Post by Alive on May 9, 2020 8:24:51 GMT -5
Why is the Cross of the utmost importance and then why is it of the utmost importance that we get this right?
1. Because it is the means by which God Almighty chose to bring His Creation back into a right relationship with Him and to ultimately ‘heal’ the universe of the damage caused by rebellion.
2. Because all of the doctrine/theology that is laid out for us in the New Testament by the Holy Spirit through His servants both starts and finishes with the Cross. Everything that Paul and the other writers teach is intimately connected to the Cross. In other words, there is no teaching that can be separated from the work accomplished in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
These thoughts then, indicate that we must get it right and come to a clear and unambiguous understanding of what Jesus meant when He said, “it is finished”—or “it is accomplished”.
I think we can all agree on this. Let’s narrow our focus, for the time being, on the relevance in so far as the Church, His Body and individual believers are concerned. A million lines could be written in each point, but let’s attempt to keep it simple.
To the Cross then, we go. A moment in time.
• The Blood
The Lamb of God was nailed there and was slain as the final sacrifice for sins. He shed His Blood for forgiveness of sins to make our sins appear as white as snow to our Father. He wiped them away.
This Blood deals with our sins and cleanses us from ‘all’ unrighteousness’.
As soon as you believed on Him, that Blood was applied to you…a “once for all sacrifice for sins”.
• His Death
Jesus was born with His destiny to be the Last Adam and the Second Man.
Why? Because Adam had to die. The judgement upon him because of the sin and rebellion was ‘death’. Adam must die. Jesus represented the corporate Adam and He died on that Cross as a member of the First Adam.
• He is Risen
Death could not hold Him. After three days Christ rose from the dead. He rose from the dead with a New Life as the Second Adam and as a representative of a New Corporate Man. This New Man is Christ Life—Eternal Life—God Life. He was not raised with the Old, but with the New.
• He Ascended to Heaven
To be with the Father. He left this earthly realm to be with the Father in the Heavenly realm.
This is incredibly important and is in essence the culmination of the first three points. For without the first three, the fourth and final is impossible.
So what does this all mean for those that believe this History? Let’s consider it in simple terms and then later offer textual proofs.
1. Jesus started telling us about this adventure into Eternity when He spoke to Nicodemus. He said, “you must be born again to ‘enter’ the Kingdom of Heaven. We can translate that ‘born again’ to ‘born from above’. Neither Nicodemas, nor anyone else had any idea of what He was talking about. That came later, just as He promised His disciples. He told them that a ‘Helper’ would come and Teach them the things they were incapable of hearing at that time. At the very Center of what the Helper would Teach would be the Cross.
2. We know through a great many verses that when we were saved by Grace through Faith that the Father Himself put us ‘into Christ’. He united us with Christ and so that we were ‘In Christ of the Father”, when He died on the Cross. We were ‘In Him’ when He rose with New Life and when He ascended into Heaven, into that realm with God the Father.
The Cross is a historical event in time and it was so magnificent that the earth itself shook. In fact, everything that could be shaken was shaken in that moment. “It is finished”. Praise the Lord!
So you died! You died ‘In Christ’. Death is a finality. It is appointed unto man once to die in the sense that we are discussing just now. You as a member the the Old corporate man Adam died on the Cross. Old Adam/you were judged and killed.
But—praise God—the story doesn’t stop there! You were still ‘In Christ’ when He rose from that death and His Life became your Life. Eternal Life. You were gifted Eternal Life—Christ Life by the will of the Father.
The old Adam sinful life was replaced with the New Second Adam Life, which is Eternal by Nature. Christ.
This is a matter of history. It happened in a moment because the Father put you ‘into Christ’ and what happened to Christ also happened to you because you were ‘In Him’ during those moments. Christ’s history became your history. A very real occurrence.
So that when Christ ascended to heaven you were also ‘In Him’ and there you are now, ‘In Him of the Father’ and with the Father—In Christ’.
History and the present are joined. The present exists because of the history. One event flows to the next.
