The Cross of Jesus Christ - Part One
The Cross in Colossians
The cross is central to Christianity and the studies on it are numerous. I thoroughly recommend Leon Morris's "The Cross In the New Testament" for a deep and thorough understanding of this topic. This month we shall focus on the cross of Christ as presented in the book of Colossians.
Colossians has two main references to the cross. In chapter one verse twenty Paul writes of the cross in cosmic terms. The cross reconciles all things to God -whether those things are on earth or on heaven. This gives us the basis for missionary work because we know that every ethnic group is included in this reconciliation. It also gives us the basis for personal holiness built on the foundation of a far-reaching reconciliation with God. In chapter two verse 14 Paul writes of the cross as erasing the record of our sins and thus destroying the basis that the evil powers and principalities had to accuse and destroy us. Paul goes on to show that this action on the cross removes all the basis for having to observe rituals in regard to food, drink, festivals, new moons and Sabbaths etc. Now lets look at these interesting references in more detail.
(Colossians 1:19-23 NRSV) For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, {20} and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross. {21} And you who were once estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, {22} he has now reconciled in his fleshly body through death, so as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him-- {23} provided that you continue securely established and steadfast in the faith, without shifting from the hope promised by the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven. I, Paul, became a servant of this gospel.
These verses point out the following four things about the cross.
1.That Christ was a perfect and
pleasing sacrifice to God.In Him all "the fullness of God"
was pleased to dwell.
Jesus was fully God and fully man. Perfect in every way.
Because of His perfection God was pleased to use Him as
the agent of reconciliation for all things. Being fully
God meant that His reconciliation extended to all things
in the heavenlies as well as all things on earth. Since
the sacrifice was fully God, then ir was infinite in
scope. Jesus was able to be a substitute for all the sins
of all the people for all time. The fact that Jesus was
fully God also means that the sacrifice was sinless,
perfect, and totally acceptable.
2. That the reconciliation is
extensive and all-embracing.God was pleased to reconcile to himself
all things, whether on earth or in heaven.
No class of being is left out of the possibility of
salvation. Kings can be saved, poor people can be saved,
Jews can be saved, Gentiles can be saved, slaves can be
saved, and so can their masters. There is no group at
which we can point the finger and say "this group
cannot experience salvation, Christ did not die for them,
they are beyond redemption". The cross is effective
for all classes of people. This verse does not mean that
all individuals will be saved regardless of their beliefs
or lifestyle. It is not an indicator that all will,
somehow, go to heaven. This has sometimes been argued
from this and other verses. For a concise rebuttal of
universalism read Millard J. Erickson's Christian
Theology pages 1018-1022.
3. That the cross results in
peace."making
peace through the blood of his cross".
The sacrificial death of Jesus ends the war between man
and God. Paul describes us as "once estranged and
hostile in mind, doing evil deeds,". In other words
both our inner and outer beings were at cross-purposes
with God. When peace is made we move from being enemies
of god at cross-purposes with Him to becoming obedient
sons and daughters performing His will. This results in
his blessing resting on our lives and this produces a
state of blessedness known as "peace" or
"Shalom" - the well-being, prosperity,
abundance and joy of God. To enter into this peace the
blood of the cross like the blood on the doorposts in
Exodus has to be personally applied. The model in Exodus
was that the lamb was slain, its blood collected in a
bowl, then applied to the doorposts with a bunch of
hyssop. This prevented the wrath of God's destroying
angel visiting that house. The blood in the bowl
protected no-one. It only became effective as it was
applied with the bunch of hyssop. Christ is the perfect
Passover lamb and the reconciliation purchased by His
blood is only available to those who apply it to their
lives through faith. (Exodus 12:6, 12-13, 21-23; 1 Cor
5:7) According to the philosopher and Bible teacher Derek
Prince this peace applies to six areas of our lives:
The peace with God that comes through the blood of the cross affects every area of our lives bringing them into wholeness of body, soul, and spirit.
4.That the purpose of the
cross is so that God may purchase for himself a
holy and blameless people, His church."....He has
now reconciled in his fleshly body through death,
so as to present you holy and blameless and
irreproachable before him"
This is confirmed in the epistle to the Ephesians
where Paul writes(Ephesians 1:3-4 NRSV) Blessed be
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual
blessing in the heavenly places, {4} just as he
chose us in Christ before the foundation of the
world to be holy and blameless before him in
love.Jesus objective
is to "present you holy and blameless".
He wants to produce people that are spotless in
every respect. Sometimes we see nothing further
than forgiveness. As wonderful as forgiveness is
we cannot rest there but must press on in the
light of that forgiveness to lead holy lives. The
cross works in our lives to give us the power to
be holy. As you accept this transforming power
and harness it by faith you will be made holy
from within.
The second of the Colossians passages looks at the cross in the light of false religions and philosophies and show how Christ is vastly superior to all other spiritual powers and philosophical systems.
(Colossians 2:13-22). {13} And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with Him, when he forgave us all our trespasses, {14} erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross. {15} He disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it. {16} Therefore do not let anyone condemn you in matters of food and drink or of observing festivals, new moons, or Sabbaths. {17} These are only a shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. {18} Do not let anyone disqualify you, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, dwelling on visions, puffed up without cause by a human way of thinking, {19} and not holding fast to the head, from whom the whole body, nourished and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows with a growth that is from God.A further four points about the cross can be extracted from this short passage they are:
5.The cross
gives life to the spiritually dead.And when
you were dead in trespasses and the
uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive
together with Him, when he forgave us all our
trespasses,
The point at which we are "made alive"
is the point when we accept the work of the cross
in our lives and are forgiven all our trespasses.
