"For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified." (1 Corinthians 2:2)
"But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world" (Galatians 6:14)
"Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin." (Romans 6:4)
"For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit." (1 Peter 3:18)
If we are believing and preaching the same gospel that the apostle Paul believed in and preached, it stands to reason that we should have today a similar emphasis on the message of the cross of Christ. The message of the cross is so foundational and so important that Paul said he resolved to know nothing among the Corinthians except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
There is a danger in charismatic and full gospel circles of coming to regard the message of the cross as being rather "old-hat". There has been a tendency to look for teaching that is more novel, more tantalising, more intriguing. Many churches seem to major now on preaching lifestyle principles, and various kinds of motivational messages to inspire to achieve greater levels of "success" that the world can understand and admire. Indeed we can teach all kinds of stuff - spiritual gifts, spiritual warfare, financial prosperity and so many other things - but if these things are somehow divorced from the cross of Christ, they will inevitable contain seeds of self-destruction, whatever value they offer in the meantime. Which preachers today can say with Paul, "I resolved to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him Crucified"? The truth is, unless you know Jesus Crucified, you'll never TRULY know Him in the power of His resurrection either. And if you don't preach (communicate) the cross, people will not get the true message of salvation through your lips.
The message of the cross is at the heart of all true gospel preaching. One part of the message has to do with the sacrifice of an innocent Lamb. Let me illustrate:
Have you ever seen in real life a little lamb? I was surprised one day many years ago, while living in Greenacre, a suburb of Sydney, to see one out in a park one day. They are such cute and innocent creatures. They are so trusting and placid. Their white wool speaks of innocence. Little lambs do not attack other animals, they quitely eat grass. I would hate to think of driving a knife into the flesh of that cute and innocent creature.
But in the times before the coming of Christ, if a man sinned against the Lord, it was not enough to just say "Sorry" to God. No, the law stated that there had to be a sacrifice offered. There were various kinds of sacrifices, amongst which was the sacrifice of a lamb. Your sin would actually cause the death of that innocent little white lamb.
Lev 4:35 And he shall take away all the fat thereof, as the fat of the lamb is taken away from the sacrifice of the peace offerings; and the priest shall burn them upon the altar, according to the offerings made by fire unto the LORD: and the priest shall make an atonement for his sin that he hath committed, and it shall be forgiven him.
When a lamb is slaughtered, it does not put up a fight. It goes to death quietly, without complaining. As the cruel knife goes in, and the lamb's blood is shed, it is intended to be a reminder of the horrible consequences as rebelling against God. We are living now on a rebel planet. Most people today don't want the living God in their lives, they don't want His laws! We need to know how God feels about it. It grieves God. At one time it grieved God so much he decided to wipe out the entire population of the earth, except for one family consisting of 8 people. It also grieves God when we sin as Christians. How can we be free from the guilt and the power of sin?
God intended for that image of the sacrifice of a little lamb to be in our minds, to show us the price of sin. Its not just that the lamb would have been worth money to you. That lamb was innocent! What did it do to deserve to die? Why should it die because of your sin? Lambs, when they are slaughtered, do not protest. Why should the sins we commit be transmitted to an innocent lamb?
Yet this is exactly what has happened for us. Jesus was the Lamb of God, slain for our sins. John the Baptist, the greatest man of God until the time of Christ, cried out concerning Jesus, "Behold the Lamb of God, that takes away the sins of the world".
Your sins and mine caused the innocent Son of God to be cruel
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