The true meaning of the cross of Christ is the sacrifice that the Lord made, when he gave himself up for humanity, with all its results and benefits. The cross of Christ involves two essential roles for the son of God; it is time for the church to instruct the message of the cross; this must be the focus of every message, it must have absolute priority. We cannot put out the work of the cross as the Galatians did.
God told the Jewish people when they left Egypt, that when they built an altar, they should not place anything around it, neither trees nor ornaments nor other objects that would separate the people from His presence. This is an example for us believers; we must not surround the message of the cross with anything that detracts from or usurps supremacy from Jesus. No religion in the world has anything that can match the message of the cross of Christ.
Is the cross of Christ something abstract or is it reality?
Philosophers make studies in the abstract, but the announcement of the cross of Christ is a real fact in history and in eternity. There is no other solidity; it is a reality and truth. It is the most substantial event in history. When we stop putting the cross of Christ in the center, our faith loses its strength and we end up entangled in a whirlwind of traditions, regulations, legalisms and statutes, untenable to obey.
Jesus unleashed on the cross the supernatural grace of God.
Grace is an undeserved gift. It is his eternal and eternally powerful representation, which gives us the experience of being and doing everything that we find difficult to achieve in our own strength. When we proceed without God’s grace we fall into legalism, as happened to the Galatians. The same thing happens in the church today; therefore there is no power.
How does the enemy respond to the work of the cross?
Satan often counterattacks the mission of Jesus on the cross of Calvary through the spirit of witchcraft, which claims to carry carnality, legalism and paganism. This has consistently been a pattern in all the congregations that have suffered the attack. Undoubtedly, legalism is the object of the carnality produced by witchcraft.
What is legalism?
Legalism is the human effort to comply with the law in a fit or impulse, it is trying to be holy or just by keeping rules, forms and traditions. Legalism is when we add to, change, and modify the requirements set forth by God in order to be just. All that God is asking is that we believe, since by faith in Jesus and his work on the cross we are justified.
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. (Galatians 3:13)
What did the cross of Christ do in us?
One representation is what Christ did on the cross “for” each one of us and another is what the cross produces “in” us. Currently the work that was designed to be perpetrated through Christ on the cross is not instructed. Many are the problems that come from this lack of understanding. You will not have the benefits of the cross unless you recognize that it was designed to effect compensation from God.
The essence of the cross of Christ is that Jesus took our place, suffered in his own flesh all the penalties that our disobedience deserved, in return, we received everything fruitful that Jesus conquered for his obedience. So from that moment, our demand is channeled into becoming like Jesus, just as He became like us. In that act of compensation on the cross, the Father placed on Jesus, on the cross, iniquity, punishment, guilt, and all the consequences of rebellion.
5 benefits of the cross of Christ.
Knowing the revelation of this is the key to embracing the benefits of the cross. Then a divine replacement was determined, through which all that bad produced by our disobedience, stuck to Jesus, was on Him; and all the good of Him came upon us by his perfect obedience. This supplanting took place from the consequent:
1.-The cross freed us from the old man
“Old man” is the old way of acting, it is the sinful nature, and Adamic, which we can simplify in a single word rebellion. There is a very real fact in each one of us, and that is that inside we have a rebel.
We were born with this condition of rebellion, we were engendered and formed in iniquity, and to defeat this rebellious man, the ideal solution is execution on the cross of Christ, which has already taken place. This is a real, historical event; nothing can alter it. Being aware of this and believing it then we will be free.
2.-The cross freed us from the ego.
The ego is a segment of the soul where what “I feel”what “I wanna” and what “I think”. Many are the people who have a hard time surrendering to Christ, out of simple selfishness; because they have to want to leave comfort, family, security, money, position or sense of security.
3.- The cross freed us from the flesh.
And he said to everyone: If anyone wants to come after me, deny himself, take up his cross every day, and follow me. (Luke 9:23)
The flesh perennially wants to proceed independently of God’s will. To live in the flesh, we just have to do our own will. However, if we use the supernatural power of God over the flesh, we will be able to constantly live in victory.
4.- The cross freed us from the world.
But far be it from me to boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world was crucified to me, and I to the world. (Galatians 6:14)
For the most part, believers live anguished by the world system; ostentations, comforts, covetousness, desires, titles, rewards, fears and anxieties, this represents the cross without Christ. what is it the Bible recommend? It commands us not to let the world put us into its paradigm. To avoid this system, we have to discard the earthly mentality and begin to renew our mind, in order to have the thoughts of God.
This does not mean that we have to isolate ourselves from people. God loves the world but he hates the corrupt system. Our duty is to make a difference and be light in the midst of darkness, not to join the system but to change the system, not to be part of the system, but for the system to be part of us and join the kingdom of God.
5.- The cross freed us from the power and authority of Satan.
And stripping principalities and powers, he publicly displayed them, triumphing over them on the cross. (Colossians 2:15)
On the cross, Christ gave the devil a general, irrevocable, permanent and eternal defeat. There is nothing Satan can do to change what happened on the cross; it is unbreakable, if we approach the enemy anywhere other than the cross we will be defeated.
But if the confrontation is through the cross, we will have total victory. Satan has no license to change the work of the cross of Christ. It is immovable and eternal. What he could do is camouflage it, obscure it, that is the direction in which his strategies point. The battles never stop, they are continuous daily, but in Christ victory is sure.
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The message of the cross releases the power of God.
But we preach Christ crucified. (1 Corinthians 1:23)
Currently the congregations have replaced the message of the cross of Christ by any other message that does not transform or edify people, messages that have no substance, that do not produce miracles because they lack power, value and truth. We must take up the message of the cross of Christ, and place it in the place that belongs to it. The church has to know this truth. The only message that really unleashes the supernatural power of God is that of the cross of Christ.
The cross of Christ is the true source of wisdom and power.
Without the power of the cross of Christ we can have spirituality, good Christian conduct, good purposes, and even preach good sermons, but we will not be able to cause changes or transformations in the hearts of people. On the contrary, if we teach the message of the cross, which is Christ; him crucified and risen, we will immediately notice the supernatural power of God demonstrated with miracles, signs and wonders.
Jesus He gave himself on the cross, rose again and obtained victory, with all power and authority, to give us power and delegate to us the dominion that he unleashed on the cross, so that we extend his ministry throughout the world, spreading, propagating and expanding the kingdom of God throughout the earth.
What was the divine exchange on the cross?
God the Father placed on Jesus, on the cross, all the iniquity, the guilt that was not Jesus’, the judgment, and each and every one of the consequences of rebellion, of all sin, and finally death was defeated. Conceiving the revelation of this is the key to absorbing the benefits of the cross. An exchange occurred that was ordained by God.
Verses that show what was loosed on the cross of Christ
Next, what does the Bible say about the cross of Christ?
- Jesus was scourged so that we would receive forgiveness.
But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our sins. (Isaiah 53:5)
- Jesus carried the diseases and suffered all our pains so that we could receive healing.
Certainly he bore our diseases and endured our pains, but we consider him wounded, struck by God, and humiliated. He was pierced for our transgressions, and crushed for our iniquities; The punishment fell on him, the price of our peace, and thanks to his wounds we were healed. (Isaiah 53:4-5)
- Jesus was made a sinner like us; He took on our fallen and sinful nature so that we would be justified.
He made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. (2 Corinthians 5:21)
Jesus died our death so that we might share in his eternal life. But God demonstrates his love for us in this: that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)
On the cross, Christ took the curse so that we could receive a blessing. 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.” (Galatians 3:13,)
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