The Cross that I Forgot

Often I get so excited when preaching that I inadvertently gloss over essential points I intended to make. This past Sunday was no different! Here are a few essentials that we simply cannot forget about the Cross of Christ.

• It's not the Cross that counts. It's the One who hung on the Cross.

• The Cross can be equivalent to our purposes in life. Jesus' "cross" was to die and suffer on the Cross. This is not our cross to bear. Our Cross is to walk in the call he has given each of us with full integrity, in the fear of the Lord, as we deny and self-discipline ourselves to loose our lives' for his sake.

• The Cross (and what happened upon the Cross) is essential for salvation. It is the only way through which we enter heaven. There is no life in Christ, without the Cross.

• The Cross is essential for the forgiveness of sin. No amount of counselling, therapy, hypnosis, diet, or good thinking can get you over the threshold of sin. The Blood of Christ that was shed on the Cross is the sole agent whereby we receive forgiveness of sins, reconciliation to the Father, and freedom from guilt, condemnation, and death.

• Life begins at the Cross.

We appropriate the power of the Cross in our life by bringing the incident which happened at Calvary up through the ages into our present day and age. This calling forth happens though prayer, and is actualized by faith.

• Satan hates the Cross, more so - what it represents.

• The Cross - as wonderful as it is - is only the entrance point into deeper ministry, fellowship, and purpose. Ministers in the tabernacle of Moses were unable to minister in the deeper places of the tabernacle without first appropriating the blood at the Altar of Sacrifice to themselves.

Aren't we blessed that God has provided such a powerful event whereby we can be forgiven and given purpose in our life? Thanks be to God for his most remarkable gift!