Many of us, myself included, still do not comprehend the depths of what actually happened at the Cross and what it means for us today. We have a limited understanding, we know it means salvation for our souls, we may believe it means healing for our bodies, but what really happened on that day 2,000 years ago?
And many of us have heard the message of the Cross a thousand times, and yet like an undiscovered treasure, we have not even begun to plummet the depths of what Christ actually has actually done for us, we tend to spend more time focussing on what we can do to help ourselves.
It concerns me how easily we can fall prey to the latest gadget or gimmick to guaruntee us health or financial proserity, we too quickly fall into the trap of thinking there is actually something we can do to save ourselves in our situation of need. “Sprinkle some of this holy water from the Jordan river on yourself, that will help you. Make sure you turn and pray towards Jerusalem when you pray and your prayers will be answered. Apply these 7 principles of success that will help you, if you do this or do that the list goes on and on …” God help us.
I’m not knocking any ministry or any minister of the gospel, and I believe it is important to apply the principles of the Word of God, but if you are looking for salvation from your situation in any other place than the Cross of Jesus Christ, you are looking in the wrong place! Don’t be like the man at the Bethesda pool in John Chapter 5, looking to the pool of water for a miracle instead of seeing the Answer to his questions, and the Solution to his problems standing right there in front of him!
I believe there is a place for the radical obedience to leading of the Holy Spirit to release the miraculous in our lives, and there are things God may require of us to release His blessing, but at the heart and core of the Christian gospel is a clear message that Christ has paid it all, that it really is finished! We have an open check from heaven, which many of us have not fully cashed in!
Many times I believe we border on insulting the Almighty with our feeble efforts to help ourselves and God is pleading with us to receive by faith what He has already done! Yesterday I had a conversation with a young man who was confused about life and God, he had a mish-mash of religious views, a combination of new age, christian principles and eastern religion. I told him that at the heart of the Christian message, is the truth that God has done it all, many of these other views will tell you how to improve yourself, but God says you are beyond repair, you need a miracle of God to change your life!
And the great Apostle Paul the writer of large sections of the New Testament said “I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” (1 Corinthians 2:2) Paul was saying don’t go back to Judaism for salvation, don’t look to anyone or anything else for salvation, everything you need to know is in Christ and the Cross.
And for many of us this is an old message, one we have heard before, but I believe there is enough power in the Cross to shake the foundations of the planet, this world is tired of empty speeches and empty religion, people are looking for the reality of God, the power of the Cross. It was the power of the Cross which birthed the Church in Acts Chapter 2 and it is the power of the Cross which will ensure the Church leaves this planet in a blaze of fire and glory! There is power in the Cross of Jesus Christ!
You can take a dog, and give it months of counseling, you can psychoanalyze it, you can run some tests on it, send it to some courses and programs, do anything you want, to try and change it, but at the end of all of your efforts it will still be a dog! Only the Cross has power to truly change a human life, to truly redeem its fallen condition, only the cross can truly solve your deepest problems. If you are living a powerless, unfulfilled Christian life, only the Cross of Jesus Christ can change that!
I want to challenge you afresh today, whatever your need is, whatever your problem is, I dare to take your stand on the finished work of Christ, take your blank check to the bank of heaven and ask God to cash it in, remind yourself that there is nothing you can do, it is already finished. Christ has paid for my sin, He has paid for my sickness, He has paid for my broken relationship or my relationship problems, He has paid for my financial problems, He has paid for my powerlessness and inability to be effective for God, He has paid for my emotional pain, all my problems are paid for!
Allow God to be God is your life and receive what He has already done, ask him to forgive you for striving to produce change in your own effort and trust God to bring change through the finished work of Jesus Christ. Don’t allow anything or anyone to pull you away from the simplicity of the finished work of Christ, take your stand by faith, you will be amazed at what God will do for you.
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