The Cross

Think about the need of coming to the cross.  Paul understood the dilemma.  To the Jew it was a shameful thing to be executed in that way.  To the Gentile it was foolishness.  The word closely translates to craziness.  We are in the midst of the Olympic Games.  Have you ever thought whether someone will gauge your skill in sports when compared to those athletes?  We would never measure up!  In the same way, we can never be good enough to measure up to the full righteousness of God.  But God provided a way with the cross.  We need the cross, and the mercy of God is that through it we are see as fully righteous.

The good news of the Gospel is that we are not good enough.  There is no way that we can come to God with anything we do on our own.  Paul is outlining this in his letter to the Romans.  Through chapter 2, he describes the heart issues we have.

Paul outlines that the Jewish people would not have been a people if God had not called them out through Abraham.  And that God entrusted in them his very words.  And that God’s plan, purpose, and redemption (through Jesus) would be carried forward by the Jews.  But what if the Jews were unfaithful?  Would that make God unfaithful?  No!  It doesn’t make God untrue because we stand as an unbeliever.  But that is the mindset of many in today’s world.  They think that because they don’t believe, that in itself is enough to remove God from existence.

So Paul asks the question if we are so unrighteous, and God does not bestow his wrath, is he unrighteous in his lack of immediate judgement?  But he says No!  For how much wrath would God need to pour onto the whole world?  He delays his wrath out of love so that we will chose salvation.  But then it leads to another question.  Why don’t we just do evil and get far away from God if we know God’s grace will reach us wherever we end up?  But the thought itself goes against the actual desire for us to be reached at the end of the rope.  Because if we were serious to being saved, we would not want to go down the road against God.

God knows that we cannot reach him on our own.  Even if we have righteous attributes, even one unrighteous makes us unqualified.  And the beautiful thing is that God provides the way to be fully righteous.  We just have to believe that is true for you.  When we go before the Father, he won’t be asking what you are holding in your hands, but whether you chose what He holds in his hands.  We are to realize how good God is, and he wants us to respond to His gift.  And that gift comes through a person, the finished work of Jesus Christ.

And when we look at what God has provided, we see how much it makes sense.  But until that time, when we see the cross occupied by our sins, we will never know the truth of the cross.  It will be foreign to us, and we will reject it.  No one is made right accept thorough a relationship with Jesus.

Are you able to talk about what the cross means in your life?  Is it just a symbol, or does it represent life?  If you cannot answer those questions, then take that to God.  Accept Jesus as your Savior.  And if you have accepted Jesus, but still cannot answer those questions, then its time to not play games.  Devote your lives, surrender yourselves to being God’s through the truth of salvation on the cross.