July 18 – How Can the Worst Criminal Change?
I Peter 2:24 “He himself bore our sins” in His body on the Cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by His wounds you have been healed.”
The blood of Jesus washes away the deepest darkest dirtiest chambers of the soul when we simply have a change of heart and recognize His sacrificial death on the cross. The Cross is no magic charm, but it does symbolize sin’s atonement, the very symbol that puts enemies of the cross in fear.
The Cross reveals God’s Power: “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” 1 Corinthians 1:18 See also Romans 1:16. Only the spiritually illumined will understand the power of the Cross. Satan and demons see the Cross in the spiritual realms and tremble. Yet the Cross in itself has no power. The power comes alive through what Yeshua accomplished on the Cross – His death for the sins of the world. 2.God’s supernatural Love is manifest on the Cross: “But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” Romans 5:8.
Jesus Took the punishment for our sins on the Cross and gave us an exchanged Life: “But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed …We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” Isaiah 53:5,6. He removed our pain and sorrows on the Cross, “Surely He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered Him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted Isaiah 53:4 ” God wants us delivered from sin and healed from our sicknesses all in the same breath. This is His Divine Will for us.
A Beautiful New Relationship with God: Because God is so holy and righteous, sin separates us from Him. No one with sin in their hearts is able to dwell in His Holy presence. When Jesus died on the Cross, He made it possible for us to know God personally in a marvelous relationship as Adam and Eve had with God before the Fall, and to experience the love, peace and joy which fellowship with Him brings.
We are made pure through the Cross: “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” 2 Corinthians 5:21
We receive forgiveness through the Cross “For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the Kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” We become Kingdom family members in God’s family through the Cross.” We cannot be racial or talk about cast or color or race. We cannot talk feminism or chauvinism. We cannot speak of male superiority or feminine superiority.
Deliverance through the Cross: Because God dealt with our sin on the Cross, it means also that all the misery and suffering which is a result of sin was also dealt with. The Cross has won a mighty deliverance for us!
We are delivered from our past, our sins and failures: “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” John 8:36. When we are born again, we cannot dwell on past sins and failures because that is what the devil wants us to do. We are now free and brand new creations in Christ, the Cross has delivered us from our past. “For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace” Romans 6:14.
We are delivered from the grip of Satan: And having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the Cross” Because of the power of the Cross and what Jesus accomplished on the Cross, all powers of Satan have to back off from us, they have no legal rights over our lives.
We are delivered from sicknesses and ill health: The prophet Isaiah said: ‘He took up our infirmities and carried our sicknesses’” If we are ill, we are in the Divine Will of God to pray for our healing and wholeness. We are delivered from the curse and bondage of the law and we are delivered from curses: “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’” Deuteronomy 28:15-68. Galatians 3:13.
We are delivered from the Judgment: But now He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment.” We are not under the law but under grace in Christ, and not judged as we would have been had it not been for the Cross, where Jesus took our sins to free us from the face of judgment and condemnation.
We are delivered from everlasting death “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” John 3:16 This verse says it all. When we believe in Christ, who took our place, we have an exchanged life, are forgiven and delivered and set free
The Marvelous Meeting Point: The Cross of Calvary is the place where the love of God and the righteous judgment of God meet. Mercy and truth meet each other at the Cross. While God’s holy judgment demanded the death penalty for sin which is the shedding of blood. His Agape love met His own demands and Jesus, the Son of God, died in our place.
In this marvelous place of Love, we are clean, forgiven, justified, gloriously acquitted as if we had never done anything wrong! O the power of the marvelous Cross through which Jesus accomplished the plan of salvation and deliverance for humankind!
Rita F. Kurian
Comments