Spring and fall are always glorious to me. They are trying to adjust the sound, so I’ll talk a few moments.
This morning, as we begin to share, I’m going to share on the cross. It is part of the series we have started, now focusing more on the corporate life. Before, it was on the individual life.
You might be thinking, Why is this matter of the cross put into this section on the corporate life? Brothers and sisters, that is because there is no way that the church can be built without the cross.
In the Old Testament, when they built the tabernacle of testimony, the first thing that you encountered was the altar, representing the cross on which our Lord Jesus would die. You could not even approach the holy place unless first you passed by the altar. The altar was the first thing encountered.
In the temples that were later built, the altar was there in the center. It was a permanent fixture; it was not just there for a moment. So, in the house of God, the altar became a central fixture, and without the altar there would have been no testimony. It would have been impossible to even approach the holy place.
So, the matter of the cross is critical to the church. If you think about it, it says that the Lord Jesus, brothers and sisters, died for each of us. But it also says in Ephesians that the Lord died for the church and gave His life for her. He shed His blood for her.
When our Lord Jesus was on the cross of Calvary, not only did He shed His blood for our sins, but when the spear pierced into the heart of our Lord Jesus, the water sac around the heart broke, and out came blood and water: the blood for the building up of the church, the water for the life of the church.
So Calvary has very much to do with a corporate expression. The Word says that He is the Head of the church, the Head of the assembly, of which we are the body. It encourages us, as members of that body, to hold fast to the Head—to Him.
How can we hold fast to the Head, brothers and sisters, if the cross is not actively working in our life? Because if the cross is not actively working, we will try to serve the Lord with our flesh. We will try to encourage one another by our own means, and ultimately the life of Christ will not be built up.
How can we ever come to one mind and be of one accord without the cross? Because without the cross, we will not be able to lay down our opinions. We will not be able to lay down the things that are precious in our hearts, and we will come into conflict without the cross.
Brothers and sisters, without the cross, the joints of supply will dry up. There will be no life to supply to one another. The cross is essential.
Without the cross working in our lives, we will never recognize God’s government in the church, and we certainly will not be willing to be submissive to one another. The cross is central and critical to the house of God, to the corporate testimony.
That is why we felt it so necessary that, before we really start into this matter of corporate life among the brothers and sisters, what we need is to really, once again, look at the cross of Calvary—look back to what God has done, that we might be built together, living stones into the house of God, and the matured church into the bride of Christ.
Well, that is the reason why. Now, there is a lot this morning to share. When you talk about the cross, I’m only going to scratch the surface. It will be a lot, but I’ll still only be scratching the surface. So let’s look at a few Scriptures.
First, the matter of the cross and our sins: Romans 3:23.
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.
Romans 3:23
Now Ephesians 2:1—the cross and our sins.
And you hath He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins.
Ephesians 2:1
Now, the cross and our sin—not sins, but the cross and our sin. The cross and our sin nature might be another way to say it. That is Romans 6:6.
Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
Romans 6:6
That our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be annulled—another word that can be used is unemployed—and that henceforth we should not serve sin.
Now the cross and the world: Galatians 6:14.
But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.
Galatians 6:14
The cross and the law: Romans 7.
Know ye not, brethren—for I speak to them that know the law—how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?
Romans 7:1
Wherefore, my brethren, ye also have become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to Him Who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sin, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.
But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of the Spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.
Romans 7:4-6
The cross and the flesh: Galatians 5:24.
And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
Galatians 5:24
Romans 8—still the cross and the flesh, Romans 8:9 and 13.
So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.
Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.
Romans 8:8-9
And finally, the cross and the soul, or the self-life: Matthew 16.
Then said Jesus unto His disciples, If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.
Matthew 16:24
If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, take up the cross, and follow Me.
I do want to say that, frankly, so much of what I share today is so well summarized in this little book, The Glorious Liberty of the Children of God. So this month, since we’re on this subject, you might want to pick that book up—The Glorious Liberty of the Children of God. And it is a purple book. I think it is purple.
As you can see from just that simple outline, frankly, there is a lot that the cross deals with, brothers and sisters. In fact, I think we spend the rest of our life, and maybe eternity, discovering all that Christ has done in the cross of Calvary.
That is why, in this one message, I just feel so inadequate. But may the Lord give us grace this morning.
In the history of man, there have been two great turning points. God had a great purpose for mankind. His purpose in creating man in His own image and after His likeness, brothers and sisters, was to have a creature on this earth that could contain His life.
That is why we were created after His image and likeness—His character and nature. He intended us to glorify His name, to be that vessel of glory for Him upon this earth and throughout the universe.
And all that was planned for the future, we still do not know, because we have been told that there are things that we do not know—things that even Paul could not share with us. They were so glorious. So there is so much more.
