Hey - WHO Is That Up There On The Cross?

What a dumb question that seems to be! Everyone knows that is Jesus Christ hanging there. The millions of crucifixes that have ever been made portray Jesus the Christ dying for our sins.

But is that really WHO is up there on that Cross? The Bible says that there is much more to the Cross than that.

As we enter the Good-Friday/Easter-Sunday Season - death and resurrection - we need to look deeper than and beyond the usual concepts concerning Jesus on His Cross.

"I am crucified with Christ…" Paul said in Galatians 2:20. Paul said that he died right up there with Christ on the Cross. And, believe it or not, he was speaking for the whole human race. Every single human being that has ever existed or will ever exist had their sins paid for by dying with Christ on the Cross. Yes, every person born since Adam to now, and every person to be born in the future IS UP THERE WITH CHRIST ON THE CROSS!

What an ominous moment when Jesus dropped a dead head onto dead shoulders and cried out, "It is finished!" Everything that had to do with redemption was finished in those words. From then on, everything that happened was proof of that finished work.

What is the resurrection? It is proof of the finished work! If Jesus Christ had died and not come back to life we would not have the assurance of our salvation. We would never know for sure if we were saved. Christianity is the only religion that has a resurrected Savior. Most religions talk about their dead progenitors who died thousands of years ago. Christianity says that Christ died and came back to life and is now alive inside every one of God's sons. No other religion makes such a statement. His resurrection is a proof of the finished work of Calvary.

Every human being was up there on the Cross with Jesus involved in the finished work of Calvary. This is what the Father wants every person to understand and believe. The redemptive act is done – complete. The sin of all humanity died in His body, and that includes you and I and everyone. The issue is not whether our sin has been taken care of. The real issue is whether we BELIEVE that it was our sin in the cup of death. Do we believe that we were in that cup? Do we believe that God put us into that sinless body and our sin became His sin and finally killed Him – and every human being died spiritually to their sinful nature right there with Him?

Well then, why is there still a people with a sinful nature still present in the world? The key is BELIEF. A person must CHOOSE to believe in Christ as Savior and Lord before their death with Jesus on the Cross becomes applicable to them individually.

In our material world, we think of things happening in sequence – this happens, then that happens, then something else follows. But God, in His timeless dimension doesn't see it that way. The Bible says that Christ died "before the foundation of the world." In other words, Jesus died before He ever was born as a human being. Mind-boggling! Incomprehensible to our limited minds! But true in God's dimension.

The same is true of every human being. You and I died right up there on the Cross with Jesus before we were ever born from our mother's womb. We died to our sinful nature before we entered this world and took our first breath.

“God showed His love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Yes, and even before we were even born as sinners, Christ died for us before the foundation of the world.

IF WE HAVE NEVER TAKEN A TRIP TO CALVARY AND SEEN OUR DEATH UP THERE WITH HIM, WE WILL HAVE A PROBLEM WITH OUR CHRISTIAN LIFE.

If we say this or that negative thing about ourselves, and say that is just the way I am, watch out, it shows we have never been to Calvary. That sinful man, the way that we think we are, DIED! And everything about us that was wrong was in that cup and died in that body (Romans 6:3).

What we have to see is that it is you and I hanging on that Cross, it is not Jesus Christ for He did nothing wrong to be put there. We say He paid the price for us, but that is only half of it. He paid the price AS us. Christ BECAME us in our sins in order that we might BECOME Christ in His righteousness.

Now if we do not see that, we will have a problem with our living, for no longer can we do our own thing as an independent self.

Out of our death on the Cross comes life. "Unless a corn of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone: but if it dies it brings forth much fruit" (John 12:24). The deader we see ourselves on the Cross, the more life we are going to have. The strongest spiritual law in God is that life comes out of death. If we say that we just cannot get over this little sin, what we are telling everyone is that we have not seen HOW DEAD WE ARE. We are dead to that sin.

Next time we see a crucifix of Christ hanging on the Cross, let us get it fixed in our mind that it is really us! That is how we came to the end of the self that was in rebellion to God and came to the end of our sin nature.

When we say that we can do all things, it is not based on the fact that we have great faith and we can get it done. No! We have died as dead as that Lamb hanging on that Cross. No more blood to flow, no more jerking movement, just a dead head onto dead shoulders. That is how dead we are to sin. It is only from the fact that we have died and been reborn into a living union with Christ that we have a salvation in God.

We have risen with Him after His death AND our death and are now joined eternally in a living union with Christ as children in the Family of the Father.

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