The Power of the Cross

I mentioned last week that we decided to wade into the deep waters of grace by immersing ourselves into the cross. Two weeks ago we studied the actual event of the crucifixion in Mark 15, and I felt so compelled to continue studying that we decided to start a little series on the cross. Last week, our study was about the cross in redemptive history. We saw that the cross is at the center of it all. It was in God’s mind in eternity past. It was the primary purpose of the Old Testament Scripture. It is the heart of the Christian message, the church’s message for the world, and it will be the theme of heaven's praises. Our conclusion is that if it was in God’s heart in eternity past, and if it will be our praise for eternity future, it should consume us in the present.

It makes sense, then, that the cross has become the emblem of Christianity. The muslims have a star and crescent. Marxists have a hammer and sickle, representing industry and agriculture. Modern Jews have the star of David, which is meant to symbolize God’s covenant with David. Buddhists have a lotus flower, symbolizing beauty and harmony.

We Christians have a cross. Which feels normal to us now, even obvious. But our familiarity with the cross has caused us to forget how strange it is to have a cross as our symbol. Christians have made a torture device, a violent method of killing criminals, its main symbol. Isn’t that odd?

If we were to bring a 1st century Roman to Rancho Cucamonga, I think there would be several confusing things. Cars, for instance. Phones would seem like dark magic. But what we might find most bizarre is the number of crosses he sees on vehicles, houses, buildings. We put them up on the walls of our houses. Crosses adorn our jewelry - necklaces, earrings, bracelets. Or they’re tattooed permanently onto our skin.

If that 1st century Roman walked into a house and saw a cross, I’m sure he’d start looking for a way of escape. Imagine being invited over to dinner and discovering the one who invited you was wearing noose earrings, a miniature electric chair necklace, and a lethal injection syringe on the wall. You’re not staying for dinner. What is it with these people? They use torture devices as decoration?

Christians didn’t choose a crib for their symbol to symbolize the incarnation. They didn’t choose a loaf of bread to indicate his power to feed the hungry. They didn’t choose the apron he wore when he washed the disciples' feet. They didn’t choose an empty grave. They chose a cross. They chose the most brutal method of shameful execution.

These early Christians knew that the cross was the center. The cross has always been central to a Christian’s self-understanding. And this morning, I want to help us reshape our identity according to Scripture - and Scripture teaches us to live “Cross-shaped” lives.

We’ll look at three ways the cross shapes our lives: 1) adopt a cross-shaped identity, 2) embrace the cross-purchased freedom, and 3) act with cross-inspired love.

Adopt a Cross Shaped Identity. One of the most fascinating things about the cross is how all the New Testament writers saw it more than merely an event in the past. The cross was something they saw themselves as involved in. They weren’t there, they didn’t feel the nails, they didn’t experience the pain or rejection, but still, they considered the cross to be the defining moment of their lives. The cross became for them the way they understood themselves. It gave them a new identity, a new understanding of who and what they were.

Listen to some of the ways they spoke about their relation to the cross. Paul, “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” Or, as he’s instructing different churches, he tells them, “if with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world” - that’s what he said to the Colossian church. As they looked at the cross, they understood that in some spiritual sense, they died there too.

So if we go back to Mark 15, the text where Jesus’ crucifixion and death is described, and we do a little double-click there and explore further the meaning, what we find in the New Testament is that there’s a sense in which every Christ follower should consider themselves to have died on that cross as well. That’s my point this morning. I want to convince you, through Scripture, to think in a new and different way about yourself. I want you to consider yourself as having been crucified on that cross 2,000 years ago.

Now, we don’t often think this way. But that might be part of our problem. We haven’t fully embraced the cross as our identity. But this is precisely how Paul urges the Roman Christians to think in Romans 6.

A quick overview of Romans 1-5. Romans 1-3 demonstrates that all humanity, Jews and Gentiles, religious and non-religious, are guilty of sin before a holy God and cannot do anything to remove their guilt and please God. Romans 4 makes it clear that God gives his own righteousness as a gift to those who put their faith in Jesus. Romans 5 teaches how Christ died for the ungodly, and how all of us are either in Adam and controlled by the sinful nature and under judgment; or in Christ, and therefore share in his perfect righteousness and are set free from sin. This is such astounding news for believers, that Paul begins Romans 6 by asking, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?” In other words, the gospel of free grace through Jesus is so wonderful, does it mean we can just keep sinning in order to magnify the glory of his grace? His answer in verse 2, “By no means!” or “Unthinkable!”

We can’t just go on sinning as believers - and then he begins to explain why. Now as I read, pay close attention to all the references to Christ’s death, and how it relates to our current lives. Let’s read Romans 6:1-14.