But the point being, God has this great purpose for mankind: that He would have many sons by taking of His life and being able to express His life. We could be brought into sonship and be many sons, having the character and nature like that of our Lord Jesus Christ.
At Pentecost, He would join us together in oneness, in one body. Then, through the maturity of that body, coming into its maturity, one day it would be prepared as a bride for His Son. That was God’s purpose. He loves His Son. He wants His Son to have this bride, and we are part of that great purpose—the only creature He has made to be a part of that great purpose.
What a blessing. What a privilege that mankind had.
The body is for expressing the life of Christ. The bride is to be able to share that life with Christ. What a tremendous privilege it is.
But there were two great events in mankind’s history that have altered everything. The first was man’s fall, when Adam and Eve fell in the garden by disobeying God.
They disobeyed God. They determined to live life the way they wanted to, and that became a self-life instead of a godly life. And inside, something happened; something changed. Their very nature changed.
Not only their nature, but it in fact affected the whole creation, as our brothers shared this morning. It says the whole creation is groaning and waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God, that everything will be lifted, all of the curse will be lifted upon this earth—this matter of death that even the earth enters into.
Well, man became fiercely independent. And I use the word fiercely because that is what independence is: independent from God, fiercely independent, self-serving.
Because of that, because he was a sinful man and fell short of the glory of God, man’s destiny was now judgment and hell.
He made that choice. Mankind fell, and all that have come out of Adam ever since have that same nature. You and I have that same nature when we are born. The destiny is judgment and hell.
I want to be very clear about that this morning. Somehow, I have been touched by that. I have shared this before, but the way I came to the Lord Jesus was that I was scared of hell.
My mother, when she caught me at the age of twelve sinning, said to me, “Jerry, you do not know it, but you are going to hell.”
Now, I appreciate my mother’s honesty. Frankly, it was quite blunt, and at the time I was quite shocked. I did not understand what hell was at the time. I only knew from the fierceness in her face that I did not want to go there. In fact, I did not want to be around my mother at that time.
And she said to me—the Lord gave her real wisdom—“Now, you get straight with the Lord. Then you can get straight with me for what you have done to me.”
And you know what? When my mother left the room, I fell on my knees under conviction, under the Holy Spirit, and I asked God to forgive me. And He entered my life. I did not even know that I was born again, but I knew I was forgiven. I knew God had touched my life at the age of twelve.
Brothers and sisters, let me tell you something: for the unbelievers, judgment is coming, and it is real. Hell is real. It is not a fantasy. Heaven is real. It is not a fantasy. It is real.
If you do not think hell is real, I do not know how anybody can say hell is not real. Once you experience life on this earth, you begin to touch all the elements of hell in your life. Well, anyway, that is another story.
The point being, man was destined now, instead of for glory, he was destined to hell. And not only that, but God’s purpose for man was derailed, taken off track.
Then there was this second great event in history that has altered everything. You know, you and I, when we are born from our parents, have no choice. We are born, and unfortunately, because of the failure of Adam and that sin nature being passed all down through the ages, we are already guilty. We are already under judgment, and hell is the end of that judgment. That is where mankind’s destiny is.
But God would not give up on His purpose. God would not give up man. God would not give up. God is a God of love.
And so He determined to provide a way to redeem man. We sang all morning about the redemption that is through the blood of the Lamb, and we know that story.
We do now have a choice. Mankind does now have a choice because of the cross of Calvary, because the Lamb of God died on there.
Brothers and sisters, we now—let me put it a different way—Adam became a sinner because he sinned. But once he sinned, all those who followed after him in his lineage sin because we are sinners.
Now, you might want to challenge that, but just look. I look at my new grandson. He is only one year old, but he knows how to reign and rule, particularly with his granddad. But anyway, we obviously understand that selfish nature is even in our babies.
Brothers and sisters, that nature is a part of all of us. Because of that, the judgment of God is on us, but we have a choice. If we can accept the work of Calvary’s cross, we no longer have to remain in that fallen state under the judgment of God.
By faith in Christ, we can accept Him as our Lord, our Master, and we can accept Him as our Savior, because He gave His blood on the cross, because He took our place.
The Scripture speaks of being born again. In other words, there is a need for a spiritual birth. You had a physical birth from your parents, but the Word of God, when Jesus spoke to Nicodemus, said, “You must be born again.”
There must be a spiritual birth in your life in order to come into the newness of life, in order to return to God’s purpose.
Those that have accepted Jesus Christ, and His life has entered their life, can now get back in line with God’s purpose. They can begin, through the work of Calvary in their life, to take on the character and nature of the Son.
