The Truth Of The Cross

How is a man to be right with God?

Every religion in the world attempts to answer  that question through different means.

All but one religion in this world are religions  and belief systems of human achievement.

The big lie they offer is that YOU can make yourself right with whatever god you think or decide exists, by applying your own efforts. The truth is, as we have seen in the past few weeks, that man has problem, and there is only One true way to fix it. We cannot fix our core problem ourselves. We need God. There is only one God, and one true religion, with Him at its center. All others are false. They are much too different for all to be true.

Romans 3:21-22 But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; 22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference.

The Cross Is Necessary

Romans 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short  of the glory of God.

Paul makes the argument in Romans chapters 1-3 of how God is angry with wicked man. Man is rebellious against God, and no one will be declared right with God  by doing their own thing. Neither Jews nor Gentiles have lived up to the standard of what they know from revelation or conscience, therefore, all are guilty.

Our consciences are strong enough to condemn us because whatever revelation we have received, whether from the Bible, from nature, or from our very constitution as human beings, we simply do not live up to what we do know.

Not only does the Bible insist there is such a thing as sin, it insists the heart of what is ugly with sin is how it offends God. The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men.

The Cross Can  Correct the Problem

Romans 3:24 Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

The justice of God (that is, what He is in Himself) issues in God’s justifying act, and that is the dominant force here.

Sin is not a living thing, but what does the cross look like to sin? Sin can be thought of as a debt, and the cross is seen as the means by which the debt is paid.  Sin is a symbol of our shame. Regardless of what foul imagery is used, the cross is the solution, the sole solution. The cross is the ultimate measure of how  serious our guilt and offense is.

The cross, is the high water mark of the demonstration of God’s love for us. It is the  comforting assurance that our guilt and offense has been dealt with.  All of God’s justice is worked out in Christ, who takes our curse and penalty in His own body on the cross. It means that the demands of His holiness are met in the sacrifice of His own Son. His justice is  satisfied in Jesus’ sacrifice so that all may see that sin  deserves the punishment God imposed, and  the punishment has been executed.

The Cross Brings Us Favor

Romans 3:25 Whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.

Propitiation is the act by which someone (in this case, God) becomes favorable. Fallen man had no favor with God, but now fallen man has God’s favor, because of  Jesus’ death on the cross.

This vindicates God so that He Himself is known and seen to be just, as well as the One Who justifies the ungodly. God preserves His justice, while justifying the ungodly.

Revelation 12:11 says that they overcome him by the blood of the Lamb. These believers escape the accusations of Satan. whether in their own minds, (Christians feel guilty, and wonder how they can possibly be accepted by God) or before the bar of God’s justice, because they make their appeal to the cross.

Satan is saying, “How can you accept these people? They defy you; they don’t love you with heart and soul and mind.”

God’s Answer Is The Cross

We can sing, with gratitude, “Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to the cross I cling.” Before that appeal, Satan is powerless. God has retained His great honor,  while beautifully redeeming a rebellious people.

We are free, not because we are guiltless, but because Jesus Himself bore our sin in His own body on the cross, and God accepts that. The promise of our deliverance from the penalty of sin and the assurance that we are accepted by almighty God is based on the object of our faith: Christ and the Cross.

When we approach God in prayer, our plea is not that we have been ‘good that day and, therefore, God please listen to us.’ No! We understand Christ has died for sinners, and that is enough.

Only the cross of Christ can fix our problem if we will commit our lives to it,  to Him, by faith.