Listen: Good Bible readers must always identify indicatives and imperatives. Indicatives are statements about who or what we are. Imperatives are commands telling us what to do. Parents use this: “You are my son (indicative), so you must follow my instruction (imperative).” The imperative builds from the indicative.

Notice that the imperative - the command - only comes in verse 12 - “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey its passions.” But can you see the indicatives on which the command is built?

Look back to verse 2. He calls believers: “we who died to sin.” Verse 3 all believers were “baptized into his death.” In our physical baptism as believers, we symbolized a spiritual union with Christ in his death. Verse 4, “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death.” Verse 5, even more explicit: “we have been united with him in a death like his,” verse 6, “we know that our old self was crucified with him,” verse 8, “Now if we have died with Christ.” Verse 11, “So you also must consider yourself dead to sin.”

This is incredible. This is reconstructing an entirely new identity for believers that is the grounds for their obedience. According to the Scriptures, we died to sin because we were, spiritual speaking, crucified with Christ on that cross. Our old, pre-conversion self, is dead.

Notice it’s all past tense. “We who died to sin.” “were baptized into his death.” “Old self was crucified.” “We have died.” In other words, this has already happened to you, Christian. You don’t need to ask God to help you die to sin. You don’t pray for this. This has already happened to you. It is as objective as Christ’s cross. It’s not that we need to hope we die to sin someday, all true believers have already died to sin. It is part of your new identity.

God sees us as having died the death of Christ. That’s God’s assessment. He says our old self is dead. We are not allowed to argue with him. Christian - your old self is dead.

Now, the command to recognize your new identity: verse 11: “You must consider yourself dead to sin.” So there’s “this is who you are” and then there’s “Consider yourself for who you really are.” Theologian John Murray says, “Nothing is more relevant to progressive sanctification than the reckoning of ourselves to be dead to sin and alive to God through Jesus Christ.” Knowing who you are is absolutely critical for living the Christian life.

Could you imagine jumping onto the football field not sure whose team you’re on? Which coach am I listening to? Which plays am I running? Or being sent into battle without knowing who you’re fighting for? Whose orders do I follow? Identity matters! Some Christians are trying to live for Christ not knowing who they actually are.

If I ask you, “Who are you?” You might tell me your name. And if I respond, “No, that’s your name. Who are you?” You might tell me about your job. But I might say, “Well no, that’s just what you do.” You are not your name, you are not your job. So what are you? The best answer for you, Christian, is this: “I am God’s child, united to Jesus Christ in his death. I died with him, I died to sin. And I am united to Christ in his resurrection. I now live in the power of his resurrection.” That’s who you are: old self dead, new self alive forever in Jesus.

We are crucified people; we have died to sin, we have been united with Christ in his death and resurrection. That’s who we are.

I’ve noticed that Christians often slap labels on themselves that are contrary to what God says about them. They mope around like they’re still enslaved to sin. Sulking like they’re in still fetters, walking with their heads down, whipped and beaten by their master, sin.

No. That’s not who you are. Now, how often do you preach this to yourself? How often do you remind yourself that you are already crucified with Christ, and sin has no dominion over you?

The Cross-Purchased Freedom. But the new identity is only part of the equation. Let’s keep looking at Romans 6. Look at verse 6. Paul says our “old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.”

The new identity is more than a new label, it’s a new reality with all kinds of implications. He’s describing new power, new freedom. Paul is saying that because of your union with Christ in his death, you are no longer enslaved to sin. Or verse 7, “For one who has died has been set free from sin.” No more enslavement. But freedom.

Or as Paul says in Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ” - that’s his identity - “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” That’s power.

1 Peter 2:24 “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.” You see, the death of Christ was not merely transactional. It was highly personal and powerfully enabling. Since Christ died, we’ve died to sin and we can live to righteousness. In 1 Peter 1:18 we are described as being ransomed by the blood of Christ - that is, bought out of slavery to sin and into freedom.

Augustine was the first to articulate what he called the four-fold nature of man. Four different states humanity goes through as related to sin.

1) Able to sin, able not to sin. This is Adam and Eve in the garden. They were able to resist sin because they didn’t yet have a sin nature. But God also gave them the ability to sin, which they did. 2) Not able to not sin. That’s every human being after Adam and Eve. We are born in this state. Enslaved to sin. Mastered by sin. Dominated by sin.

For us to get out of this stage, we need Jesus Christ. When Jesus saves us, he moves us from Not Able to Not Sin, into the third category, which is “Able to Not Sin.” That is what is meant by the end of verse 6: “so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.”

In other words, before we trust Christ, we are ruled by sin, dominated by sin, overrun by sin. We are enslaved to it and cannot get out. Christ sets us free from Christ’s dominion, but he doesn’t remove all temptation. That happens in the fourth state - “not able to sin” which is the state of all believers who are glorified in heaven.