They can become living stones in the house of God, built together. They can stand in the body of Jesus Christ and be built up and matured into that bride that the Lord is looking for.
This cross has brought about the greatest turnaround that is ever known in the history of mankind. All of the earth, all of creation, was headed to destruction until Jesus died on the cross for you and me.
We need to understand, in order to understand all the work of the cross, brothers and sisters, that God has provided for full salvation. I know that as the gospel is preached, often we think that it is just our ticket to heaven, or that it is the way to avoid hell.
Now, unfortunately—well, I do not know—God got me that way. But that was my motivation. I saw that I was going to hell. I saw that my life, and the way I lived my life, I was going to hell.
Now, I want to say something. I was a good kid. I was not normally rebellious. Most of my life I had obeyed, but I went through this little period when I reached twelve, and that little rebellious nature came out.
God did such quick work with me, and I am so thankful, through my mother. He got hold of me, and I am so grateful today, or I would still have been on that rebellious path.
Anyway, man is a tripart creature. First Thessalonians 5:23 says that our spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless—spirit, soul, and body.
We are made of spirit, soul, and body, and the Lord has made provision through the cross that all three of these might be fully redeemed and brought into what God originally purposed.
First of all, I would like to look at this broad perspective, as I call it, of what the cross has done. In John 3, when Jesus was speaking to Nicodemus, He says, “You must be born again. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of Spirit is spirit.”
In Ephesians 2:1, He says, “You were dead in your sins and trespasses.” Brothers and sisters, our spirits, which were supposed to contain the life of God, did not contain the life of God when you were born. It is dead toward God.
It is not annihilated. It is not that you do not have a spirit—you do—but it is dead toward God, unable to communicate with God. Thank the Lord, He has made provision that He can touch our conscience.
But our spirit is unable to really commune with God. When we accept the Lord Jesus Christ and His work on the cross, what happens is our spirit is quickened and made alive. It is made alive through the Holy Spirit dwelling there. We can now commune with God.
He has recovered our spirit, first of all. He quickens us.
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
John 3:16
When that Holy Spirit comes into your spirit, you have everlasting life. Regardless of your condition that you may be in spiritually, you have that eternal life. It will never be taken from you. You are secure in Christ.
Secondly, there is the matter of the soul. In Ezekiel 11:19, in the new covenant, it says, “I will put a new spirit in you.” That is first. Then He says, “I will give you a heart of flesh. I will take away your stony heart,” that heart that was so hardened toward God.
He says, “I will give you a soft heart,” basically—a heart that can receive the things of God, that wants to know the things of God.
Romans 12:2 speaks of our mind being transformed. Our mind is a part of our soul, and there needs to be that transforming work in our mind.
In Matthew 16:24-25, He says:
If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me.
Whosoever shall save his soul life shall lose it; but whosoever will lose his soul life for My sake shall gain it.
In Romans 8:29, it speaks of being conformed to the image of God, to the character and nature of God. And our soul, through the work of the cross, is conformed to Christ, to His character and nature.
It is a lifelong work, this being conformed in our soul to the character and nature of Christ. Brothers and sisters, that is a part of our salvation, and that is an ongoing work—a work that will last the rest of our life.
Then, in Philippians 3:21, it says that at the appearing of our Lord, He shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body. Even our bodies, brothers and sisters, will be redeemed—saved.
It will no longer be like it is now, corruptible, but we will take on incorruption: a body that is incorruptible.
Our Lord Jesus, when He returned after His resurrection to the disciples—remember, He walked through the walls, but yet they were able to see the scars in His hands and His side. They touched them. He was able to eat. So it will be a glorious body. It too will be redeemed. Praise the Lord.
So, the initial work of our salvation is in our spirit, and we are born again, quickened into life, that we can commune with God, and we have eternal life on that basis.
There is that ongoing work of the soul being fully saved and conformed to the character and nature of Christ. And then, in the future for us, that new glorified body.
What a full salvation that the cross has offered. What God has done to bring man back to the glory He really originally intended.
Brothers and sisters, do you have some kind of sense of how much God loves you? How much the value of this work of Calvary is—the cross of Calvary—how precious it is to us?
To our Lord Jesus, it was a shame, because He died with thieves there on the cross. He bore the shame. He perished there. Brothers and sisters, He loves us dearly.
He wants us to be fully—I do not want to use the word restore; it is not a good word—fully recovered to His purpose for all of us. To do that, He has to deal with our spirit, He has to deal with our soul, and with our body.
The Word says that even with our body, we can taste of that now, because we can experience a quickening even in our body—the one that we have now. We can even experience a quickening through the Holy Spirit, particularly when we are in service of the Lord.
You know, I have known some brothers just so sick they could hardly stand up, but when they stood up to speak, the Holy Spirit quickened them, and they were full of the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. They stood tall in Christ.
