What the Cross Accomplished

Various Texts

Copyright April 7, 2023 by Rev Bruce Goettsche

Tonight, our focus is on the cross of Jesus. It is meant to be a sober time, a reflective time. We know our salvation hinges on the cross and the subsequent resurrection. The question is often asked, “Why is Good Friday called Good Friday when it is the anniversary of the death of Jesus, and the greatest travesty of justice ever?” No one says the death of Jesus itself was a good thing. What made Good Friday “good” are the reasons and results of the death of Jesus.

The question I pose for tonight is: “What good things resulted from the death of Jesus?” I took a look at passages in the New Testament that referred to the cross to see what benefits resulted from the cross. I saw four major benefits that resulted from the death of Christ on the cross.

Christ’s Death on the Cross Paid for Our Sin

The first benefit is the atonement or payment for our sin. This is certainly the benefit we celebrate most often. It should be. In Galatians 3:13 we read,

But Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing.

Paul says here that Jesus took our curse upon Himself. This is what is called the substitutionary atonement of Christ. The penalty for sin was paid for because Jesus took the punishment that we deserved because of our sin.

In Colossians 2:14 we read,

13 You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. 14 He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.

We don’t generally think of ourselves as dead men walking, but before we met Christ, that is exactly what we were. Ephesians 2:1-5 Paul amplifies on this,

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh m and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. (NIV)

We didn’t realize we were dead, but in our spiritual lives, that is exactly what we were. We have repeatedly broken God’s law and in God’s eyes that is a capital offense, meaning the penalty is death. He commands us to love Him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. If we don’t do this (and no one other than Jesus has ever done so), we are spiritually dead and facing condemnation for our sin. Our sentence is given as soon as we sin, and unless someone steps in, we have no hope. Fortunately, God does not execute the sentence on the spot. He lets us live. The book of Romans tells us that Christ became the payment that satisfied the justice of God. Anyone who puts their trust in Him and comes to the cross to find forgiveness for their sin will be forgiven. The problem with most people is they think they are doing well compared to those around them, but the people around us are not the standard by which our relationship with God is measured. It is measured against our obedience to God’s law.

There is nothing we can do to make ourselves spiritually alive, any more than a dead person can make themselves physically live. Someone must revive us. This is what God did through the work of Christ. Because Jesus was perfect, He could trade His perfection for our sin, effectively canceling our sin debt and bringing back our spiritual life. The person who sincerely comes to Christ for salvation is a person who no strives to, by God’s power, live a life that honors God.

Dr. Paul Meier says it well,

Heaven is a gift. A relationship with your Creator is a gift. Your forgiveness and your value as a human being is a gift. God says that if you tried to be good enough to get to Heaven, you would just add the sin of pride to your existing list, and brag about how good you are, like so many religious leaders do today.[1]

As we remember our sins and failures, we must remind ourselves that there is now “no condemnation for those who belong to Jesus Christ.” Instead of continually beating ourselves up for our past, we lay that past at the feet of Jesus and express our thanksgiving to the Lord for His work on our behalf. When we walk around as a defeated person, we are in essence negating the work of Christ on our behalf.

He Disarmed (Delivered us from) the Spiritual Rulers of This World

Not only did the Lord pay the sin penalty, the Bible tells us that He also disarmed the spiritual rulers of this world. Just as in any war, the defeated rulers that once stood in positions of power are now powerless. They have been defeated. You have probably seen pictures or footage of moments when one side had to surrender to the other. A decisive battle had been lost, and it was clear now that the war was over.

Colossians 2:15 says,

15 In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross. (Colossians 2:15)

Satan and his army felt good about their position. They had indictments against all of humankind because of their sin. They could come before the Lord and say, “By your own word, these people are guilty and must be cast from your presence. They now belong to us.” But suddenly, the Lord acted in accordance with His own Law, and paid the sin debt through His own son. When Jesus rose from the dead the battle was over.

That doesn’t mean the opposition doesn’t still exist. They do. The no longer have any authority in our lives because it has been stripped by the cross. These powers are defeated but are still trying the wreck the Kingdom.

Satan is going to continue to accuse us and try to intimidate us, but no longer has ANY power over us. . . unless we give it to Him! This is why we must stay away from occult or demonic activity. We must not listen to His whispers of condemnation. Instead, let us stand in the truth that we are now children of God and there is NOTHING that can separate us from His love. Do not be taken in by Satan’s intimidation tactics.

He Gave Us Release from Our Sinful Passions

In Galatians 5:24 we read this interesting statement,

Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and have crucified them there.

This one is hard for us to wrap our heads around. We all struggle with some kind of sin in our life. But what we are told here is the cross of Christ allows us to be the new creation talked about throughout the Bible. The cross is like the key to the prison cell of our sinful passions. Sometimes these things are removed immediately, sometimes we are set free gradually. The real message is this: we don’t have to stay the way we were! There is power to break our addictions. He gives us power to escape the life of sinful excesses that often permeate our lives.

What kinds of sinful passions are we talking about? Just a few verses earlier Paul gave a list of the kinds of things Jesus died to set us free from and to produce in us.

17 The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. 18 But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses.

