propelling him to success over the competition.  Such success can often lead to arrogance and further dependence upon these two resources. That salvation would be available to all; God would have none of that.

When we speak of wisdom of this type, we are talking about what man’s intellect has gained from the world’s classroom of learning and experience. Yet not only what has been gained, but also beneficially applied in life to increase his lot or at least to prevent loss of assets, whether they be financial, material, relational, or emotional.  When we speak of cleverness, we are speaking here of mental aptitude and maneuverability to apply the wisdom we gain under our own ethical standard and use it for advantage.

God however has never been impressed with these honorariums man pays to himself. Not only did He not invite these two vanities of man to his own salvation banquet, but He has intentionally frustrated man’s reason with the word of the cross. He has done so because man’s reason is flawed from the Fall and his pride will keep him in bondage to his sin leaving him eternally condemned.

Where is the wise man, where is the learned man, where is the great debater?  They are in the cross hairs of the Lord’s grace.  He seeks them too.  God is merciful in that the word of the cross seems foolishness to those perishing.  We have to be brought down in order to be built anew in Christ.  All of our vanities stand opposed to Christ, the suffering servant.  They must be frustrated so that repentance might come.  It is God’s will and manner (2 Corinthians 7:10). His desire is to have them see their need of Jesus and His cross as they crumble in defeat.

Oh what mercy that salvation does not depend upon such vices or mental acrobatics.  Praise be to our Lord that He never concerned Himself with His own popularity or the opinion of man, but forged ahead with the cross in paying for our sin. The word of the cross is not that it would make sense to us, but that it brings the hope of salvation for us.

Years I spent in vanity and pride, caring not my Lord was crucified, knowing not it was for me He died on Calvary. Mercy there was great and free, pardon there was multiplied to me, there my burdened soul found liberty, at Calvary.    At Calvary!  by William R. Newell

The Conquest of the Cross

 For 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. (1 Corinthians 1:18 NASB)

The message of the cross has two diametrically opposed effects as it strikes the hearts of its hearers. To one party it holds nothing but what appears as foolish talk and to the other it is the message of hope and power of God for life. Why would the same message gain such entirely different receptions?

It would be wise for all of us, but especially preachers and the spiritual leaders in our churches to appreciate what takes place every Sunday morning in our sanctuaries when the message of the cross is preached.  The word of the cross has a dividing effect upon people in our fellowships of tares and wheat. 

Some dear souls leave worship in disgust and anger on a Sunday morning cloaked behind a forced smile.  They don’t want to hear about the cross on a regular basis.  They prefer to hear about themselves, their good works.  They want to be thanked for their offering, to be built up in their human accomplishments and comforted in their social status.  The word of the cross is too confrontational to have to sit and listen to it week after week. It makes them uneasy.

The message of the cross deals with sin…our sin. The cross reminds us of our need for something needing to be done about our sin. The cross leaves no allowance for prideful, human accomplishments nor will it accommodate the self inflated ego. There is nothing a person can do that remotely compares to what Christ did not the cross. We are not even qualified for that work, even if we were able to.

On the other hand, there are those who leave in jubilant celebration those Sunday morns when the old, old story has been told again.  They never grow tired of the word of the cross.  Such folk prefer to stick around the fellowship of the cross and return as soon as possible, to be built up more in the power of the word of the cross.  There is sincerity in their smile.  Their eyes might be rimmed with the wetness of tears…tears of joy and of appreciation.  There is also the brightness of life in their eyes…the life of sweet comfort and consolation from the powerful word of the cross over sin.  Their voice is confident and their spirit holds assurance, because the word of the cross is the power of God – they are saved. This power is the source from which they draw daily life.

Why the difference? In the close fellowships of our churches we may not be comfortable with the answer, especially when it cuts through family lines or into clusters of long time earthly friendships.  The reason: some are perishing and some are saved.  Could it be that simple?

God says in His Word that He does not share His glory (Isaiah 42:8).  When it comes to the cross upon which His Son did His work of passion, the Lord is most concerned in not letting anything of man or by man steal away glory due Him or assume credit for himself. This week we will be looking at 1 Corinthians 1:17-25 considering…

The Conquest of the Cross 

For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, that the cross of Christ should not be made void.  1 Corinthians 1:17

As we begin today we find the Apostle Paul sensitive to his own calling into the ministry and the purpose for which he was called.  Paul is very guarded. He knows that Jesus has called him to a specific aspect of ministry to take full advantage of his limited earthly years of service.  Paul was called to preach the Gospel.  He was to be a herald of the Good News of the cross where sins were paid for. Even other important matters in congregational life were not allowed to interfere with this proclamation of the Gospel he was called to do.  There is great contentment to know one’s calling in the ministry and much satisfaction to have the discipline to adhere to it.