In other words, by virtue of our union with Christ, we are able to not sin. In Romans 7, Paul uses the illustration of marriage. In marriage, you’re bound to your spouse as long as they’re alive. But when death occurs, you’re no longer under the obligation of the marriage covenant.

In the same way, all of us are born under sin’s command. But when we die in Christ, we are set free from our bondage to sin. We have no obligations to sin any more.

Imagine you’re on Team Sin. And Coach Sin is your head coach. You do what he says. But when you trusted Christ, you got cut from that team and put on a new team. You’re on Team Righteousness now, and Jesus is your coach. You don’t have to listen to Coach Sin anymore.

The old self is dead, that old master is fired, that old lifestyle can’t continue.

Do you believe that? You can say “No” to sin. You can say “no” to lust. You say, “No, lust,” that’s not who I am. You can say “No” to laziness. You can say “No” to anxiety. You can say “No” to gluttony. You can say no to pride and anger and jealousy. You can say, “That’s not actually who I am anymore.”

This has nothing to do with your feelings. If your feelings are telling you that you’re still enslaved to sin, they’re lying to you. Lou Priolo: "Did you know you have the ability to talk to yourself at the rate of over 1,000 words per minute? Think about that. In ten seconds you can tell yourself a dozen lies." And I think many of us are lying to ourselves about our sin. We give it way more power than it actually has.

So many Christians still think they’re enslaved to sin. It’s like they’re standing in sin’s prison cell, moaning and groaning about their sin, not realizing the door is open and the guards can’t stop them from getting out. You do not have to sin anymore because of the cross.

Christians need to recover this bold confidence they have in God in light of their own sin. Christian, you shouldn’t have feelings of defeat regarding sin, you should have feelings of victory. You should feel confident because of Jesus. You should stand up, lift your chin, and boldly say to sin, “You have no authority here. You are not welcome. And by God’s grace, I am going to crush you.” Christians shouldn’t be so meek that they cower before sin. They are meek before people, they are mighty before sin, they are warriors. They know they have victory in Christ, and so they fight against sin with courage and confidence.

Christian, are you more inclined to say, “I’ll never overcome this,” or to say, “Since I’m in Christ, there’s no way this will overcome me”?

Church, we need to remind each other of this from time to time. Do you love your brothers and sisters in Christ enough to tell them, gently and with wisdom, “Hey, you died to sin, you don’t have to do that anymore, you can say no - let me help you!”

Here at Grace Rancho, it should be normal to be in active and aggressive pursuit of holiness because we actually believe our sins are overcome-able. We don’t give up and tap out. We don’t tolerate “respectable sins.” Every sin of impatience. Every sin of discontent. We must not be ruled by any of them, and so we wage constant war against sin until we get home to heaven.

Wouldn’t it be terrible if our church normalized complacency? Wouldn’t it be terrible if no one ever called you to new levels of faithfulness and purity and holiness? And how sad would it be if the weird thing around here was to be confessing sin and pursuing holiness?

We actually believe holiness is possible. I don’t mean sinlessness. I mean holiness. Some of you may need to say to yourself, “I can be holy.” There is a certain cocktail of faulty doctrines that leads us to believe that since we’ll never be perfect in this life, holiness is an impossibility. And thus we settle in and make peace with sin. And some of you need to say, “No. I don’t have to sin. I can be holy.”

So one of the thoughts you should consider when you look at the cross is this: “My old self was there. It’s dead now. I’m free.” So when King Sin demands that you follow orders, you can say “No.” When Coach Sin makes demands, you don’t need to listen.

I want you to try to do something this week. Maybe this afternoon. When you are tempted to sin - extra work pops up and you’re tempted to complain; someone treats you poorly and you’re tempted to retaliate; something inappropriate grabs your attention and you’re tempted to indulge - I want you to look at the cross and remind yourself, “The old self is dead. I died to sin. I was crucified with Christ. I am free from sin’s temptation. I don’t have to give in.” Think of Jesus on that cross. Think of your old self there with him. And then remember, I’m a new creation.

As I was studying more this week, I learned that many of the earliest Christians even developed the sign of the cross. We associate it with the Roman Catholic Church now, and it has become something superstitious to protect us from danger. But originally, faithful Christians used the sign of the cross to remind themselves of Christ’s love for them, his death for them, and their life to be lived for him.

Remember the cross not merely as a transaction, but as a transformation. You’re set free. Your sins have already been punished. The rule of sin has been undone. The powers of sin are disarmed. You are objectively free.

Cross Inspired Love. So we’ve covered two critical things the cross gives us. It gives us a new identity - we are people who have died and raised with Christ; that is objectively who we are. And it also gives us a new power - because of this we are set free from sin and able to be holy.