Our life is not an independent life but comes
from being "with Him". The spiritual
deadness of the unbeliever is total. To put it
bluntly some corpses may be warmer than others
and some may be very decomposed indeed but they
are all corpses. They cannot come alive by their
own power. (Ephesians 2:8-9 NKJV) For by grace
you have been saved through faith, and that not
of yourselves; it is the gift of God, {9} not of
works, lest anyone should boast. Life for the
spiritually dead flows from God through the cross
to all who believe.
6.The cross ends
the power of rules and regulations over the life
of the believer.{14} erasing the record
that stood against us with its legal demands. He
set this aside, nailing it to the cross. {15} He
disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a
public example of them, triumphing over them in
it. {16} Therefore do not let anyone condemn you
in matters of food and drink or of observing
festivals, new moons, or Sabbaths. {17} These are
only a shadow of what is to come, but the
substance belongs to Christ.
The total forgiveness of us purchased on the
cross ends the power of rules over the life of
the believer. Lets look at it this way. Rules in
the spiritual realm are either from God or the
Devil. The cross has defeated the Devil and so
his rules have no power. The cross has also
purchased forgiveness for breaking God's rules.
The cross has freed us from them into a lifestyle
where we are led by the Spirit and not under a
law code for approval from God. The cross has
thus abolished the rules about food, drink, and
festivals that are from God and destroyed the
rules about food, drink and festivals that the
Devil tried to impose. Thus there are no laws of
this nature that the believer has to obey. They
were once useful as "tutors to lead us to
Christ" but they are the ‘shadow' not
the ‘substance'. Christ is the "real
thing" and rules are now a thing of the
past.
7. The cross is
a final and permanent end to Satan's ability to
accuse us erasing the record that stood against
us with its legal demands.He set
this aside, nailing it to the cross. {15} He
disarmed the rulers and authorities...
When Satan wants to dig up our sins and fling
them at us we can say to him. "I'm afraid
you will have to go the cross and find them -
they have been nailed there by God" .
Crucified criminals had their crimes nailed above
the cross so people could know why they died. On
Christ's cross is a board with all the sins you
and I have ever done nailed to it. They were
nailed to Christ's cross and he took the
punishment for them. He bore all the charges in
one massive hit - and rose from the dead. It was
as if Jesus stood in court with literally
millions of charges against His name and pleaded
guilty to all the sins you and I had committed
(out of love for us so that we could go free).
Then the Judge (God) said "You will serve
all these death sentences concurrently - on the
cross". (They had to be served concurrently
- you cannot keep executing someone). Since the
penalty for the crimes had been paid Satan had no
further basis for accusing believers before God.
. Their charge sheets were all nailed to the
cross! With "penalty paid in full"
written on them! Satan was out of ammunition!
Paul describes this as "disarming the
principalities and powers.." and
"triumphing over them". It was a
victory indeed!
8. The cross
gives Christians the confidence they need to
break with the domination of their lives by
spiritual powers, taboos and superstitions.He
disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a
public example of them, triumphing over them in
it.
The Colossians like many Christians now came from
a culture which had strict taboos related to
spirit-worship and other customs. This part of
the gospel message was and is very freeing to
them as they no longer have to abide by the
countless fear-filled rules of their culture.
Some of these taboos can be very cruel
-especially toward women. Before the missionaries
came to the Gogodala tribe (in which I worked for
a short while ) the women were required to
require wear large heavy cane baskets that
covered their heads and most of the length of
their bodies for three months after the death of
any clan member. This meant that most women were
permanently encased in these cruel baskets out of
fear of what the spirits would do if they broke
with this taboo. The spiritual powers that are
behind these taboos and which make them work are
defeated by the cross of Christ. All the taboos
have been broken down and the demonic powers have
no ground of attack. They have in fact been
publicly humiliated and stripped of their power.
The Gogodala are now a very Christian tribe that
sends out evangelists to other tribes. The cane
baskets are long forgotten as the light of the
gospel has broken forth into their hearts. The
cross ends any need to fear or obey the spirits
of darkness (even as a precaution). No Christian
needs an amulet, a charm, an incantation, a
potion, statue, spell, secret writing, mantra,
special diet, or any other thing to ward off evil
spirits. We have the cross and the blood of Jesus
and that has rendered the spirits powerless,
humiliated and made us victors "triumphing
over them through the cross".
Conclusion
The cross of Jesus Christ gives us the confidence and assurance we need to progress in God. We know that we are part of a work of God on a cosmic scale where the perfect Lamb of God was sacrificed to reconcile everything on heaven and on earth to God and bring us peace and forgiveness of sin. The cross enables spiritually dead people to be made alive in Christ and empowers those with new life to become holy and blameless and without accusation. The cross is also our protection against all the attacks of the demonic world. It has disarmed Satan and removed his ability to accuse us and means we no longer have to live in fear of breaking taboos or incurring curses and spells. As a result we need no longer be bound by obscure rituals, pointless obligations, religious dietary requirements and festivals designed to appease the spirit world. The cross is our defence and our refuge and gives us the ability to triumph over all spiritual powers. Thus we are freed from human observances into the liberty of the Spirit through the cross of Jesus Christ. Praise be to God!
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