The Power of the Preaching of the Cross

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God has now given me a new nature and He is at work manifesting it in me, through my faith in that revelation the Holy Spirit has granted me. I am a new creature, my flesh has been crucified. Since I believe my flesh has been crucified, I will no longer give in to temptations when they come my way, now that I am filled with the revelation of Jesus. Every time that angry or impatient little retort that used to be mine comes up, I now have the grace and the strength to resist it because I know that my flesh has been crucified. So I can say : "No , that’s all over now , you will no longer rule me : I rule you because it is written that my flesh has been crucified". Through faith, - faith in Jesus - I am strong enough to resist that temptation when it comes along. "Buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead." (Col 2:12)

It is the same for all of the Lord’s promises. Jesus said : "If you believe, you will see it come to pass." He also tells us : "Therefore I say to you : whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you shall have them." That word is not limited to any particular promise. Besides, our death in Christ is more than a promise : it is already accomplished, it is a reality. Since the Lord assures us that we have already been crucified in Him, I can pray like this : "Lord, I want to walk in that revelation. Through Your Spirit, reveal those things to the depths of my heart. I receive that word as I would receive any other word spoken by the Lord, with unwavering faith."

I must not doubt that my flesh has been put to death in Christ, even if I sometimes still see it manifesting itself. All I can say then is that the work of the Lord is not yet perfect in me, but I do not doubt the truth of what He has said. "I died in You, Lord, two thousand years ago. I rose again in You ! I am meditating on Your Word…" To meditate on God’s Word prayerfully through the Holy Spirit, receiving the revelation of it from the Lord, is very different from stuffing my head full of intellectual concepts about the Cross, concepts that have not penetrated the depths of my heart through a revelation from the Holy Spirit.

If you have received that assurance, you hold it in your heart and put it into practice. No need to run around proclaiming : "I am a new creation" or : "My flesh has been crucified". It will be obvious ! Your whole life will show that you are indeed crucified, that you have stopped defending your own interests, that you have actually gone through the the garden of Gethsemane experience, in which Jesus, facing imminent crucifixion, facing the agony of his imminent death, sweated drops of blood as he said three times : "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me : nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt." (Matt. 26:39) It was not his own sin that was going to be laid upon Him, but ours.

If we approach the Lord in the same way as Jesus did, and say : "Lord, as the Cross comes closer I can feel the sweat from this terror-stricken flesh of mine : I know it doesn’t want to die. But Lord, let Your will be done, not my will. Your will once and for all : I’ve suffered too much, I’ve made You suffer too much, I’ve caused too much suffering among my brothers and sisters and other people around me. Let it be over with this flesh that keeps on manifesting itself. Let it be dealt with once and for all, Lord, in Your sight, through faith. Let it be dealt with through the power of the Cross and the mighty work of Jesus."

The Holy Spirit keeps taking us back to the Cross, which is the power of God. There, everything was dealt with, everything was finished. There, all my sins were atoned for. There, too, my flesh was crucified ; there, even the powers and principalities were stripped of their last shred of authority. "And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made you alive together with Him, having forgiven you all your trespasses… having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it." (Col. 2: 13, 15).

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