A MISCONCEPTION OF THE CROSS OF CHRIST, PART II

“And He said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me” (Lk. 9:23).

SELF-EFFORTS

Much of the Christian world relies heavily upon their own efforts to bring about sanctification, which means that they will always come up short. They believe that now that they are saved and sometimes even filled with the Spirit, they have the power within themselves to overcome sin and to live a holy and righteous life before God. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, Paul, the great apostle to whom this word of the Cross was given, wrote an entire epistle regarding works righteousness—the epistle to the Galatians. He shot down the Judaizers' belief that Gentiles could be saved, but once they were saved, they had to hold to the law of Moses for the rest of their lives in order to earn their stripes, so to speak, from God. His very words were, “I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain” (Gal. 2:21).
The whole works mentality is a fallacy and will cause untold problems to arise in the life of the believer. The reason is that if we are looking unto our works to sanctify us, then this will only cause the sin nature to rear its ugly head one more time. It will then cause us to spiral out of control into a web of sin from which we cannot hope to escape on our own (Rom. 7:7-20).
At the same time, it will cause a person to become self-righteous, as in, “Look at what I do or don’t do,” and “I’m special because I do not do what so-and-so is doing.” Remember, it was not the Romans who crucified Christ, but rather it was the self-righteous religious leaders who nailed Him to that tree. In my opinion, self-righteousness is the greatest sin of all, for it denies the Cross of Christ outright and claims that works can earn brownie points with God. To deny the Cross of Christ as the means of sanctification puts them on a path that will not turn out the way that they think. People who are self-righteous say that they know all about the Cross or that we need to look past the Cross, and we need to go on to something else.

“YOUNG PEOPLE DON’T NEED THE CROSS”

Several years ago, just as I was starting out in youth ministry, I had one youth pastor tell me very bluntly that young people do not need the Cross; they need something else. I sat there for a moment and pondered such a stupid statement. I then answered him by asking him a question. I asked him, "If young people do not need the Cross, what else will we give them?" The answer is that we have nothing to offer them except works, self-effort, and trying harder. None of those items mentioned will ever bring about what is needed in the lives of believers—young and old alike.
I’m not trying to demean the brother, but he is dead wrong when he says that our youth need something other than the Cross. The only thing that the youth of this generation needs is the Cross of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. They cannot survive on the doing of religious activities, and they cannot survive by relying upon what the world has to offer.
The only answer for the drug problem, pornography problem, lust problem, homosexual problem, alcohol problem, and any other problems that they will encounter is the Cross. Without it, man is left to his own abilities, strength, and education, which can never set the captive free. Only the Cross can deliver from all unrighteousness.

THE RESURRECTION

Let’s address something that we hear constantly regarding the Cross and the resurrection. Many write to our ministry and self-righteously demand to know the reason we only preach the Cross and not the resurrection. Let’s dissect this for one moment.
To put it plainly and simply: The resurrection is one of the greatest happenings in all of mankind's history. It is one of the most stupendous events to have ever taken place, but there could have been no resurrection without a death. There can be no resurrection without the Cross. Furthermore, the resurrection was never in question. The Word of God says, “And He (Jesus) began to teach them (His disciples), that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again” (Mk. 8:31) (also found in Matthew 16:21-28 and Luke 9:22-27). He was telling them even then, just days before His crucifixion, that He was going to die, but that He was not going to stay dead; He was going to be resurrected.
Many have claimed that we do not preach enough on the resurrection, or they say, “Why do you keep talking about the Cross and not the resurrection?” The fact is that the resurrection was never in doubt. The Lord was going to rise again, and the reason was because through His death at Calvary’s Cross, He atoned for all sin.
If one single sin had been left unatoned, then Christ would have never been able to come out of that tomb. However, seeing that what He did at Calvary satisfied the demands of the broken law, the grave could not hold Him, for He defeated death, hell, and the grave, and He rose victorious over all sin. So, we see that the resurrection actually ratified what Christ did at the Cross because He paid the price for sin.

SATAN’S LEGAL RIGHT TO HOLD MANKIND IN CAPTIVITY

Though we have stated this over and over again, we must address ourselves to it once again. The legal right that Satan had over man to keep him in captivity was the problem of sin. However, when Christ died on the Cross, He took away that legal right from Satan, and he no longer has any legal right to hold anyone in captivity who will simply believe. To prove this, we go back to the Bible.
The Bible gives us an inside glimpse of what took place after the death of Christ on the Cross. Paul wrote in Ephesians 4:8-10, “Wherefore He said, When he ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. (Now that He ascended, what is it but that He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is the same also who ascended up far above all heavens, that He might fill all things.)
This means that after His Death, Christ went down into paradise (not the burning side of hell), where all the sainted dead went and were held captive by Satan. From there, He led captivity captive, meaning that He liberated those in paradise, and He then rose from the dead victorious over sin, Satan, death, hell, and the grave.

WHAT THE RESURRECTION GUARANTEES

As well, the resurrection of Christ guaranteed several things for all who would believe:
1. It guaranteed that death was totally and completely defeated. Even though we still taste death on this earth, due to the finished work of Christ on the Cross, it solidified the fact that there is coming a great resurrection of those who have passed on while believing in Jesus Christ (I Cor. 15:54).
2. His resurrection guaranteed our coming resurrection, which will give ever sainted dead a glorified body, and "we shall be like Him" (I Jn. 3:2).
3. His resurrection also guaranteed our justification. This is found in Paul’s epistle to the Romans, “Who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification” (Rom. 4:25).
This means that Christ was delivered up as a result of our offenses and, consequently, He had to atone for all of our failures. He was raised from the dead for our justification—to justify us through His shed blood on the Cross. The Bible says that without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins (Heb. 9:22).
Due to His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension, we can be declared legally justified by God through faith in Christ and what He did at the Cross. This means that we are not guilty, but innocent, as though we have never sinned a day in our lives, and it also means that we are perfect.
So, to those who claim that we do not preach the resurrection, we do. We do because the Cross includes the resurrection, and this great event was never in doubt. He was going to rise again, and it guaranteed our resurrection in that coming glad day. We must comprehend the importance of the resurrection, but it has to be understood that this tremendous event took place all because of the Cross.

“THE CROSS MAY WORK FOR YOU, BUT IT DOES NOT WORK FOR ME”

The last misconception that I would like to address is the idea that the Cross doesn’t work for everyone. Nearly every week tens of thousands of letters flood our offices here at the ministry, whether by regular mail, email, or through our social media outlets. They are questions, comments, and suggestions from nearly every single country on the planet. One of the statements that we see on a regular basis is, “The Cross may work for you, but it doesn’t work for me.” That statement could not be further from the truth. In fact, it is the complete opposite of the truth, for the Cross always works; it’s you and me who don’t work too well.
Let’s put it this way: Many think, and I was one of them, that at the very moment that we begin to place our faith in Christ and the Cross, Satan is going to go away, and the problems and bondages will be no more, the wind will be at our backs, and it will be nothing but smooth sailing from here on out. No, my friend, the Cross does not work that way.
The Cross is not some magic wand that they can wave at any time in their lives, and their problems and bondages magically disappear—no matter how much they want to believe that. Neither is it a quick fix. Yes, it is a fix, but it is not a quick fix. It is rather a process. Incidentally, it will take an entire lifetime for the Holy Spirit to daily take out that which is bad and put in that which is good. This is the place where many believers quit, for they didn’t expect the Devil to fight them this hard.

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