That is the quickening of the body. We have probably all experienced it in various ways. That is the broad perspective.
Brothers, I hope I get through this this morning. I hope that did not sound negative. It is just that there is so much here, and I am trying to just scratch the surface.
Now for the details of what has happened on the cross. I basically gave that outline in the beginning through the Scriptures I read.
First, we know Christ of the cross as our substitute. He first comes to us—most of us—we know Him as our substitute, and He saves us from the consequences of sin.
Romans 3:23: all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. As I have already read in Ephesians 2:1, we were dead in trespasses and sin. We were under God’s judgment. We were under God’s condemnation. We were guilty, with no hope.
But in John 5:24, such a precious verse:
He that heareth My word, and believeth Him that sent Me, hath eternal life, and cometh not into judgment.
John 5:24
What liberty the cross has given us. He that hears My word and believes Him that sent Me—God—has eternal life and does not come into judgment.
Why do we not come into judgment? Because Christ came as God’s spotless Lamb on Calvary’s cross. God’s hand of judgment that should have fallen on you and me fell on His Son, because He took your place and my place on the cross.
You know, the Lord was on the cross for six hours. For many men in that day, they would hang on the cross for days. Have you ever wondered why it was such a short time that our Lord Jesus was on the cross before He perished?
Well, once He had finished His work, there was no longer any need for Him not to complete it in death and resurrection. But brothers and sisters, think about it. The judgment that was upon every man, every woman, fell on our Lord Jesus.
I do not know how He lasted the three hours that God had turned His back on His Son, because He took on your sin and my sin. He died as your substitute, as my substitute, on the cross. He took your sins, your iniquities, my sins, and the judgment of God fell on Him.
So, brothers and sisters, the cross means that Jesus Christ died as your substitute and as mine.
Now, I have mentioned before, earlier, that we are born sinners. We have this sin nature. Well, Christ not only died as your substitute on the cross, but He died as your representative on the cross.
Through the cross, we are not only saved from our sins, but from the power of sin—that sin nature that dwells in us. I want to be clear from the front: He does not destroy that sin nature in us, but He makes a way that the sin nature no longer has any power over us.
Paul discovered this in Romans 7 when he said, “When I will to do good, I just cannot do it. But what I practice, what I do not want to do. I want to do good, but I cannot. I am sold under sin. It is not I that do it, but sin that dwells in me.”
Romans 6: our old man was crucified with Christ, that the body of sin might be unemployed.
God does not obliterate the sin nature in you. You need to be clear on that. What He does is, He takes you to the cross in Him.
And what do I mean by that? There is a Scripture that says that Christ was the last Adam, but the second Man. When Christ died on the cross, He took the whole Adamic race in judgment. It was put in judgment.
That whole Adamic race was crucified in Him, with Him, in Him. We all have that old man. We come from Adam, so we are born with this old man.
But God says in Romans 6:6 that he has been crucified with Christ on the cross. That is a work that Christ did on the cross of Calvary. Therefore, the one who was subject to the sin nature, the slave of the sin nature, has been crucified in Christ on the cross.
So though the sin nature is still there, you no longer have to be subject to it. Because when it begins to stir within you, in faith you can stand on the work that Christ did on the cross and say, “I have been crucified with Christ. That old man has been taken out of the way.”
And the law of the Spirit of life that is in Christ Jesus will overcome the law of sin and death that comes out of that sin nature. Crucified with Christ.
I want to be very clear about this matter: sin is not eradicated; it is isolated. I say that because there is a teaching that came out of the holiness movement that says sin is eradicated.
If sin is eradicated, they had to come up with an explanation of why we still sin. I am sure there were various explanations, but one of them is that it is no longer you; it is demonic in nature, and we have the demons to deal with.
Now, brothers and sisters, I believe in them, and frankly have encountered a couple in my life. By the power of God, because Christ was victor on Calvary’s cross, I was able to deal with that. So I do believe in them.
But the Scripture is very clear here: that is not the issue. The issue is the sin nature, and God’s way is that He wants you to believe in the fact that He has condemned the whole Adamic race. It is under judgment. In His eyes, it is gone.
Now, that needs to be made real in your life. You can stand on the work of Calvary’s cross when that sin nature begins to stir in you. You need to know what you are dealing with, and it is the sin nature.
You are not dead in yourself; you are dead in Christ. That is one of the hardest concepts, I think, to put together. Because if you look inside, you will say, “It is not dead.”
But if you look at Christ, you look at the cross, if you believe in the Word of God, you have to say, “Crucified with Christ.” And that is your salvation from the power of sin.
Thirdly, as your representative on the cross, the cross stands between you and the world.
