Cross Talk On A Tuesday

I Corinthians 2:2
For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

The cross....
The place that defined our belief's in Christ.
Who He claimed to be....
What He promised He would do....
All came together on a hill outside of Jerusalem when He was nailed to it.

Some of you may have heard me quote the verse from I Corinthians 2:2, and make the claim that this is my entire theology. Why such a claim? Because without the cross of Christ everything crumbles and falls away. Without the cross, Jesus was just a good man going about proclaiming God's truth. Without the cross, Jesus was no different than the religious rulers in Jerusalem.

Without the cross, Jesus would always be carrying the title of "Rabbi"...."Good Teacher"...."Prophet".  He never would have attained the place where God the Father bestowed Him with the name "Lord and Savior".

I find it ironic that life....
Real life....
Begins at a place of death.
But isn't that the way that Jesus taught? That in order to find your life, you had to lose it, and if you tried to hang on and keep your life, you would lose it? I think it was put that way in His teachings.

If the cross didn't carry such weight and importance, then why do we decorate ourselves with it.
Why shape it and form it into trinkets and necklaces? Don't you find it a bit strange that people who may or may not have any belief at all in Christ go out of their way to wear one? The cross of Christ has become a talisman of sorts. A trinket to ward off evil spirits, or a piece of jewelry that makes a statement. Kind of funny, isn't it? I don't think Jesus died to make a fashion statement, do you?

You cannot escape the simple truth that the cross of Christ was all part of God's plan to liberate and return  mankind to a place where we could experience real relationship with. No longer would we have to trudge down to the local temple with our animal offering to go through a ritual in order to have our sins atoned for. The cross of Christ destroyed the entire sacrificial system because Jesus became the Lamb offered for the sins of the world. He became payment for every sin we have ever committed, or will commit. 

The power of sin....
The penalty of sin...
And the presence of sin was broken at the cross...
John 12:32 proclaims "And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself." 
Peoples? What kind of peoples?
From every tribe, tongue and nation...
The rich and the poor....
The successful and those who have failed at everything....
The teacher and the student....
The old and the young..
And yes...
Even those who are trapped in the darkness we call addiction....
Jesus died for us all....
Glad the story didn't end there, because Jesus defeated the powers of this world by coming back to life. You see, you can't have the cross without the tomb.
You can't celebrate Jesus' death without celebrating His resurrection.

SO Jesus embraced death on our behalf so that we could embrace life .
How could you not love this Jesus?

God on you...
mb