THE POWER OF THE CROSS

 

JESUS WALKED MILES FOR U AND ME TO FOLLOW THE RIGHT PATH

John 19:30 

Jesus said '... it is finished'

THE POWER OF THE CROSS

The cross was an instrument of death during the Roman time. On the cross Jesus died as an offering for dealing with our sins (Heb 10:14). The cross is therefore an altar and a great spiritual battle field. Col 2:15 says that: “and having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

On the cross Jesus won a spiritual battle over the forces of darkness making it possible for those who are in Him to overcome every power from hell. Yet it was not easy for Him to take the way of the cross. Satan did every thing to try to stop Jesus from taking the way of the cross. Mat 16:21-24 reports the matter:

‘From that time on, Jesus began to explain to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law and that He must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.’ Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. “Never, Lord!” he said “this shall never happen top you!”

Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me Satan. You are a stumbling block to me. You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of man.”

Jesus did not stop there, the bible in the next verse (Mat 16:24) added this:

“Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me”

Jesus knew His purpose. He was determined to accomplish what He had come to do. He also knew that He needed to make a sacrifice. Having taken the form of a servant, in human likeness and having a human body, Jesus knew that He had to sacrifice the interest of the flesh. The flesh has never enjoyed any sacrifice. Yet the path of sacrifice that Jesus decided to take was the only path that would cause Him to do God’s will and the only way that would deny the evil ones control over His destiny. That is why Jesus appeared harsh to Peter. First He rebuked the devil who was the one actually behind Peter’s statement. Then he rebuked Peter for allowing his canal man to lead him. The Lord knew that the desires of the flesh are a stumbling block to the performance of the will of God.

The Lord Jesus having rebuked the devil and Peter, turned on to the disciples and made it clear to them that it is not only Him who is taking the way of  the cross, but everybody who would want to follow Him. In essence, Jesus was telling them that the way of sacrifice is for all His disciples. They must crucify their self interests; interests of the flesh, which is greed, pride, anger and selfishness in all its form. When we deny the flesh to have its desires, or passions we crucify them and put them on a process of slow death. The next time that desire is provoked in us it is less strong. And in that way you find that for example where a person has been under the control of anger, if he/she has been denying their self to react in anger repeatedly, they will reach a point where they can just smile when provoked and walk away. They would have successfully crucified that passion. Gal 5:24 says that: - “and they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.”

When Jesus was on the cross, He did not respond to any insults. Even when the devil tempted Him through people who insulted Him and challenged Him by saying that He should come down from the cross if truly He was the Son of God. (Mat 27:39-43). Remain on the cross even when tempted to come down.

When you decide to crucify yourself on the cross, take all of yourself there. Leave nothing out.

Don’t crucify your hand only when your mouth is let loose to talk things that do not glorify God.

The major point is that the way of the cross is the way of power. When we decide to crucify our fleshly desires, we deny the devil power over our lives. He has nothing in us that he can use to bring us down or to hinder the work of God that we do. That is why Jesus told His disciples in (Jn 14:30-31) that the prince of the world (Satan) has come but he has nothing in Him (Jesus).

In other words, Jesus was saying that the devil was coming but his coming was not going to change anything for Him. There was nothing in him that was common to   the devil.

There was no claim or right of way that the evil one had in Jesus. So he had no power over Jesus because Jesus had chosen to obey His Father. And so His decision to go to the cross was His choice.

It was not His will but the Father’s will. By sacrificing His will, Jesus received power to overcome Satan and to save men. That is an example we should take.

We should humble our lives to nothing and allow God to raise us out of the place of weakness, to the place of power far above principalities and powers.

The Lord Almighty God is able to grant you the same power if you will only take the way of the cross.

May God bless you.

Pr. George Oduch