Galatians 6:14 says, “Through the cross the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”
In 1 John 2:15-16, it says, “Love not the world, nor the things of the world.” In another place, the Lord says that you are in the world, but not of the world.
In other words, He knows that we are going to have to be in this world. But brothers and sisters, we cannot afford to cling to the things of this world. We have to be willing to let them go.
I tell you what, when you look at this economic crisis, you begin to understand how much value we put in our bank accounts and in our retirement savings. I am quickly learning that I cannot depend on those things.
Love not the world. You know, that is what baptism is about. We have had a number of baptisms. What is baptism doing? It is saying that I am separating through these waters of baptism. I am leaving the way of the world, and I am now joining myself to Christ and to His kingdom, His way.
I have left the world. I am still in it, but I am not of it. That is what baptism is all about: being separated from the world.
The cross stands between you and the world, brothers and sisters. I have not got much time, but the world is not just worldly things. It is a system.
The political system is of the world. That is not hard to figure out, is it? The social system that we have in all the different nations is of the world. The economic system is of the world. The educational system is of the world. The religious system is of the world.
All of these systems are tools of the adversary. They are not bad in themselves, but the enemy uses these things so much to draw people away from the victory that is in Christ Jesus, away from our Lord and Savior.
It says, “Love these things. Cling to these things. This is what you need in your life. You need another car. You need a bigger house. You need more money in the bank, and you need your children to go to school. But not only that, they need all these other things.”
The world is continually pulling at us. It says, “Love me. Forget about the Lord.” That is really what the world says.
But brothers and sisters, let me say that a different way: the world and its system crucified your Lord Jesus Christ. How can you still love it?
Of course, our sins put Him there. But when you really look at the broad perspective, the world crucified our Lord. The world is against our Lord. It is an enemy of our Lord because the enemy uses it. How can we love such a thing?
When the Lord Jesus died on Calvary’s cross, you know, the cross is kind of like the Red Sea.
The children of Israel were in bondage in Egypt. They were slaves. When God took them out to the promised land, He did not take them a direct route to the promised land—He could have. He took them by way of the Red Sea, and they had to cross the Red Sea. He did that on purpose.
You remember how the Red Sea opened up, and all of Israel passed over. Then, when the enemy—the Egyptians, which represents the world—came after them to take them back and make them slaves again, the sea crashed in on them and drowned all of them there.
The nation of Israel looked back over that Red Sea, and even if they wanted to return, they could not.
Now, we know they carried it in their heart, and that eventually kept them from entering the promised land. But they could not return. And that is the cross.
That is why the cross has crucified the world unto you and you unto the world. It stands saying that that old man that loves the world so much has been crucified in Christ.
That world which crucified our Lord is no longer your world. That is what the cross says. Brothers and sisters, that is the work of Calvary.
The cross and the law: because of the work of Calvary, we have been delivered from the curse of the law. Now, what does that mean?
You have heard that we are no longer under law, but we are under grace, and that is true. That was because of Calvary. It is the only reason you are now under grace and not under the law.
I read some Scriptures in Romans 7, and it really uses the parable of a marriage to explain it. In this parable, the law represented the husband.
What is the law? The law is God’s righteous demand. It is God’s righteous demand. It cuts no slack. It gives no mercy. Law is law, and the law has righteous demands.
In other words, it makes demands upon us that are absolutely righteous. But the problem is, we are in the flesh, and we are weak, and we cannot keep the law. But it does not keep this husband of the law from making his demands.
Even worse than that, there is a curse of the law, because it says if you falter in one point in the law, it is the same as faltering in the whole law. You are guilty of all the law. If you are guilty in one aspect of the law, you are guilty in all of the law.
There is a great curse that the law puts upon us because it puts the demands there and we cannot meet the demands. We might make it over a few hurdles, but eventually we will falter.
And this husband is relentless. He will not let up. You are lying down on the ground half dead: “I am not making it.” He says, “Get up. You have got to try again.” He is relentless.
I would not want to be married to anyone like that.
The parable goes on to say, if the husband dies, the wife is free of the husband and free to marry another. The problem is, the law never dies. It is eternal. So what is God’s solution?
In this case, the wife dies. In other words, your old man dies with Christ on the cross. Because you are dead, the law cannot have any power over you. It cannot make any demands on a dead person, can it?
It can, I guess, but it is not going to get any response, because he is dead. You really do need to see that you are dead in Jesus Christ, that you have been crucified with Him.
Because then you are not subject to this law of demands that you can never fulfill. And you can be married to another.
Now, praise the Lord, we are dead in Christ, but the Scripture says we are raised in Him, a new creation, and we are joined to another. That is, to Jesus Christ.
