Biblical teaching - T115

The Power of the Preaching of the Cross

.../...

The Jesus we Christians need to build our lives on is Jesus Christ crucified. Nowadays people no longer want to hear about the Cross : they want a cheerful, joyful, loving, smiling Jesus. They say : "His crucifixion took place two thousand years ago : Jesus went to the Cross, then He rose again." Nowadays people obliterate the Cross and forget about it. They preach another gospel, which is no longer the Gospel of Jesus Christ. However, throughout all eternity, there will be nothing else except Jesus Christ crucified. Even in heaven the Bible will remain. Throughout eternity we shall see the scars left by the nails in Jesus’ hands and feet, the scars on His heart and His side. Jesus has chosen to keep those scars so that we shall forever be reminded that He was crucified for us. That thought must always be with us : when Jesus says : "I am the door, I am the way." There is no door apart from the Cross ; there is no way apart from the Cross. Jesus walked that way, for had he not gone to the Cross, He could neither have paid the debt for our sins nor opened heaven’s door for us. Remove the Cross, and nothing is left of what Jesus did for us ; nothing is left of the Bible. From the beginning to the end of the Bible, the Cross is forever at the heart of God’s Word. It is announced from the very beginning, and it is still there in the Book of Revelation, when John has a vision of a slain Lamb upon the throne. Throughout the Scriptures we see the Lamb of God who was crucified and who is there for all eternity. Therefore Jesus, even now in His resurrection life, wants us to bear in mind that He was crucified. Among us, He wants to hear about nothing but Jesus crucified. Let us steer clear of philosophical or psychological doctrines that try to solve our problems through man-made methods and teachings, (or, at the worst, through doctrines of devils that always involve removing the Cross from the Gospel.) Once the Cross is removed, nothing is left of the Gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit cannot move in our lives.

Jesus said : "Within a few days, you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you ; and you shall be witnesses to me." The Holy Spirit is a Person ; Jesus calls Him "power", i.e. God’s power personified. Paul also talks of "the preaching of the Cross" in 1 Corinthians 1 : 18. He does not say "the preaching of salvation", for men invent means of "salvation" apart from the Cross. He says : "the preaching of the Cross is foolishness for those who are perishing…" Those who are perishing are those who do not want to receive the message of the Gospel and who remove the Cross from it because they find it foolish. But for us who are saved, the Cross is the power of God. Paul does not say that the Cross was or will be the power of God, but that the Cross is the power of God for us who are saved.

So when we pray : "Lord, manifest Your power and Your glory", when God hears us, He interprets it as meaning : "Tell me about the Cross, take me through the experience of the Cross, and enable me to understand the meaning of ‘Jesus Christ crucified among us’." The power of the Cross means that through the Cross, all our problems are solved. On the one hand, it is on the Cross that sin and the flesh were crucified ; on the other hand, it is through the Cross that heavenly blessings and resurrection life are given. When Jesus died, He said "It is finished !", meaning that through the Cross, He had fully met the Father’s demands and opened Heaven’s door for every blessing to be released.

We must never erase the Cross from the Gospel message and say : "Since Jesus died two thousand years ago on the Cross, that’s wonderful, thank You, Jesus ; You have opened the door for us, so now we’ll only think about the blessings and we’ll leave out the Cross."

We do not speak about the Cross simply to remind people of what Jesus did long ago. We need to speak about the Cross because for us, today, there is resurrection power and the power of life itself in Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Do you know where all our problems come from ? They all come from the fact that we have not yet been changed into the likeness of Jesus. We long for that, and we pray for it, saying : "Lord, I want Your love to be manifested in me ; grant me patience, grant me love, grant me all the things I lack." But do we know that all those things are included in the Cross, and that it is through the Cross that Jesus answers a prayer like that ? He will enable me to understand what "Jesus Christ crucified" means. Jesus Christ was crucified for our sins ; He died to pay the ransom for our sins, which were carrying us away to death and to hell. Through His death on the Cross, He obtained complete forgiveness for our sins. When we confess Him as our Lord and our Saviour, when we receive His blood in faith, all our past sins are blotted out, God’s perfect righteousness is imputed to us, for God grants us complete forgiveness through Jesus and through the Cross.

.../...

Previous page

page : 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Next page