19 When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, 21 envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

22 But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!

Do you recognize yourself in some of the list of sinful passions? If you really examine that list you probably do see some traces of those things in your life. I hope you also see yourself in the list of “the fruit of the Holy Spirit.” Hopefully you are also see the development of the fruit of the Spirit in your life. That growth is because of the cross. Jesus defeated these sinful passions on the cross. It is now about living the truth of these words.

We must cooperate and walk with the Spirit of God. We need to do what the Bible teaches. On the cross, Jesus unlocked the doors to the prison we were in. If we choose not to take advantage of the unlocked doors, that is on us . . . not Him.

He made it Possible for People to Be United as One

Through the cross, Jesus brought people together. In Ephesians 2:14 we read,

For Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us. 15 He did this by ending the system of law with its commandments and regulations. He made peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in himself one new people from the two groups. 16 Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of his death on the cross, and our hostility toward each other was put to death.

We live at a time when divisions seem to be increasing. We divide over race, politics, gender, incomes, hot-button issues, and lots more. In fact, it seems like we are better at dividing than coming together. That changes (or should change) with the gospel. No matter what our individual preferences are, we are brought together because of Jesus.

You can see this if you have ever attended a national Christian conference. As people gather from different kinds of churches from different countries you will notice a remarkable unity. People are celebrating Christ and the universal nature of the church rather than being preoccupied with their own church.

In the High Priestly prayer of Jesus in John 17, His prayer was simple: “May they be one!” Sadly, the church, through the ages, on into our very day, has not done a good job in this area. We have been better at picking at differences rather than celebrating what we hold in common. We are more concerned with building the size of our church than we are about building the Kingdom of God. We have adopted a consumer attitude toward the church, especially in this era of the megachurch. The goal is to draw people to the church with all kinds of things other than the gospel. As a result, people are looking for a church like they do shopping online. They are less concerned with doctrine (what is believed) and more concerned with the “perks.” There is a greater emphasis on personalities than on Christ.

Imagine if the Army, Marines, Air Force, and Navy, all saw each other as competitors. Recruiters would be lined up at schools trying to show how their branch of the military should be considered more desirable. What would happen to our armed services if recruiters spent all their time tearing down the other branches of the military? Would we be stronger as a country or more vulnerable?

It is the same with the church. If we spend all our time pointing to flaws rather than trying to find ways to work together the body of Christ is going to be much weaker. Many people steer clear of the church today because they see that Christian people can’t get along with each other! Jesus died to bridge these gaps, not to widen them!

But there is another part of this unifying work of the cross. In Colossians 1:20 we read,

For God in all his fullness

was pleased to live in Christ,

20 and through him God reconciled

everything to himself.

He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth

by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.

When Jesus died, He didn’t just unite believers, He sought to unite all of creation! He died to start the process of renewing the balance that was originally a part of creation.

In Romans 8 Paul talks about this,

For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

We don’t think about the fact that sin destroyed the perfect balance that once existed in the created order. Originally there was no disease or “natural disasters.” The creation worked in perfect harmony. But sin messed that all up. Animals and humans became largely antagonists rather than fellow creatures in God’s created order. The weather became unstable. Disease entered the world. The perfection and harmony of creation were disrupted. When Jesus died on the cross, He set in motion a plan to restore the harmony of the created order.

Conclusions

One of the things we are to gain from looking at what the Bible tells us about the cross is: It was about more than simply dying for our sins. However, it is not less than that. Because of that let’s look at 4 conclusions.

First, we ought to live in the forgiveness we have been given. Rather than constantly looking back on the mistakes and failures of our lives, we should keep our eyes focused on what God has made possible through the forgiveness that comes through Christ. Instead of living wearing the scarlet letter of our past sins, we should don the new white robes of those whose past has been washed clean. We need to see ourselves through God’s eyes and grasp the wonder and love of such a gift.

Second, we need to stop excusing our sin by saying, “That’s just the way I am.” Instead, we need to claim the fact that the Lord has made possible the escape from our past addictions. We are NEW CREATIONS in Christ. We do not have to be what we once were! We should stop defending our sin. The chains have been loosed. We are free to live a life of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

We need to start telling ourselves the truth: Christ has set us free from our sinful passions. He opens the door of new life to anyone who will embrace that life.

Third, we need to remember that Satan and his army have no power over us. The only power they have is the power we give them. Why do we at times continue to live the way of sinful mankind rather than living according to the life and privilege that is now ours because of Christ? It is because we have given away the freedom Jesus died for us to have.

Finally, let’s remember that Jesus didn’t die so we could see which of us was more worthy of His salvation. He died so we could stop ranking each other and start working together. We are all saved the same way: through the blood of Jesus! Instead of building kingdoms for ourselves, we should be building the Kingdom of God. If we focused more on sharing the good news with others rather than trying to get them to come to our church, the Kingdom of God would grow powerfully. Instead of building walls, we should be building bridges.

We need to see that sin has a much greater impact than we thought it did. We tend to see the effect of sin only on how it impacts our lives and our eternal destiny. We need to understand that sin also impacts our health, our relationship with creation, and the way we treat each other. Any problem we see in this world can ultimately be traced back to the effect of sin in the world.

The world will not rally to the cross of Jesus until the church recognizes the significance of the cross in our lives. What Jesus did on the cross impacted every aspect of life. And the sooner we see it and embrace it, the better off we, and those around us, will be. Thanks be to God!

[1]Paul Meier Blue Genes p. 205