Paul is not only focused, he is also very cautious.  Here is where Satan can regain ground that he lost at Calvary – preying upon man’s vanity and pride to make the cross of Christ void in the lives of His subjects. Paul realized the traps before him inherent to his old, sinful nature – not only how they could affect him, but also the effectual work of the cross of Christ.  Man has a great desire for glory.  He prefers pats on the back rather than the cross affixed to Jesus’ back.  No one suffers this like the man called to preach.  Seldom will you find a preacher (who is honest with himself and his congregation) that does not admit to struggle with this weekly. The great temptation is to persuade people with eloquence of speech and convincing words that appeal to human reason.  The cross and its message must never be compromised for the sake of appealing to the ego of man. 

Not only does this apply to the preacher, but to the listener as well.  Dear reader, might I ask you something.  What appeals to you more – a fine orator who can hold sway with an audience sitting in gleeful wonder of his ability to articulate eloquently, upon whom they wait anxiously for the next Sunday to come to hear his next life application message?  Or the unappealing man of halted speech who week after week repeats the message of the cross – our need for it and the Christ who took our place upon it? Do you ever tire or become agitated when you are exposed week after week to the blood and the cross of Christ? 

As much as preachers need to be honest and disciplined in their message content and manner of delivery, so too does the parishioner need to discipline his or her old nature in what they are wanting to hear and their expectations of the preacher standing before them every Sunday morning.  Is this something you need to take before the Lord and confess?  Is there a pastor to whom you need to ask forgiveness because of your unfair criticism to his faithful proclamation of the cross?  Satan would want to make the cross void in your life too.  This is one of his ways of doing so. Reader, there is power in the cross for you. Do not rob yourself any longer of the freeing power of the cross…there your sins were paid and forgiveness is offered.  Would you join with me this day and pray…

Lord, forgive me for those times when I have sought either by method or means to accomplish something in ministry without You and Your cross being the center of my message.  Lord forgive our congregations who desire something for the appeasement of our flesh.  Forgive us Lord because we have put our dependency upon something we have devised or would find a greater appeal in than the ugly cross of Christ.

The Centrality of the Cross

For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls..  1 Peter 2:25

Here is an accusation that sticks to all of us. Only by type do we differ in our wandering from God. The fact that the wanderings of some are more obvious to us leads us to misinterpret that our wanderings differ by degree. We see our own wandering as not being as repulsive as the other prodigals who end up in the swine pens of society, lusting after the pods.  While it is true that there are those unfortunate souls who have taken their lives to such lows that perhaps some hogs have a better life, we must remember that no matter the degree of depravity of the individual, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).

This straying marked our lives – you were continually straying, Peter says.  We understand this to mean it was not an occasional occurrence, but a way of life. Only after one comes to a saving faith in Jesus and the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit opens our eyes through the Word of God is a person capable of assessing how far in our lives we strayed from our Creator and Redeemer.

We were like sheep.  Sheep need a leader. In as much as there is an absence of a shepherd, either physically or emotionally detached, to that degree the sheep will wander.  Man began his wandering in the Garden and has been ever since.  Like sheep means we couldn’t help ourselves either.  We were clueless and cavalier about our sins until the Law began its penetrating work to awaken us to our desperate situation.

The Good News is that we have returned.  The Shepherd and Guardian of our souls called us back and we were by His grace, made to hear the Shepherd’s voice of hope through the din of darkness surrounding us. We could see like the prodigal the well being of the pigs was better than that of ourselves. But the Shepherd made His voice to be heard.  “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me (John 10:27).  For you have been called –Christ – leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps.

We have returned.  Isn’t that great news?  We’re back from our wanderings.  What we once found attractive we found only to be detrimental to our soul.  What we believed to be fun was anything but. You’re back in the Shepherd’s fold.  Doesn’t it feel great?  Now you and I can truly say…

The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters. (Psalm 23:1-2 NASB)

Lord…it’s so good to be back. May I always hear and recognize Your voice.  You are my refuge, the Guardian of my soul.  May I never be more than one step behind Your lead.  Jesus, keep me near the cross…