Cross | Community
Posted July 4th, 2011 by Ryan with No Comments
I’ve heard it said that we are born to die. From the moment we leave the comfy, nurturing confines of the maternal womb we are approaching an inescapable death. The average person lives just over 27,000 days. Often times these days, although they fly by cumulatively, are long, grueling and marked by anguish and despair. The only relief we find is when we surround ourselves with other people who are also climbing the slippery slope in an attempt to defy death. Ultimately we will all lose our tread and go tumbling down and plummet to the jagged and eternal stones that lie beneath. What a hopeless existence. Is there something more than temporary mollification or the occasional glimpse of light in this darkened tunnel? What if we could turn our back on this darkness and forsake it completely? Can we go back and be born..again, this time be born to live and not die? This all sounds great but we would still be forever haunted by our past and how things used to be. I’m not sure we could even enjoy our new found life if we still carried around the memories of our failures and sin. I am certain we could not keep our old life and grasp ahold of a new one at the same time. In other words, the existence that was marked by death, has to die.
In order for us to trade in our sin-stained existence for new and incorruptible life, we must understand what brought death and what brings life. You see, it is sin that sentenced us to death in the first place. Sin does not need a lengthy explanation. It is sufficient to say sin is falling short of the mark of perfection that is required to be like God, in whom lies the very definition of perfection. God not only sets the mark, He is the mark. Romans 3:23 says all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Since the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23), it is this sin that introduces death into our lives. To put it simply, sin equals death. God equals life. God is willing to trade. He set up a “trading post” for all of us. It was on this post that the author of life gave His son to die. Such a place of death has now become a place of life for all those who will believe. It is the cross where the the great exchange takes place. Jesus Christ was selfless in that He freely gave His life so that we may have a life that isn’t headed toward everlasting destruction but everlasting life and abundance.
John Stott says “The very purpose of his self-giving on the cross was not just to save isolated individuals, and so perpetuate their loneliness, but to create a new community whose members would belong to him, love one another and eagerly serve the world.” You see, when we’re all dying we all can relate to one another. Misery loves company. It’s a community of dead men. What the cross did was create a new community. This is a body or a family of people who can celebrate the fact that their old lives are gone having identified with Christ on the cross in His death. They also came into a new life when they identified with His resurrection.
Jesus Christ died in our place. Jesus Christ died for our sins. He was motivated by love and was obedient to the will of the Father. Being the Son of God He came back to life after being dead for three days. This was His victory over death.
The things that used to hold us back are now dead. They have been nailed to the cross:
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Written by Ryan