The Power of the Preaching of the Cross

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We have crucified the flesh because we know that when Jesus Christ was crucified, we were crucified with Him. In Himself and with Himself, He has crucified the whole of our former carnal nature, the flesh together with its passions and its desires. So the flesh must no longer rule our lives. In Colossians 2, there is another wonderful passage : "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."? (Colossians 2:12). Baptism is primarily baptism into Jesus’ death. It is also water baptism by immersion, which is a burial.

"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 trespasses." (Colossians 2:13) The Lord Jesus made death die. His death gave us Life, through His resurrection, and through His complete triumph on the Cross.

In 1 Peter 2:24 as in Isaiah 53, both aspects of the Cross appear in the same passages : "(Christ) who himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness — by whose stripes you were healed." Can you see how God presents the whole message of the Cross in a single, wonderful verse ? What a glorious verse ! In just a few words, it conveys the whole of the work of the Cross. Jesus Christ bore our sins so that we could die to sin and live for His righteousness. At the same time, He has healed us by His stripes. Since He bore our sins, He also bore the consequence of our sins, that is to say sickness and death. "For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls." (1 Peter 2:25). How wonderful !

Further on, in chapter 4, Peter says : "Therefore, since Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God." (1 Peter 4:1-2). Those verses may be somewhat confusing if one does not discern the Cross at the centre of all of Christ’s work.

Christ suffered in the flesh ; not only because of His incarnation in the flesh, the life He lived humbly as a man among us, rejected and forsaken, but also because of His sufferings on the Cross. "Arm yourselves with the same mind." Our self has to be crucified, and we must walk as ones who are fully crucified. "For he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin." If you understand that, you know that to be crucified means to suffer. When your flesh is dead, you have ceased from sin. Sin no longer rules over you. You are dead in Christ and are a new creation in Him. You no longer live according to the lusts of men, but according to the will of the Lord.

In 2 Timothy 2, Paul says : "This is a faithful saying : For if we died with him, we shall also live with him. If we endure, we shall also reign with him. If we deny him, he also will deny us." (2 Timothy 2:11-13). Paul could have used the present tense : "Since we died with Him, we live with Him". Those who are called by Jesus Christ to reign with Him are not just those whose sins have been blotted out by the blood of Jesus. They are the ones who have actually gone through death on the Cross, having received the message of crucified life with Christ, of death to the flesh, and of resurrection life in Christ. If you have grasped that, and if now you walk in faith in that Word, you will reign with Christ when He comes back. And not only will you reign with Him, but you will be caught up in the clouds to meet Him !

If you are not walking as a crucified one, you have not fully received the message of the Cross. Perhaps you will be among the saved ones, those of whom Paul said : "he himself will be saved, yet as through fire." (1 Corinthians 3:15). However, you will not be able to take part in Christ’s reign. Only the overcomers, those who have actually passed through the Cross, will reign over the nations with Christ.

We still have to study the following points, as far as the message of the Cross is concerned :

• The Cross as power of separation between ourselves and the world, ourselves and Satan, ourselves and the flesh.
• The Cross as power to unite. True unity is always through the Cross.
• The Holy Spirit and His part in the Cross.
• Christ’s solemn call to take up the Cross and bear it daily.

We shall study those points in the following chapters.

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