The Power of the Preaching of the Cross

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However, I now want to review the second aspect of the Cross, which many Christians too often forget : On the Cross, we have been crucified with Him and in Him.

All our problems stem from the flesh, which is evil, impatient, angry, envious, jealous, murderous, full of witchcraft, magic, and gluttony, and so on. All those things come from our sin-defiled flesh. It is a poisonous plant. Death is in the flesh. Our flesh cannot be restored and changed into the likeness of Jesus. We need to understand that the will of God is that our flesh should actually be put to death, so that nothing bad can be manifested in us any longer : not the slightest trace of impatience, anger, jealousy, self-justification, or any single thing that aims at self-satisfaction.

We do not always know how deep-seated our sin can be. At the beginning of our lives as Christians, we say : "Lord, please point out my sins to me", and the Lord begins to show us our coarsest sins: theft, lying, and adultery. If we are honest with God, we deal with those sins. As we go further on with the Lord, He sheds light on sin concealed in minute things, in deep-seated subtle things, sin masquerading as something religious, something spiritual. Even our natural qualities are evil in God’s sight, those natural qualities inherited in the flesh. They need to be taken to the altar of the Cross and crucified there. Being a good teacher when I was in the world does not qualify me to be a teacher of God’s Word once I am converted. That was a human qualification, quite irrelevant to the reality of Jesus’ Gospel. God used fishermen, simple folk, poor folk. Paul, a scholar who had plenty of degrees, said : "I have not come with wisdom of words to preach the Word to you." As a theologian, he could have made highly impressive speeches, which nobody would have understood. What Paul actually said was : "I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling, in utter simplicity to speak to you of Jesus Christ crucified and to lead you into a living encounter with Him". Beloved, that is the answer to our problems. The Holy Spirit, who has been given in order to lead us into all truth, has been given to convict us of sin. "And when he has come, he will convict the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgement." (John 16:8).The Holy Spirit will show me that my sin has been forgiven at the Cross, and that God’s way for me to deal with my sin is to lay hold, through faith, on what Christ has already done. This does not mean waiting passively for some kind of manifestation of His work in my life : if I did that, nothing would happen ! I need a revelation of Christ’s work, and I need to lay hold on it through faith. I need to thirst for a revelation of Christ crucified. I must never forget for one moment that I died with Christ, in Christ. I need to find life in His death, so as to receive His life.

To preach the Cross is to preach that our flesh died in Jesus. That opens up the way, through faith, to resurrection life in Jesus. Jesus’ resurrection life cannot break through that shell of flesh I am enclosed in unless my flesh has been put to death through faith in what Jesus achieved. To try to crucify my own flesh is useless ; to strive to "walk in the Spirit" is useless. It simply can’t be done in my own strength, it can only be done through faith. But if through the Holy Spirit I receive the revelation of what it means "to be crucified in Christ", then I understand that Jesus Himself dealt with that problem for me. It is His gift to me, and I accept it in faith, saying : "Through Your Spirit, Lord, let the understanding of ‘being crucified with Christ’ sink into my heart. Make me understand that this dreadful flesh of mine, which stinks in Your nostrils and everybody else’s whenever it plays up, was put to death by You when You died on the Cross. As far as I am concerned, I died with You. When You died, You did more than pay for my sins, You also killed that flesh that causes me to sin." You killed that flesh of mine when You died on the Cross." Indeed, when Jesus died, we all died with Him. He rose from the dead, and we rose with Him. "Now if we are dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him." (Rom. 6:8).

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