BECAUSE OF CALVARY



BECAUSE OF CALVARY

GALATINS 6:14

INTRODUCTION:

My soul was deeply stirred recently while listening to a Gospel song on the Cross of Christ. I began to mentally recount the blessings that have come to my life on the basis of the sacrificial death of Christ upon the Cross. As began to recite them, I suddenly found myself exactly where Paul was when he wrote this great exclamation concerning the Cross. My debt to Christ for His death at the cross is so great that I dare now glory in anything or anyone else.

Would you just allow you mind to survey the blessings that have come to you through the death of Christ? As unreasonable as it may seem to a world that fails to understand, we must glory in the Cross. We must offer to God the gratitude of our hearts for the deed of the Cross.

I. BECAUSE OF CALVARY, MY SINS ARE GONE.

This may appear to be the most prominent of the blessings that have come through the Cross. Let me just review with you a couple of key words that are connected to the Cross.

1. I am forgiven.

Forgiven looks upon my sins as a debt. Paul stated in like this in the Ephesian letter, “In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace.” (Eph. 1:7) To redeem is to set free by the payment of a price. Forgiveness means to send away, to dismiss, or to cancel a debt.

Every time you commit a sin, you create a debt on the books of heaven. It is a debt that must be completely paid before you can enter heaven. It is debt that must be paid with righteousness. You and I have none of the currency which is needed to pay such a debt. When there was no hope of us ever paying the debt, Jesus paid this debt by giving His blood as a payment at the Cross. So because of Calvary, my sin debt is paid.

2. I am cleansed.

This word looks upon my sin as defilement. Every time I sin, I defile myself. I stain my garments. John stated it like this, “ But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another,,, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7) So because of the blood of Christ, my defilement is gone. I am able to have fellowship with God and with you.

3. I am justified.

This is yet a third word to describe the difference that Calvary makes. “Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption hat is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.” (Romans 3:24,25)

On the basis of the death of Christ on the Cross, God did more than dismiss my sins, forgive me, He also declared me to be righteous—He imputed to me the perfect righteousness of His Son as a free gift. I am justified by the Cross.

II. BECAUSE OF CALVARY MY RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD IS CHANGED.

This is a second way of looking at the impact of the Cross upon my life. This looks at the difference that is made in my relationship with God. The removal of my sin made all of this possible.

1. I am reconciled.

Paul sets forth this blessing in the Ephesian letter: “But now in Christ Jesus you who were sometimes far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.” (Eph. 2:14) “Far off” and “nigh” are terms Paul uses to describe our broken relationship with God and our reconciliation with Him. We were “far off”, plagued by a broken relationship with God, but by the blood of Christ, we are now near to God.

“And that He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the Cross, having slain the enmity thereby; and came and preached peace to you which we far off, and to them which are nigh.” (Eph. 2:17) To reconcile means to make peace, to restore to a peaceful relationship. This is what God did at the Cross.

2. I am accepted.

“For through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.” (Eph. 2:18). Access points to our acceptance. Paul uses words that point to the reality that both Jews and Gentiles (And we are the Gentiles) have access to God on the basis of the Cross.

The writer of the letter to the Hebrews sets forth this same benefit through the Cross—“Having therefore boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the vail, that is to say, his flesh.” (Hebrews 10:19-20) The holiest is where God dwells. Under the old system the only person who could ever enter was the anointed High Priest, and He could enter only once a year. Now through the blood of Christ, I can come boldly into the presence of God at any time. I now have peace with God and access to His presence. He is my Friend. We are at peace with each other. He loves me and I love Him—all because of Calvary.

III. BECAUSE OF CALVARY, MY OBLIGATION TO THE LAW IS SETTLED.

By the term “law” Paul sets forth every holy demand that God places upon us, everything that God requires us. There is something in us that readily acknowledges that God is just and righteous in everything that He requires of us. He is the Creator and we are the creature. But Paul learned by experience what all of us come to know sooner or later, we are not able to keep the law. No matter how righteous God’s demands are, we do not have what it takes to meet them. It is against this background that we understand his words in the Colossian letter concerning the Cross.

1. I am free from the law.

“And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, has he quickened together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses; blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross, and having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.” (Col. 2:13-15)

With these words Paul points to two great realities that come to us through the Cross. The first is our freedom from the law. “The handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us,” was the demands of the law. They were nailed to His Cross. Or it may be that the thing nailed to the Cross is the record of my indebtedness, my failure to live up to the demands of the law. The reality is that Christ fulfilled the law for me by His death on the Cross. He came into the world to fulfill the law—and announced from the Cross with a loud cry that He had accomplished His mission. “When He shouted, “It is finished.” This is the significance of the cry!

2. My only debt is one of love.

Because of Calvary my only debt is one of love and gratitude.

IV. BECAUSE OF CALVARY, MY VICTORY OVER SATAN IS ACCOMPLISHED.

This is the fourth dimension of benefit that comes to me and you by the Cross of Christ. We have complete victory over the enemy of our souls.

1. I am free from his control.

In the dramatic scene in Revelation twelve John observes, “And they overcame him (The old dragon, Satan) by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto death. (Revelation 12:11) It has been the intention of Satan to gain control of all things, and to make of God’s universe his own evil kingdom of darkness. In order to accomplish this, he seeks to gain control over every human life. He seeks to make us unwilling subjects of his rule and join him in his enmity toward God. The only way a human being can ever break free from this control is by the blood of the Cross.

Earlier in the book of Revelation John wrote, “Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood.” (Revelation 1:5) The result of this loosing from sin through His blood is that “He hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.” (Revelation 1:6) We are now longer a part of a rebellious kingdom, but are rather willing and glad servants in the glorious kingdom of God’s Son of love.

The reference in the Colossian letter to the “principalities and powers” is a reference to this dark kingdom. We were actually carried away from that kingdom by Christ as spoils of His victory at the Cross. He has no further claim on us, no hold on us. We have been delivered from the kingdom of darkness and now enjoy citizenship in the eternal kingdom of God. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

2. I am free from his accusation.

The enemy is the effective accuser of the brethren. He accuses us before God and he accuses us directly and personally. Which one of us have not heard his terrible accusations as he told us how sorry and unworthy we are. The truth now is that there is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. All of the basis for his accusations have been removed.

Do you not agree that we should glory only in the Cross of the Lord Jesus Christ? How can we ever be the same? Our relationship with the world has been changed forever. Our view of ourselves has been transformed. Our relationship with each other has been changed. So I too want to sing “All Because of Calvary.”

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