The Power of the Preaching of the Cross

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The Lord knew that He needed to use radical means in order to deliver us out of our enslavement to our flesh. He had to offer a perfect answer : so He chose to die for us, but He took us into that death of His. When He rose from the grave, He also took us into His resurrection. Now He wants to manifest His wonderful resurrection life in us, the life described in 1 Corinthians 13, and the fruit of the Spirit : "love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness…" However could the fruit of the Spirit grow on a carnal vine ? Jesus is the Vine and I am a branch, not as my old self, but as a new creation, a self that has risen in Christ. That is how I can produce the fruit of the Spirit who is filling me. Too often people try to produce the fruit of the Spirit without having crucified the flesh. The result is a sickening mixture, the kind of vinegar they gave the Lord Jesus on the Cross, not the choice vintage of the Spirit.

"Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, he took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross ; and having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them, in it." (Col. 2:14-15). Notice how often the word "cross" recurs. Through the Cross, Jesus overcame the principalities. It was to the Cross that He nailed the ordinances that condemned us. When He died, our flesh died with Him. When He rose from the dead, we also rose to a new nature, which is also to be received through faith. We say : "Lord, I am not going to strive to improve myself. Through faith, I receive that new nature that You grant us. I shall let you manifest your life through me so as to bear Your fruit. Through faith, I will take part in what you are doing".

Walking in the life of the Spirit and having been slain in Jesus does not turn us into spiritual zombies, into apathetic, unresponsive, listless doormats. That would be a false gospel. The true Gospel says that we receive a new life in Jesus and that our old life is dead. That new resurrection-life gives us a new nature whose desires and feelings are the desires and feelings of Jesus. We receive a new, unique character which is truly ours, and yet God-given ; its purpose is to manifest the character of Jesus.

However, all of us are different and called to different tasks, but through faith we all receive the character of Jesus, a beautiful character filled with resurrection-life that bears wonderful fruit. Central to it is the love of Jesus Christ, a love that has finally been stripped of all those carnal tendencies that hurt others and ourselves so terribly, for instance when we feel neglected, left out, or unfairly put down. All that is crucified and dead. We shall still suffer, because Jesus suffered, but there will be no wrong impatient, angry, or hostile reaction, not the slightest ! A dead corpse is utterly dead and unresponsive. As long as it still reacts, it isn’t dead. Nothing must remain of that old past life, because Jesus killed it on the Cross.

These things are not lived out in our lives as Christians, owing to a lack of revelation and a lack of faith in the Word of the Lord, but Jesus says : "On the Cross I killed that carnal nature of yours that has been bothering you ever since you were born. I killed it on the Cross, and this is my gift to you."

If I reply : "Yes, but Lord, I know what I’m like. I’ve often heard that and I tried to put it into practice and the next day, I fell back into my old ways," I am not walking in faith ! I need to go back to the Lord and to His Word. Then, in the peace of the Holy Spirit, in my heart of hearts, I will be enabled to receive that light, that illumination showing me that Jesus has accomplished everything. He has already dealt with everything and thought of everything. It is done ! He knew what difficulties we would meet, how many times we would try to be better persons, how many good resolutions we would make. In His perfect and boundless intelligence, He said : "Without the Cross, there is no issue for them." So Father, Son, and Holy Spirit conceived a perfect plan, with the Cross of Jesus in its centre, that Cross on which Jesus laid down His life, so that I could die with Him and be raised to a new life. His life will work it out in me.

How wonderful it is to see Jesus’ life beginning to be manifested in the life of a man or of a woman ! It has nothing to do with religion or human traditions, and the works of the flesh can never bring it to pass ! Only Jesus’ life can do that, only His life, His holiness. So there will be nothing contrived or hypocritical about our holiness ; it is not the strained obedience of one who is labouring to obey the commands of the Law — however holy that Law may be in itself. No, that kind of holiness flows forth wherever the flesh is truly dead, and resurrection-life wells up like a flood, manifesting itself through all sorts of good fruit that glorifies God.

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