KEEP MY EYES ON THE CROSS!

COLOSSIANS 2:13-15: “And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.”

OBSERVATION: Why do I constantly struggle with the failures in my life? Everything seems to be going well and then I find myself reliving my past mistakes. I replay them in my mind over and over again. How can God love me? How can God use me?

Have you ever felt this way?

Sometimes it can get worse when I read God’s Word. Like King Josiah, as he read the Law of the Lord found in the Temple, I see my failures and weaknesses amplified before me. I realize how far I am from the truth and the life of Jesus Christ.

While reading God’s Word should always lead us to a place of humility and repentance, it should never produce condemnation. The thing that separates and defines conviction and condemnation is the cross of Jesus Christ. When I take my eyes off the cross I fall from the conviction of the Holy Spirit into the condemnation of the enemy.

God’s Word is meant to be life. Yet, when my sinful nature encounters the truth and purity of God’s Word it can become death. The key is –

Whose death does it become?

When it becomes my death I have slipped from grace into works. I am once again trying to reach God, please God, and follow God by obeying the Law. While the Law is holy, just, and good, as Paul writes in Romans 7,

“Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful.” Romans 7:13

God did not give us the Law to earn our way to heaven. The Law was given because of our sins. It was our tutor to show our complete inability to live for God. When we try to live according to the Law our sin is magnified. Instead of giving us life, it becomes the evidence against us in the judicial courts of heaven.

We stand guilty before God without excuse. We stand condemned under the wrath of God for our sins. This is why we can never be saved, please God, or be effective in ministry by relying on our adherence to the law. Without Christ, we would be in an awful state. Yet, God, in His rich love, overflowing mercy, and eternal purposes and plan, made a way!

This way was the Cross!

“And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.”

We were caught red-handed. The evidence was irrefutable. The prosecuting attorney, the enemy of our souls, proclaimed us guilty in the court of heaven. Yet, Jesus took every sin, every accusation, every failure, every broken act and opportunity that was presented into evidence and He nailed it to His cross! He took the blame, He bore the penalty, and He disarmed the prosecution.

Grace and mercy triumphed over our sin and failure!

So, is this provision only available at the moment that we embrace Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord? Are we saved by grace through faith and then made perfect through returning to the Law and our limited human efforts? This is the dilemma we all face each and every day. Is God’s grace only for our past? Or, is God’s grace also for our present and our future?

Paul challenges the church in Colossia. They had begun to take their eyes off the cross. Rather than fully trusting in Christ alone they began to trust in their human philosophies and religious observances. They were headed to the all too familiar destination of personal failure, guilt, and condemnation. So Paul reminds them,

“Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations— “Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,” which all concern things which perish with the using—according to the commandments and doctrines of men? These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.” Colossians 2:20-23

KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE CROSS!

The cross is not my excuse to live a life that ignores God’s Word. The cross is not my ticket to sin knowing that I can just run back for forgiveness. The cross is my victory! The cross is my freedom! The cross is my daily reminder that all I am and ever will be is found in Christ alone. My acceptance before God and His love for me are not earned by my performance. The cross reminds me they are freely given because of Christ’s sacrifice in my place.

This needs to change the way I live. It needs to change the way I view God. It needs to change the way I view myself. Every sin, every failure, every disappointment was nailed to the cross when Jesus died. The cross is my provision and my victory. It is my invitation to the throne room of God. The cross provides me with the covering that I could not earn – the righteousness of Christ.

So, when I come to the crossroads of conviction and condemnation what should I do?

KEEP MY EYES ON THE CROSS!

In Jesus’ Name!