So the law is no longer our husband. Jesus Christ is. Now, this is a parable. It is Jesus Christ that is now the Head.
He still makes righteous demands, but before He makes those righteous demands, brothers and sisters, He supplies the grace to meet those demands. That is the difference. You have been joined to Christ.
Actually, He has called us to a higher way than even the law had. The demands, if you read the Sermon on the Mount, are more severe than ever.
But He will provide the grace for you to turn the other cheek. He will provide the grace for you to pray for your enemies. That is a higher law.
Brothers and sisters, what a great work the cross has done. All of us at times go back to, frankly, living under the law.
Law—something inside says, “This is the righteous thing to do.” Immediately that old man, that is crucified in Christ but stirs in your life, says, “Well, I have got to do something about this,” and boom, you are dead, right? I mean, he has got you right there.
We have to learn to live by the life of Christ. We will get to that. So, brothers and sisters, we are freed from the law.
All of this has been done in Christ. He has died as your substitute for your forgiveness of sin, to give you eternal life, to reconcile you to God.
He has died as your representative. He has taken the old man to the cross, and you have been freed from the power of sin. You have been separated from the world because the cross of Christ stands between you and the world. You have been freed from the law.
All of this is a completed work on Calvary’s cross. It is done. It is eternal in nature. In a sense, it is objective because it has all been done in Christ.
Now it needs to be worked out in your life, and the cross becomes the means for it being worked out in your life.
In order for it to be worked out in your life, the cross has to deal with your flesh and your self-life. Now, sometimes this can get very confusing, so just ask the Holy Spirit to really help us.
The flesh is a little bit different than the old man, but the flesh is a part of that old man. If you remember, the old man is Adam, and all that comes from Adam has been crucified in Christ. It is under judgment.
But in you personally, there is a flesh. It is that old man in you, that flesh. It needs to be brought under the cross, under the work that Christ has accomplished on the cross when He crucified the old man.
Actually, if you read about the flesh, you see it as a manifestation of the life of the soul, of your soul life. The flesh just represents who you are inside.
If you happen to have a nature of a bad temper, that comes out at times. If your nature is very gentle, that will come out. It is who you are in yourself, without Christ. It is who you are outside of Christ. Let me say it that way.
In Galatians 5, some of the expressions of this self-life, this soul life that we have, are adultery, envy, pride, murder, greed, and selfishness. All of these are expressions of that flesh.
We refer to these things as bad flesh in order to differentiate. But you know what? There is also the good side of flesh—who you are inside.
It is really not good because God has condemned it, but we see it as good. It can be our gentleness, our own natural gentleness, our own natural caring, our own natural diligence. It is all kind of natural to us, and they will look at you and say, “You are such a good Christian.”
It might not be the life of Christ at all. It is just that natural life that you have. But Paul said that there is no good thing that dwells in my flesh, if it is good.
Now, why would you think that these natural abilities that you have are bad? Well, let me try to explain it this way. Let us say you are a very gentle person. You have a gentle nature about you.
You get in a situation where discipline is called for. I know some parents struggle with this, and a rebuke is required. But you have this gentle nature and you just cannot do it.
You see how that gentleness can be a limitation. Whereas if it was the life of Christ, it can be gentle and it can discipline. It can be gentle, compassionate, but it can also rebuke.
In other words, it can respond the way God wants us to. It is a different life that we have to learn to live by. So the Lord has to deal with the flesh. That is what you are inside, and He deals with that based on the work of Calvary—that your old man has been crucified.
You know, I have run into this too, where some brothers and sisters are naturally very good at counseling. They seem to be able to help people out. When a situation arises in a brother’s or sister’s life, they just have to go tell them what they think.
But you know what, brothers and sisters? That can be natural. It can just be natural, and not the Lord at all.
We really do have to look to the Lord. It says the Word of God is sharper than a two-edged sword, dividing soul and spirit. The only thing you can do is put yourself on the altar before the Lord and tell Him, “Lord, show me the difference when it is spirit and when it is not,” because you will never figure it out. I guarantee you.
But the bottom line is, brothers and sisters, the flesh, whether we see it as good or bad, has to be dealt with.
Now, in Christianity today, one of the great tragedies of Christianity is that I have seen a whole realm of the Christian world moving toward trying to reform the flesh. What they are doing is really reforming that old man in you. They are trying to make you better.
It is okay; I am going to say it anyway. There is a book out called A Better You by a dear brother. I know he is a brother in the Lord, but when you hear him—and he has the largest church in the United States, three services a day, fourteen thousand people, on TV—
When you listen to him, I have listened to him, and he gives such encouraging words, the power of positive thinking, and all of these positive things. He never mentions the cross. Very rarely does he ever mention Jesus Christ.