So we objectively have died to sin. We have power to overcome sin. But why should we? What if we try to break an innocent person out of a prison cell. We say, “You’re objectively innocent and now we’ve come to set you free!” And they say, “But I kinda like my cell.” What motive do we have to run from sin.

There are many motives to flee sin and pursue righteousness, but our series is on the cross, and I want to show you how the cross also gives us a new reason to live. The cross gives us a new identity, a new power, and a new reason.

Turn to 2 Corinthians 5. He’s defending his ministry here, and he begins describing his own motivations. Look at verse 14. He says “For the love of Christ controls us.” Now this could be taken in 1 of 2 ways. This could mean that Paul’s love for Christ controls him - he is compelled by his own love to serve Christ. Or it could mean “Christ’s love for Paul controls him.” He is so amazed by Christ’s love, it compels him to devote his life entirely to him.

I believe it’s the latter - I believe that Paul is so stunned by Christ’s love for him, that he is compelled and controlled by it. Look at what he says, “For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died.” In other words, it’s like he’s saying, What motivates me, what controls me, what drives me is knowing how loved I am by Jesus Christ. And do you want to see what kind of love he has for me? “He died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.”

In other words, to Paul, the cross was the supreme demonstration of Christ’s love and captured his own heart with love and devotion to Christ. That’s what fueled him. As Paul studied the cross, he was moved by divine love to lay his life down in service to Christ.

This is true of every Christian I’ve ever known who has given his or her life to serving Jesus Christ. It’s the cross that produces love, it’s the cross that produces affection. Christians are not to be driven to obedience merely out of duty, but out of love and devotion. And the way our hearts become aflame with love is through grasping the wonders of the cross.

Last week I told the story of the muslim man who saw the cross as irresistible. I think of Jerry Bridges in his book Pursuit of Holiness, where he tells the story of how as a young Christian he was a part of a Bible study every Monday night, and every time he left the study he would be overcome by discouraged. He would think, “How can anyone who is having the struggles you are having be a Christian?” What did he do? How did he overcome the discouragement? He writes, “I began to fight [the enemy] by resorting to an old gospel hymn, which begins, ‘Just as I am, without one plea, But that Thy blood was shed for me, And that Thou bidst me come to Thee, O Lamb of God I come.”

What did he bring his mind to fixate on? That thy blood was shed for me. The cross! He concludes the story, “I would sing through that hymn, and by the time I finished I would be praising God for his salvation given freely to me through Jesus Christ.”

You see, the cross produces love. It lifts the spirits. It moves us to faith. It propels us to action. I read about a young woman named Clara who went with a team to bring the gospel to Asia, and while there was kidnapped by Islamic fundamentalists. A leader on her team wrote a letter to the church to tell what happened, and in one of the last paragraphs he said, “Where, people ask, did she get the motivation to serve in a place where she knew this might happen? Her answer was simple, ‘Where would I be had Jesus not come for me?” Isn’t that fascinating? What was her motive? It was looking at the love Jesus demonstrated in coming and dying and the cross, being inspired to imitate it by giving her life to spread the message.

Church, the best missions strategy is to be stunned by the gospel. The best evangelistic strategy is to become people who adore Christ and who live each day in the shadow of the cross. The best way to reach the world is first by warming our hearts by staring at the blazing center of divine love demonstrated on Christ’s cross.

Study the cross, not like a seminarian, but study it like you’d study a breathtaking sunset; like a wife studies the picture of her husband who’s overseas fighting in the war. Go often to Calvary and remember Jesus’ death is an outpouring of love for us. We are so incredibly loved.

For Spurgeon, it was the cross that set him free. “My sole hope for heaven lies in the full atonement made upon Calvary’s cross for the ungodly. On that I firmly rely. I have not the shadow of hope anywhere else. Personally, I could never have overcome my own sinfulness. I tried and failed. My evil propensities were too many for me, till, in the belief that Christ died for me, I cast my guilty soul on him, and then I received a conquering principle by which I overcame my sinful self. The doctrine of the cross can be used to slay sin, even as the old warriors used their huge two-handed swords and mowed down their foes at every stroke. There is nothing like faith in the sinners’ Friend. It overcomes all evil. If Christ has died for me, ungodly as I am, without strength as I am, then I cannot live in sin any longer, but must arouse myself to love and serve him who hath redeemed me. I cannot trifle with the evil that slew my best Friend. I must be holy for his sake. How can I live in sin when He has died to save me from it?

Church, you are dead to sin; that’s your new identity. You are free - that’s your new power. And it’s all because of the everlasting, infinite, never-changing love of Christ - that’s your inspiration.