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#Godthoughts

mikeclevenger:

I have read Plato and Cicero sayings that are very wise and beautiful; but I never read in either of them: “Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give thee rest.” 

Augustine

The Person of Christ and the Power of the Cross IV

Here is the final part of my look in to the Person of Christ and the Power of the Cross. I hope it has blessed you.

The Power

God was in Christ, ‘we are reconciled to God’. This is the message of the power.

Jesus hanging on the cross, cried out ‘Tetelastai’, Greek for ‘it is complete’ or ‘it is finished’. And at that moment, principalities and powers through the ages past and to come are smashed by the power and glory of Jesus and at last we are reconciled to him.

But what does that mean?

1st. Reconciled from curse to blessing, Galatians 3 - ‘God has redeemed us from the curse of the Law’. The stinking stream of human sin in us that should receive the mighty wrath of God is transformed to receive instead, the glory of Gods blessing. 

2nd. What is that blessing, Colossians says it is redemption from dark powers into the light, thank God we have been saved from sin, fear and death, they have been broken! We have been freed from the power of death. We are free in God! Absolutely and fully.

Titus 2.14 in the Message reads this ‘God’s readiness to give and forgive is now public. Salvation’s available for everyone! We’re being shown how to turn our backs on a godless, indulgent life, and how to take on a God-filled, God-honoring life. This new life is starting right now, and is whetting our appetites for the glorious day when our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, appears. He offered himself as a sacrifice to free us from a dark, rebellious life into this good, pure life, making us a people he can be proud of, energetic in goodness.’

We move on from inequity to purity, no longer do we have to live under the pressures of sin but we can live in God’s presence, for Christ is standing with us.

Hebrews 9:14 ‘we moved from a trouble conscience to peace’… so many Christians like peace of mind in a modern society, do you know where a Christians peace is centered? In his soul? 

No, it is in his mind. That why we see truly born-again Christians have a life that is full of trouble and defeat, Isaiah says ‘thou will keep him in perfect peace who’s mind is stayed upon God’

You see, peace of mind always begins with right relationship with God.

Here is the message of the Power of the Cross, from curse to blessing, from darkness to light, from inequity from purity, from troubled conscience of mind to peace, from the emptiness of life to a hope in Jesus. 

The Christian life has riches untold, we belong to him! 

We are his, he is our provider, 1 Corinthians 1:30 ‘He is the source of your life, Christ Jesus, whom God made our righteousness and sanctification and redemption…’

The cross is unique because of these three things, the person of Jesus, the purpose of Jesus and the power of Jesus.

And fourthly because of the challenge of the presence of Jesus, verse 20, ‘Now WE are ambassadors for Christ, we beseech you as, in Christ-stead, be reconciled to God’.

It is not simply something that happened 2000 years ago, he is still alive and is still saying ‘I am sending you!’ Jesus said ‘As the father has sent me, so send I you’ 

The challenge of our own ministry, we are ambassadors for Christ, we are the representatives of Christ on earth.

We are the representatives of him on earth, of his nation, his new kingdom. We are the authorized messengers of Christ on Earth, if you profess Jesus, the way you live your life is a calling card for Jesus in your places of influence.

There also comes along side, living in the challenge of our own ministry but also the authority of our ministry. ‘As though God did beseech you, by us’….When you witness it is as God is speaking…think about that! As spokesmen for God, we speak his word!

Let us recognise that as spokesmen of God, you can speak his word, convey his heart to a dying world. It’s great to come to Church, home groups and prayer meetings but let us never forget that there are lost generations out there, lost parents, friends and siblings.

Beyond this, we are called to reach and love the unlovely, we are to bless those that curse us, we are to pray for our enemies when it feels like all we want to do is turn away from them.

Because after all, didn’t the LORD love you?

We are to share and show his concern for the lost. I remember a person saying ‘I’m waiting for the call of God to go and witness’. You know what….the need is always the call.

There is a lost and Christ needing world out there, and as ambassadors for Christ we are called to it.

We are to witness as if we are Christ, we are to plead with the lost because of what Christ has done, we are committed to Christ and his service, let us recognise that the uniqueness of the cross is not only what happened then but what is happening now.

The cross was not an accident, it was a divine incident, it was not a martyrdom, it is a miracle.

The Person of Christ and the Power of the Cross III

Thanks for checking out part 3 of my series.

The Purpose

Not only the wonder of the person, but the wonder of the purpose, Why did he do what he did? God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, forgiveness is the miracle of calvary. Our transgressions are forgiven, atoned for.

According to the Law of Moses, atonement, asking God for forgiveness of sin, was remarkable.

On the Jewish day of atonement, two goats (not lambs) were brought to the temple and put forth before the High Priest. One goat was sacrificed, it’s blood taken and was placed in the Holy of Holies by the High Priest.

The other, known as the scapegoat, would have the sins of the people confessed and conferred over onto the goat and the goat was then deliberately lost in the wilderness. 

Just as an interesting thought, there is a hymn where it says ‘I lay my sins on Jesus’, but that’s not right, you don’t lay your sins on Jesus, God laid upon Jesus the inequity of us all. God put his hand upon the divine scapegoat and put your sins on him. 

Calvary covers it all. Forgiveness means this - Psalm 31: Your transgression is covered, your sin is forgiven and your inequity is not imputed (accounted right in the eyes of God)

Forgiveness as far as God is concerned is beyond an ethical situation. It surpasses simply making right from wrong.

Let me illustrate - Suppose I stole £100 from my father, but it ended up that I felt really bad about it, I confess to him, he forgives me.

And so suppose I then give him back 4 times the amount back, OT Law teaches this, if we look at Zacchaeus, he says ‘If I have defrauded any man I will return it four-fold’, it’s not out of generosity, it was simply the law of Moses. 

So my father forgives me, it’s all right again on human terms. But no matter what he does, doesn’t undo the fact that I did it in the first place.

…so how can God forgive sins then? It’s not as simple as it seems! 

We cannot undo what we have done, we can’t turn the clock back, the only way that we can be totally and ethically forgiven as human beings in the eyes of God is for God to have a new creation….and that is precisely what he has done! 

‘If any man be in Christ, he is A NEW CREATURE, all things are passed away, and all things are new,’ even though I have sinned in the past, it no longer exists in the mind of God because His forgiveness is BIGGER than ours!