I never heard him mention the cross. Of course, I do not listen to him that much, but I have a little.
The point being is, I think the enemy has deceived a lot of the Christian world into believing they can reform this old man, this old flesh, this flesh we have.
Yes, let us show them how to use that good flesh to improve the good flesh. The things that are bad—the adultery, the murder—yes, we will stand against those. We will help them overcome their tendencies in this area, and we will make a better you out of you.
It has missed the whole thing. The Christian life is an exchange life. It is putting aside the flesh, good or bad, and saying, “No, you have to learn to live by Christ’s life in you.”
Romans 6:6, where our old man is crucified in Christ; and in Galatians 5:24, it says:
But they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the passions and lusts thereof.
Romans 6:6 is the objective truth. It is eternal truth. It is what has been done in Christ. Galatians 5:24, if you reread it, what you will see is that it is your personal experience. You are able to experience it personally.
The old man—your old man, your flesh—has been included in that old man. You have to see that it comes under the proper judgment of God that He has made at Calvary’s cross.
To live the Christian life, brothers and sisters, you have to be careful that you are not praying, worshiping, helping, using the flesh—even the good flesh. It needs to be Christ.
We need to ask God to make us sensitive that it really is Christ doing this work. In Romans 8:13, it says:
If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if by the Spirit ye put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
It is the work of the Holy Spirit to make this cutting off of the flesh real—to make what Christ has done on Calvary’s cross real in your life, and to make it real in you.
If you are walking in the Spirit—and that is what we are exhorted to do—if we are walking in the Spirit, we are before the Lord, we have communion with the Lord, we are close to the Lord.
When the flesh begins to stir, the Holy Spirit will let you know. You can just give it over to the Holy Spirit: “I have been crucified in Christ, and the deeds of the flesh are cut off.”
The actual doing of it is cut off by the Spirit. That is why—let me find it—oh, Galatians 5:17:
For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh.
Galatians 5:17
That is why it says that, because that is the Spirit’s work. It is not your work. You want to rise up to do better. What we need to do is let the Spirit do His work—just cut it off in us. Give it over to Him.
Not only does God deal with the flesh through the cross, but He has to get at the very source of the flesh. Remember, I said the flesh is the manifestation of that life, that natural life within you. The Lord actually has to get at this natural life, and the way He does that is through the cross.
Matthew 16:24—I read it:
If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, take up the cross, and follow Me.
You have two steps: deny yourself, first step; the second step is take up the cross and follow Him.
Why is this necessary? Because your natural life is the life of your soul. It is the life that animates your soul. That is why you are alive.
But even though you are a Christian and have accepted Christ, it can still be this natural life that you are really living in and letting live. It will express you, the self-life, instead of Christ.
So there has to be a displacing, if I want to put it that way, in your soul: that natural life displaced by the life of Christ. That is where this denying yourself and taking up the cross comes into play.
We want our souls to be fully saved, to express the life of Christ, and yet we find them expressing most of the time our self-life. The way it is displaced is through this thing where the Lord says, “If any man come after Me, deny himself, take up the cross, and follow Me.”
In order to do that, the Lord has got to get at your affections. He has got to get at your mind, and He has got to deal with your will, because that is your soul. That is the three aspects of your soul: your emotions, your mind, and your will.
You know, the Lord Jesus had a pure soul life. His soul life was pure. But you know, He says, “I do not do My will; I do the Father’s will. I only do what the Father tells Me to do.”
He did not exercise His own life, that self-life, which was pure. Our self-life, of course, is not; it is very selfish. But His self-life—He did not exercise that life. All of His life, He lived by the life of God.
Brothers and sisters, that is what He wants us to learn to do. The life of that natural life needs to be displaced by the life of Christ. That is a lifelong process, and it takes the work of the cross.
How is it done? Well, I have already mentioned it: deny yourself. Now, what does it mean to deny yourself?
It is not denying yourself of things. Most people, when we talk about denying yourself, think, “Well, I need to deny myself this ice cream cone.” Well, I am on a diet right now, believe it or not, and it is not going too well.
But anyway, I can still deny the ice cream cone. But that is not what it is talking about at all.
Denying yourself means denying your natural self. In other words, when the natural self rises up to do something, it is that natural life. You can say, “I do not know who you are. I do not recognize you any longer. Away with him—to the cross.”
Remember, that is what they said to our Lord Jesus. They said, “Away with Him. To the cross.” That is what we need to do. That is what denying self is.
You recognize the Holy Spirit points out that this is really your self-life, and you say, “Okay, away with him. I refuse to recognize him.” That is denying yourself.
Then the taking up of the cross is exercising your will to do God’s will. Because that is the cross: the cross is when your will crosses Christ’s will. I want to put it that way, just a simple explanation.