All of this is due to the will of the Father and He included you ‘In Christ’ and these marvelous events, not because of any effort of your own. How ridiculous would that be? How could you jump into Christ on that Cross. Foolishness, eh? Does that sound familiar? No, of course you couldn’t. Only God Almighty can do such things and He did. Indeed He did. By Grace through Faith, God chose to do these things.
He gifted you with Eternal Life and made it so that you ‘are’ the Righteousness of God In Christ.
Let’s ask a question, seeing that we have established that the Cross, resurrection and ascension were realtime events. Can we go back in time and undo these events? Can the Old Adam be resurrected? Can Christ Life be killed? Can the work of the Cross be reversed?
Since you are ‘In Christ’ in heaven with the Father, can you be taken back out and stuffed back into the First Adam who died?
Can the Eternal Life that you were Gifted with be killed?
You see? That cannot be. It is the matter of these events of the Cross that we must contend with in the ascertaining of our theology and doctrine. We must come to grips with these things. We must face them squarely and all else must bow and conform to it.
Brethren, “you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God”. Christ and the Father are One and that is where you reside! This New Reality was sealed in this earthly realm by the Holy Spirit as a guarantee of the full manifestation of that Heavenly Truth, in this realm. And we walk in it (Him) now.
Be assured that this is a done deal. And that from the Father’s perspective, it is already done—for He is not bound by time. The Cross in time is the same to Him as the final manifested fruit in the future.
We get to walk in this reality Now. The time between these two poles (so to speak) on the timeline.
These are the things that Paul teaches us through the Holy Spirit. If you read Paul’s teaching with these things in mind, much will become crystal clear. Your Faith brings these Truths into experience in this realm—here and now.
Faith is the evidence of things hoped for and the substance of things not seen, my brethren.
I encourage all of us to ask the Lord to continue to open our eyes to see as He sees and to delight in so great a Salvation.
Notice my fellow saints that Paul speaks of these things and so many more in the past tense.
Rom. 6:6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.
1Cor. 1:23 but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness,
1Cor. 2:2 For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
1Cor. 2:8 which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
Gal. 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
Rom. 6:4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Rom. 6:9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him.
Eph. 1:18 the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power 20 which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.
Eph. 2:4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
and again!
Col. 2:11 In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. 13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, 14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
Col. 3:1 If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. 3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
1. Because it is the means by which God Almighty chose to bring His Creation back into a right relationship with Him and to ultimately ‘heal’ the universe of the damage caused by rebellion.
2. Because all of the doctrine/theology that is laid out for us in the New Testament by the Holy Spirit through His servants both starts and finishes with the Cross. Everything that Paul and the other writers teach is intimately connected to the Cross. In other words, there is no teaching that can be separated from the work accomplished in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
These thoughts then, indicate that we must get it right and come to a clear and unambiguous understanding of what Jesus meant when He said, “it is finished”—or “it is accomplished”.
I think we can all agree on this. Let’s narrow our focus, for the time being, on the relevance in so far as the Church, His Body and individual believers are concerned. A million lines could be written in each point, but let’s attempt to keep it simple.
To the Cross then, we go. A moment in time.
• The Blood
The Lamb of God was nailed there and was slain as the final sacrifice for sins. He shed His Blood for forgiveness of sins to make our sins appear as white as snow to our Father. He wiped them away.
This Blood deals with our sins and cleanses us from ‘all’ unrighteousness’.
As soon as you believed on Him, that Blood was applied to you…a “once for all sacrifice for sins”.
• His Death
Jesus was born with His destiny to be the Last Adam and the Second Man.
Why? Because Adam had to die. The judgement upon him because of the sin and rebellion was ‘death’. Adam must die. Jesus represented the corporate Adam and He died on that Cross as a member of the First Adam.
• He is Risen
Death could not hold Him. After three days Christ rose from the dead. He rose from the dead with a New Life as the Second Adam and as a representative of a New Corporate Man. This New Man is Christ Life—Eternal Life—God Life. He was not raised with the Old, but with the New.
• He Ascended to Heaven
To be with the Father. He left this earthly realm to be with the Father in the Heavenly realm.
This is incredibly important and is in essence the culmination of the first three points. For without the first three, the fourth and final is impossible.
So what does this all mean for those that believe this History? Let’s consider it in simple terms and then later offer textual proofs.
