Introduction
The cross of Christ was a gruesome event. It was also a devastating event for Jesus's disciples. Can you imagine the despair, the dashed hopes? The one who they thought was going to deliver them, hanging on a cross? Then the next couple days of aimless wanderings?
The cross of Christ was also a glorious event. What seemed to the defeat of Christ, in reality was the triumph of God over all his enemies. This morning, I want to consider the cross, to consider how awful sin is, and how deep the Father's love for us is as we see it expressed through the cross
I. The Triumph of the Cross over Death, 13a.
A. This is paradoxical idea: death conquered death?
B. The Puritan John Owen expresses this paradox well in his best-known book The Death of Death in the Death of Christ.
C. This is exactly what happened at the cross.
Jn. 12:23-24 – The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.
Jn. 10:10b-11 – I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.
D. Death is the result sin.
1. God said to Adam from the very beginning that sin, which is disobedience to what God says, brings death.
2. Throughout the history of God's people before the cross this notion that sin brings death was represented by the countless animal sacrifices that were killed to show what the one offering them deserved.
a. But all those animal sacrifices were ineffective.
b. There was nothing that could be done to stop death.
c. And most important of all, there was nothing that could be done to stop eternal death, that is, eternal separation from the love of God.
Ez. 18:20a – The soul who sins shall die.
E. So death, both physical and eternal, is the just payment for sin.
F. The cross is that payment.
1. Christ bore the payment for all the death-deserving sins of his people.
2 Cor. 5:21 – For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
1 Pt. 2:24 – 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.
2. Because of the cross we can have life eternal
Jn. 3:13-15 – No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
3. Because of the cross, at the coming of Jesus Christ even physical death will be destroyed and we will be resurrected to live forever in our bodies.
II. The Triumph of the Cross over Guilt, 13b-14.
A. God didn't just say, "Ok, you are guilty and will continue to be guilty of the sins you have committed. I am just going to ignore your sins."
B. Faith in the work of Jesus Christ on the cross actually removes the guilt that we bear for our sins and places that guilt on Christ – that's what Paul meant when he said Christ became sin for us.
C. Do you see the seriousness of sin in the cross?
1. The law of God is constantly pointing out your sins.
a. It condemns us.
b. It works as a list of crimes read by the prosecutor as he indicts the criminal.
c. And every sin you ever committed is on that list
2. On the cross, God grabbed that list and nailed to the cross as the charges against his Son.
a. He was charged with your sin.
b. Every idle word, every evil thought, every wicked deed charged to Christ.
"Who was the guilty who brought this upon thee? Alas, my treason, Jesus hath undo thee. `Twas I, Lord Jesus, I it was denied thee: I crucified thee." Johann Heermann
c. We crucified Jesus and we did it most willing with our sins.
d. Think about that next time you are tempted to sin: it took the Lord of glory in the flesh nailed to the cross in order to atone, or cover your sin.
Gal. 3:13 – Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree")
D. So through faith in Jesus, the guilt that is yours is removed from you and placed upon Christ – that's what we call forgiveness.
1. We are made alive by the forgiveness of our transgressions against God.
2. ALL our transgressions, all our sins, are forgiven in Jesus Christ.
a. That dark and shameful sin that you committed in the past and the guilt of it consumes you is forgiven in Jesus Christ.
b. That is why Horatio Spafford could say, even after losing his children in a shipwreck:
"My sin – O the bliss of this glorious thought! – my sin, not in part, but the whole, is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more; praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul! It is well with my soul."
c. Nailed to the cross and charged to Christ is all that God had against you.
Rom. 5:1-2 – Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
"Not what my hand have done can save my guilty soul; not what my toiling flesh has borne can make my spirit whole. Not what I feel or do can give me peace with God; not all my prayers and sighs and tears can bear my awful load. Thy work alone, O Christ, can ease this weight of sin; thy blood alone, O Lamb of God can give me peace within. `Tis he who saveth me, and freely pardon gives…" Horatius Bonar
III. The Triumph of the Cross over Satan, 15.
A. The cross conquered all rulers and authorities and exposed them for what they are: farces!
B. The cross, which seemed to be an instrument of defeat, was Christ's victory over his enemies.
"For although in the cross there is nothing but curse, it was, nevertheless, swallowed up by the power of God in such a way, that the cross has put on, as it were, a new nature. For there is no tribunal so magnificent, no throne so stately, no show of triumph so distinguished, no chariot so elevated, as is the cross on which Christ has subdued death and the devil, the prince of death; nay more, has utterly trodden them under his feet." John Calvin
C. What God had promised Adam and Eve way back in the beginning of time is now accomplished at the cross: the serpent's head is crushed by the seed of the woman.
D. The cross became Jesus's triumphant chariot in which he made a public display of all his enemies and disarmed them.
1. It is because of the cross that the accuser of the brethren no longer has the power to accuse.
Rom. 8:33 – Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.
2. It is because of the cross that sin no longer has dominion over you.
3. The cross has conquered the enemies that enslaved you and declared you free to obey God.
"Long my imprisoned spirit lay fast bound in sin and nature's night; thine eye diffused a quick'ning ray; I woke, the dungeon flamed with light; my chains fell off, my heart was free; I rose, went forth, and followed thee." Charles Wesley
IV. The Triumph of the Cross Is All Grace.
A. God didn't have to do any of that for us.
B. It wasn't like he saw a bunch of good little boys and girls and decided that he would do something nice for them.
C. Paul makes this argument by reminding the Colossians that they were not part of God's people when he called them.
1. They were uncircumcised.
2. They were not part of God's covenant people.
3. God hadn't promised them anything.
4. Yet he gave them the cross.
D. God graciously forgave them in Jesus Christ – the very word for forgiveness here is built upon the word for grace!
Conclusion
The world looks at the cross and see foolishness. The idea of a man dying for others so that they can be declared right with God? You must be very gullible to believe in that. But for us who believe the cross is the power of God unto salvation. Let me end with what Paul says about the cross in 1 Corinthians.
"For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.… For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.… we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." 1 Cor. 1:17-18, 21, 23-24
This is truly the power of the cross: the triumph of Christ over death, guilt, and Satan.
http://olympiabp.blogspot.com/2016/07/the-triumph-of-cross-col-213-15.html
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