“But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” Galatians 6:14
In the first letter of Paul to the Corinthians, he made this declaration: “For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ be made of none effect.” (1:17) How is it that the cross of Christ could have no effect, or result, in the preaching of the gospel? The answer lies in the meaning and application of the meaning of the cross to the life.
Paul wrote to the Romans, as well as Isaiah to Israel in his day, that the “righteousness” that we produce, the result of trusting in anything or anyone, especially ourselves, rather than in Christ, in God alone, is a “rightness” of the flesh, and not of the Spirit. It is not of God. It is sin, and is represented in Scripture as dirty, even filthy, clothing. David wrote in his Psalm 51, that we are born in sin, because we are sinners. Paul continues that thought by writing, “…there is none righteous, no, not one.” (3:11) Later on in chapter six, Paul declares what Christ has done by the sacrifice of Himself for sin on the cross, declared also by Isaiah in the Old Testament. Both men, led by the Spirit, declare the utter wretchedness of sin, whose wages is always that of death. Sin, and the sinner without Christ, is worthy of nothing more than to be crucified, and buried, separated from God for time and eternity. We grasp something of the dark nature and essence of sin when we understand that God’s wrath “…is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness.” (1:18) Were it not for the love of God, and His infinite mercy and grace, there would be no hope, no salvation for men. But the Father has given the Son in His perfect righteousness, by His blood shed on the cross, to take away sin, and to deal perfectly with the sinner. With regard to sin, Christ bore the wrath of God for all men. With regard to the sinner, God in Christ took the sinner with Him to the cross, for that “old man,” that sinful man in Adam, whose every thought, action, word and deed, being part of that filthy garment, must be crucified. The “old man” must die, crucified with Christ, and buried with Him, never to rise. The good and wonderful news of the Gospel is that when a person comes to Christ, and is born of the Spirit, he or she becomes a “new man” in Christ. All that is of the old man, the old life not in Christ, is done away with. Christ did away with it on the cross, that the believer walking on this earth can live free from the guilt of sin, and its dominating power. The new man in Christ lives no longer by faith in himself or in anything else, but in Christ alone, as his Lord and Life. Paul summed it up very clearly when he wrote: “…and the life that I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” (Gal. 2:20) Christ clothes the sinner at conversion with the clean clothing of His perfect righteousness, putting within him by the Spirit a power that is greater than the downward pull of the sin nature, which will still be there until the moment of total liberation from the things of this earth. The final vestiges of sin and the sinner will be forever left behind in the grave, and the soul will takes its flight. But what of the present moment, of the here and now? How does the cross apply?
Jesus said that His disciples are to take up their cross daily, taking their stand upon the truth that the old man has been crucified with Him, the new man following Him wholly by faith.
Dear Father, Strengthen us to look upward, forward, and never backward, only unto Thee. In Jesus’ name, Amen.