On a dark and cruel day, Jesus was nailed mercilessly to a cross at Golgotha, a deathly place outside Jerusalem, know as the place of skulls . He died a criminal’s death which He never deserved. At the moment of His death, the thick temple curtain tore from top to bottom, , supernaturally signifying to humans the entry to the Holy of Holies seated in Heaven, it was a miracle how the very thick curtain tore from top to bottom, not bottom to top and no humans hands tore it. In God’s symbolism to us, He made the way for our entry to the Holy of Holies, unheard of in those times. There was a mighty earthquake and the sky turned black and stormy. Darkness filled the Earth. The wicked men who nailed Him to the Cross thought they were executing a menace of a man who was causing a rambunctious riot in their towns. The gloated over Him dying. They did not realize that the Cross was planned by God from the beginning of the world. The biggest agony was being separated from God at His death and also the sins of the world crushing Him, besides the demons that tormented Him at His death. It was a four-fold agony He suffered, not just physical torture and pain but much more, unlike any other human on Earth! The Sins of the world crushing Him. Demons tormenting Him. Separation from God. Physical pain and agony.
The power of the Cross is a mystery to billions. Yet interestingly, Cross of Jesus Christ is the centrifugal force of human history. BC and AD equals BC is BEFORE Jesus was born. AD comes from Latin Anno Domini meaning “In the year of Our Lord” AFTER Christ. This is how our calendar in the world runs!
The Cross points to the moment when the first man and woman sinned, see Genesis 3, and since that moment, God pre-planned rescue through Jesus Christ, God the Son, who would come down from Heaven and die on the Cross. Throughout the pages of the Bible, everything that happened was aimed and directed to bring Jesus on Earth in the fullness of Time. Scribes and prophets eagerly awaited His arrival, they knew a great Messiah would appear on Earth to save them. Yet no one anticipated that the salvation and rescue would be accomplished on mission Cross.
The Cross was the Secret Plan of God.The Cross with Jesus dying on it seemed a foolish weak way to accomplish victory for humankind. The Cross and what Jesus accomplished on it is a spiritual law and truth that only a spiritual soul can comprehend when they are born again.
Through His Son’s death on the Cross, the Creator God was dealing with every person’s sin, suffering death and sorrow. Jesus was dying in the place of every individual in the world. Receiving personally what He has done on the Cross brings the answer to all our needs.
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. This rhetoric of rights and it’s monotonous chant comes from the kingdom of Satan. We are equal in Christ and we walk in that freedom by faith and a new relationship with Christ, which delivers us from the curse and bondage. We are in Christ and now we belong to the Kingdom culture, whose Divine rule chalk out our lives from Heaven supernaturally with a Heavenly culture which supersedes all natural boundaries of culture on Earth. Again, not speaking of the denominations in Christianity which is man-made, which have caused untold bickering. God’s Kingdom culture goes back to the Book of Acts, where a united empowered fellowship was the blazing Body of Christ which acted in Love.
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.
6. 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.
“But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
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
Listen to this amazing song of the Cross!
Sharing one part from my other blog post:
Rita.
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. There was a true incident of a Christian lady who was having marital problems and went to an enchantress for help. The help that was needed was actually to stop her husband’s extramarital affair that he was having at that time, and some powers are good at breaking such alliances with their white magic. The enchantress looked at the golden cross that she wore around her neck on her golden chain and told her “take it off or my powers will not work!” The lady suddenly realized the power of the cross in its symbolism to the unseen world. Though white magic seems good in its cause, it still relies on the help of spirits that gain entrance into our lives to, later on, cause more damage. The lady stood in awe of the cross around her neck. Over time, she gave her life and heart to Christ and became a very committed believer. Her husband, later on changed. Their marriage changed dramatically for the better and now stood on a firm rock. The past, present and future are atoned for by the Blood of Jesus when He died on the Cross. There was once an argument among Christians about the song “Jesus’ love for us held Him on the Cross” saying that at the moment, He was in such agony, He could not think beyond His pain and His mind was only on His Father who separated from Him due to the sin covering Him at that moment. This is not true because the very words of Jesus “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” reflect supernatural love, the very love that has the power to forgive and wash away and transcend every sin. In the 1970s, there was a case of a serial homicidal killer who used to rape and kill women. He finally raped and killed a young lady, his last, before getting caught and put in prison. While in prison, the young lady’s Christian mother kept getting that inner voice from Jesus telling her to forgive him. She could not, but after a long battle, finally came to say weakly to herself “I forgive him.” The next inner voice kept telling her, “Give him a Bible.” “Of course not Lord!” she snapped back trying to shut out the voice. Finally, after a long struggle, she mailed a Bible to him. After some months, she got a letter from the homicidal killer who was in prison. He thanked her saying he read a bible for the first time in his life and it revolutionized his life and he was born again and he now had a new life and heart because of Jesus. He truly was a transformed man, as the mother later found out. She eventually went to meet him! She too had a transformation in her soul in her forgiving act. Something wonderful happened within her. The man started sharing his faith with all around him and helping, sharing, and caring. (I cannot remember his name, but I have read this story from the Guideposts years ago in the 1980s), but I do remember that he got a lighter sentence because of the dramatic turnaround and change of behavior! All we can know is, this is the transforming and liberating power of the Cross. Anything extraordinary can happen in a person’s soul.
I personally believe because of the Cross, one day, every human will be in Heaven. Every knee shall bow, every tongue shall confess…because God’s Love is greater. He came to die for All. 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.”
ความคิดเห็น