So you have to take up the cross to say, “Not my will, but Thine be done.”
In doing this, the Lord will bring many experiences into your life to get at your affections, to get at your mind, and to get at your will.
I will give you some examples so that when you study—and this will not take but a few minutes—you can look at them. Matthew 10: He deals with the affections when He says, “If you love father or mother more than Me, you cannot be My disciple.”
“If you love your soul life, you will lose it. If you lose your soul life for My sake, you will gain it.” He is dealing with affections.
You know, it is natural. It is okay to love your mother and father. That is not what He is saying. But He is saying, “There is this love. This love has to be My love. Your love will falter. Your love will not love your mother and father the way they should. Only My love can.”
He has to get at that. Sometimes, brothers and sisters, maybe some of you have experienced in your life with your mother and father that—I’ll use a simple example—sometimes mothers and fathers want to control your life after you are married.
You do not want to hurt your mother and father. Particularly, I think us guys have a tough time with that, and maybe sisters too. You do not want to hurt them at all.
But there may come a point when the Lord says, “You have got to cut this off. You have got to deal with it.” You have to go to your mom and dad and say, “You know, you just cannot do this. I love you, but you cannot do this anymore. I am not under your headship anymore.”
That is tough. He will bring out these very things. He uses our children in this matter of affections. We have to love the Lord more than even our families.
In Matthew 16, it deals with the mind. That is when Peter, when the Lord told Peter, “I have got to go to the cross,” shook the Lord and said, “No, You cannot do that.”
And what did He say? “Get behind Me, Satan.” He called Peter Satan. Have you ever been called Satan? Maybe you have. I do not know. But that was a rebuke from the Lord.
He says, “You do not mind the things of God, but the things of man.” In other words, Peter’s mindset was wrong. That is a part of his soul—his mind—and his mindset was wrong and needed to be altered.
When the issue of the cross came up, he said, “No.” That is happening today throughout Christianity. So many people are saying, “You do not need to go the way of the cross. All you need is to take the prosperity that God offers in this Word.”
Our mind—He gets at our minds. Brothers and sisters, we will never lay down our own opinions and thoughts and take on the mind of Christ unless we are willing to deny self and take up the cross.
Then He gets at our will. I will give you another example. In John 12, He talks about the grain of wheat falling into the ground and dying, and it bears much fruit.
He says if it is not willing to do this, if the grain of wheat is not willing to be put into the ground and die, it will abide alone and it will never bear fruit. That is God’s will for your life. Are you willing for that? Are you willing to do God’s will?
Brothers and sisters, we need to learn God’s way, the way of the cross. The way of the cross delivers our soul from itself, if you want to put it that way.
He will deal with our emotions, our affections. Sometimes, you know, Paul spoke, saying, “I have the marks of the cross in my flesh.” Now, literally, he had been beaten for Christ, so in his literal flesh he had the marks of the cross.
But he gave his life totally to the Lord, and the marks of the cross were upon his soul. It had done a deep work.
Think about him in that prison. He could have gone into despair, brothers and sisters. He could have come under that. His soul could have been wrecked in that prison, but he was lifted up by the life of Christ, and he lived by the life of Christ.
Instead of being destroyed, he used that time to write all of these wonderful letters we have today: Ephesians, Galatians, Philippians.
Then I think of the end of Paul’s life. He said, “All have left me. I have taught my heart out, and I did not just do it as a teaching. I loved these people. I gave myself for these people all my life, and now they are turning away from what I have taught. They are turning away even from me.”
But you know what? He lived through it. It did not destroy Paul. He said, “I fought the good fight. I have kept the faith.” It is because it was the life of Christ in him.
All of that rejection, which destroys most of us—think about it. Have you ever been rejected? Teenager, you feel rejected. Mother and father, you feel rejected by your children at times. You know how hurtful rejection is.
But you know what? If you allow the cross to work in those situations, it will free your soul. The cross is not meant to destroy your soul. It is meant to set it free. You can be above all of these things.
May the Lord have mercy.
Lord, we come to Thee today. Lord, the work of Calvary is so amazing, Lord, so far-reaching. Lord Jesus, we just ask that as we look into Your Word in these weeks, as we consider Your work on Calvary’s cross, Lord, we want it to be more than a teaching.
We want You to work these things out in our lives, Lord, that You might have the glory, that You might have many sons. Lord, that we may be living stones in the house of God, and, Lord, that Your bride might be made ready.
Lord, we thank You for the cross. But the cross is not the end; it is just the means. But it is glorious to us. We thank You for it, Lord.
We thank You that You suffered the shame. You suffered the judgment on our behalf, that we might enjoy the results of Calvary. Thank You, Lord, in Jesus’ name. Amen.