1. Jesus started telling us about this adventure into Eternity when He spoke to Nicodemus. He said, “you must be born again to ‘enter’ the Kingdom of Heaven. We can translate that ‘born again’ to ‘born from above’. Neither Nicodemas, nor anyone else had any idea of what He was talking about. That came later, just as He promised His disciples. He told them that a ‘Helper’ would come and Teach them the things they were incapable of hearing at that time. At the very Center of what the Helper would Teach would be the Cross.
2. We know through a great many verses that when we were saved by Grace through Faith that the Father Himself put us ‘into Christ’. He united us with Christ and so that we were ‘In Christ of the Father”, when He died on the Cross. We were ‘In Him’ when He rose with New Life and when He ascended into Heaven, into that realm with God the Father.
The Cross is a historical event in time and it was so magnificent that the earth itself shook. In fact, everything that could be shaken was shaken in that moment. “It is finished”. Praise the Lord!
So you died! You died ‘In Christ’. Death is a finality. It is appointed unto man once to die in the sense that we are discussing just now. You as a member the the Old corporate man Adam died on the Cross. Old Adam/you were judged and killed.
But—praise God—the story doesn’t stop there! You were still ‘In Christ’ when He rose from that death and His Life became your Life. Eternal Life. You were gifted Eternal Life—Christ Life by the will of the Father.
The old Adam sinful life was replaced with the New Second Adam Life, which is Eternal by Nature. Christ.
This is a matter of history. It happened in a moment because the Father put you ‘into Christ’ and what happened to Christ also happened to you because you were ‘In Him’ during those moments. Christ’s history became your history. A very real occurrence.
So that when Christ ascended to heaven you were also ‘In Him’ and there you are now, ‘In Him of the Father’ and with the Father—In Christ’.
History and the present are joined. The present exists because of the history. One event flows to the next.
All of this is due to the will of the Father and He included you ‘In Christ’ and these marvelous events, not because of any effort of your own. How ridiculous would that be? How could you jump into Christ on that Cross. Foolishness, eh? Does that sound familiar? No, of course you couldn’t. Only God Almighty can do such things and He did. Indeed He did. By Grace through Faith, God chose to do these things.
He gifted you with Eternal Life and made it so that you ‘are’ the Righteousness of God In Christ.
Let’s ask a question, seeing that we have established that the Cross, resurrection and ascension were realtime events. Can we go back in time and undo these events? Can the Old Adam be resurrected? Can Christ Life be killed? Can the work of the Cross be reversed?
Since you are ‘In Christ’ in heaven with the Father, can you be taken back out and stuffed back into the First Adam who died?
Can the Eternal Life that you were Gifted with be killed?
You see? That cannot be. It is the matter of these events of the Cross that we must contend with in the ascertaining of our theology and doctrine. We must come to grips with these things. We must face them squarely and all else must bow and conform to it.
Brethren, “you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God”. Christ and the Father are One and that is where you reside! This New Reality was sealed in this earthly realm by the Holy Spirit as a guarantee of the full manifestation of that Heavenly Truth, in this realm. And we walk in it (Him) now.
Be assured that this is a done deal. And that from the Father’s perspective, it is already done—for He is not bound by time. The Cross in time is the same to Him as the final manifested fruit in the future.
We get to walk in this reality Now. The time between these two poles (so to speak) on the timeline.
These are the things that Paul teaches us through the Holy Spirit. If you read Paul’s teaching with these things in mind, much will become crystal clear. Your Faith brings these Truths into experience in this realm—here and now.
Faith is the evidence of things hoped for and the substance of things not seen, my brethren.
I encourage all of us to ask the Lord to continue to open our eyes to see as He sees and to delight in so great a Salvation.
Notice my fellow saints that Paul speaks of these things and so many more in the past tense.
Rom. 6:6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.
1Cor. 1:23 but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness,
1Cor. 2:2 For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
1Cor. 2:8 which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
Gal. 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
Rom. 6:4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Rom. 6:9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him.
Eph. 1:18 the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power 20 which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.
Eph. 2:4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
and again!
Col. 2:11 In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. 13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, 14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
Col. 3:1 If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. 3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.