The
cross, as revealed first by the Apostle Paul, has a duality within it. The
cross is the place of both death and life; the place of termination of the
old and germination of the new. God works His plan and purpose by the cross
of Christ as the fulcrum of His plan – the fulcrum point is at the center.
The cross changes everything between man and God, and between man and the
world he lives in. Consider that whereas God was heretofore “unapproachable”
(1Tim 6:16), now God in Christ, as “the spirit of life in Christ
Jesus,” indwells every believer’s human spirit – available and as
close as the believer’s breath.
The
cross was not to rectify an error in God’s judgment or plan in previous
dispensational times or arrangements with mankind. God is not “now to
getting it right.” No, the cross of Christ was in God’s heart from
eternity past, as seen by the phrase “the lamb slain
before the foundation of the world” (Rev
13:8). By the seven principle dispensation we note in the Bible, man was
to learn that noting but the indwelling Christ will do to rectify that
relationship that was broken in the Garden of Eden.
The
ultimate purpose of the cross is that it is the basis for God to gain his “many
sons,” birthed of His own loins, according to God’s loving
heart’s desire…to be Father. This is in accord with “the eternal
purpose that was purposed in Christ Jesus” (Eph
3:11). Hebrews 2:10 For it became him (God),
for whom are all things, and by whom are all things,
in bringing many sons unto glory
(expression),
to make the captain of their salvation (Jesus)
perfect (completed)
through sufferings.
You
see, with the addition of each of these “many sons” there is an
added capacity for God the Father to have His glorious life’s expression
multiplied on the earth via Israel in the eternal Kingdom on earth, and then
ultimately in the heavens, where we have our ultimate citizenship
(Philippians 3:20) as “the church which is His body.”
It
is the sufferings that Christ endured for us
that led to the enlargement of God’s family. Each
believer is reborn out of the cross to become a child of God. It is
Christ’s death as us, as our old fallen self,
that frees us from the power of the Sin nature that indwells our temporal
human body of flesh. It is Christ’s resurrection, and our resurrection
with Him in newness of life, that empowers us to
become living expressions (the glory), of our new found Father’s
life. God’s Fatherhood comes to us out of Christ’s work at the cross and
in the person of the resurrected Christ, now is the life-giving Spirit in
our spirit (1Cor 6:17).
Christ’s
Life is the Key
The
two most commonly spoken of aspects of the cross of Christ are His blood and
His death. Yet, these two are preparatory for accomplishing God’s ultimate
intent – of producing His “many sons.” The many sons are to be
born of God’s life-seed (sperma), which is Christ. The blood and death of
Christ exhibit the termination side of the precious cross of Christ, but we
come know the resurrection side of the cross by His life in us.
Jesus
foretold these dual aspects of the cross here. John 12:24
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except (unless)
a corn of wheat (a
seed) fall into the ground and die,
it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much
fruit. Jesus is that corn of wheat (one seed) that was sown
into death as us, and we are the “much fruit” – we have His life
that comes out of His death. We are the many grains that come out of
God’s One Christ-Seed. The cross has the central purpose of yielding the
many grains – born of the One Seed, Jesus Christ (Gal 3:16, 1Peter 1:23).
A
New Nature
We,
who have been born of God’s One Seed (Greek, sperma), are the “many
grains” – the “many sons” of God, growing to express His life by
His indwelling nature (2Pet 1:4). By that nature we
are, the “glory” or “expression” of the One life of
God the Father. It may not yet appear so to us, but we each now possess the
spiritual genetics, the spiritual DNA, of God our Father in our spirit right
now, if we’ve been born of His Seed – Jesus Christ. That birth that
occurred by receiving Christ, God’s One Seed, made
each of us one of the “many sons” of God. John 1:12 But
as many as received him, to them gave he power to become
the sons of God, even to them that believe on his
name:
While
most Christians think of the cross primarily as the place of Jesus’ blood
shed for their sins, wonderful as this is, it alone would fall woefully
short of the depth of the riches of the cross of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ. Seeing the elements of the cross with greater understanding has the
power to produce life-changing faith within us - the power to deeply change
our lives.
A
Change In Jesus
Do
you realize that Jesus has become changed?
Once
God the Son became flesh (John 1:1), then He beamed the life giving Spirit
(1Cor 15:45), but here we see He has changed the Godhead forever.
Romans
1:3-4 3 Concerning his Son Jesus
Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to
the flesh; 4 And declared
to be the Son of God with power, according
to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from
the dead:
The
fleshly or human Jesus “according to the flesh,” who was in the
lineage of David, was resurrected to be declared as “the Son of
God.” The humanity of Jesus of Nazareth has infiltrated thee
Godhead. It was in resurrection that He became the life-giving Spirit to
become available to indwell us as our new life, as the life of God the
Father in us.
This
means all that Jesus, by all that He endured via
His incarnation, suffering, death, and resurrection, now is what we now
are…by His indwelling life. The resurrected Christ, in who the fullness of
the Godhead dwells (
Col
2:9), is in us as our new life and nature. We are made new in Christ by
Christ as He now is. In other words Jesus’ overcoming humanity, by
which He obeyed the Father, is now in us as the new us. We are well equipped
for human living and “complete in Him” (
Col
2:10).
My
prayer is that we each come to see the riches of the glory of the work of
Christ’s cross, which resulted in the glorious life of Christ that now
abides within the spirit of every regenerated Christian who has been born of
God the Father’s spiritual loins.
That
life is a forgiving life, since we have been forgiven by God of all our
sins. Thus, we are equipped to forgive ourselves and others…
freely.
NOTE:
An "addendum" will follow as the next installment.