“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” 1 Corinthians 1:18.
“Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles [non-Jews] in the flesh – who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands – that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been made near by the blood of Christ.” Ephesians 2:11-13.
If you know even a little world history it will become obvious that the Gentile races were godless pagans and idolaters, so the phrase, “having no hope and without God in the world”, is no great stretch of the imagination.
“A sword is against the Chaldeans,” says the Lord, against the inhabitants of Babylon, and against her princes and her wise men. A sword is against the soothsayers, and they will be fools. A sword is against her mighty men, and they will be dismayed. A sword is against their horses, against their chariots, and against all the mixed peoples who are in her midst; and they will become like women. A sword is against her treasures, and they will be robbed. A drought is against her waters, and they will be dried up. For it is the land of carved images, and they are insane with their idols.” Jeremiah 50:35-38.
This also corresponds with the population of today, many having returned to pagan thinking and losing themselves in a stupor of drugs and alcohol.
Step out on the street today and ask a few people who God is and the many and varied answers will be no more informed than they were on the streets of Rome in 27 B.C.
This in a country where the Bible is in almost every household, pity, there is no excuse for the state this country is in today. Especially since our literacy rate is still pretty high and audio Bibles are available in any Bible bookstore.
You may have read this before but the more you think of it the more you have to become impressed with the power of the blood of Christ, there is, honestly, nothing like it.
The blood of Christ shed on the cross has the power to save you, not only from hellfire and eternal damnation in the lake of fire, it not only saves you to go to heaven for eternity, but it saves your life right now and gives it purpose.
“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 2:10.
“… [the blood of Christ] is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also the Greek [Gentiles].” Romans 1:16b.
Without the shed blood of Christ the sovereign God would be powerless to save anyone. Having done so though, He then begins to transform our lives into something useful.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17.
Try listening to the testimonies of some of the Christians you may like or admire and listen to the horrors many of them have come out of, abusive dysfunctional homes, drugs, and homelessness.
One very nice gentleman grew up in a family where the parents had opted out of the job of parenting and turned him over to his older sisters who had him smoking pot by the age of six. Not surprisingly he was kicked out at an early age and found himself homeless.
If any life could be expected to wind up on the dung heap this would be it, yet he accepted Christ as his Savior and a kinder person cannot be found.
Another gentle man named Lim Meas wrote a book titled, “Escape from Cambodia”, published by CSN Books, coming out of the horrors of the Khmer Rouge government you would expect an angry bitter old man, not so, his gentleness and humility should be desired by all Christians.
Another riveting book is titled, “Stormie: A Story of Forgiveness and Healing”, by Stormie Omartian, Harvest House publishers.
Anyone who accepts Christ as their Savior can expect their life to change, period.
Christ’s death on the cross has given us another thing that is not believed enough nor appreciated enough for its value, eternal salvation.
“And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and irreproachable in His sight…“ Colossians 1:21-22.
The power of the blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin, past, present, and future.
Does that mean that if we sin willfully, we are going to skate? Not at all, do not be mistaken.
If we commit adultery expect something awful to happen, see the results of David’s sin, 2 Samuel 11:1 through 12:25.
If we commit murder expect to pay for it with our life, or like Moses who wound up doing forty years in the back of the desert, Exodus 2:11 through 4:17.
Those who are dishonest and try to cheat and manipulate God, that sinking feeling one may have may be the muck they stepped into like Ananias and Sapphira, Acts 5:1-11.
“Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.” Galatians 6:7-8.
Sin, for the Christian is paid for in the here and now, sometimes with devastating results. Those devastating results may even reach to heaven with a loss of rewards for the Christian.
“According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.” 1 Corinthians 3:10-15.
This is the danger many Christians face when they assume that because they are saved by the blood of Christ it’s all okay.
Illicit sex, not a problem, loose living and carousing to all hours, go for it, a little shoplifting, why not; expect consequences, and do not deny that it is your fault when it happens.
“For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the gentiles – when we walked in licentiousness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. In regard to these, they think it strange that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation, speaking evil of you. They will give an account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.” 1 Peter 4:3-5.
Do not, for a moment, think that God will ignore your trampling the blood of Jesus underfoot and dishonoring His name.
“Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” 1 Peter 1:18-19.
Would you let your children run wild in disobedience without trying to do something about it? Would you even let your dog continually soil your carpet and chew up your furniture?
God is love, He is also holy, just and righteous, and He expects His children to act the same.
The heinous cruelty of the cross is enough. But for men to invent this device, and then to hang their Creator on it only after scourging Him, ripping out His beard, then spitting on Him showing utter contempt for Him; this is the epitome of the evil conduct we see mirrored in the world today.
“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” 1 Corinthians 1:18.
“For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” 1 Corinthians 1:21-24.
The horror of the cross has been around for many centuries, at least as far back as the Persians; it has been used by the Greeks as well as the Romans.
Alexander the Great is said to have crucified 2000 survivors of his siege of the city of Tyre.
And the movie Spartacus is loosely based on a slave uprising which was put down by the Romans in 71 B.C. Six thousand captives were crucified along the Via Appia from Capua to Rome. A distance of 200 kilometers, about 124.3 miles; there is no record of an order to take those bodies down.
A victim may suffer as long as 9 days, there is nothing lovely about this method of punishment and the lowest of the low were the usual people to suffer this death which was sometimes referred to as a tree.
“If a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall surely bury him that day, so that you do not defile the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance; for he who is hanged is accursed of God.” Deuteronomy 21:22-23.
“Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:1-2.
With Jesus as our forerunner and example we press on, knowing that the cross is the center of all history but the Christ of the cross is what gives it meaning.
The Cross of Christ, Part 2 taken from godisrevealed.com, posted on 11-4-15, updated on 10-18-24 ck.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.