WHAT THE CROSS MEANS TO GOD

WHAT THE CROSS MEANS TO GOD

Series: The Cross

Lesson #1

1Cor. 15:47The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.

1Cor. 15:48As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.

1Cor. 15:49And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.

I.In The First Eight Chapters Of Romans Two Aspects Of Salvation Are Presented; Justification By The Blood, And Deliverance Through The Cross.

1.This is a very important distinction, for many believers have lived in defeat because they do not know how to reckon with the union in death with Christ on the cross.

2.In the first chapter of the book of Romans, through the fifth chapter, verse 20, we have this salvation through the blood of Christ. You dont have the cross mentioned. But from verse 20 of the fifth chapter, through the eighth chapter of the book of Romans, you have no mention of blood, but the cross. Both aspects, the blood and the cross are presented.

3.While we must be careful to recognize that Christs finished work at Calvary is one complete work from Gods standpoint, yet it is finished in the individual believer only as he reckons on its efficacy and allows the truth to become operative in his or her life.

II.So God Deals With The Human Race Through Two Representative Men - Adam And Christ.1.We have the example of the kernel of corn. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit (Jn. 12:24).

2.This is what Paul speaks of in Romans 5:12-21, when he explains that we all had our beginning in the first Adam.

3.Through him, the first Adam, sin and death have come upon the human race. Through one mans sin, we all become sinners (Rom. 5:19a).

4.But through Christ comes the new creation, wherein is righteousness; His righteousness. By one mans obedience many are made righteous (Rom. 5:19b). He who knew no sin became sin, that we who are born of God might have the righteousness of God (2Cor. 5:21).

5.Hebrews gives us another example of this truth, where the writer shows how Levi was in Abrahams loins when he paid tithe to Melchisedec.

6.Abraham is seen to include the whole family in himself.

7.So, in making his offering, his entire family was included in the act.

III.So It Is That God Sees Two Family Trees: Adams Family And Christs Family.

1.If our source of life is to change, we must change families. Thats a very simple thing to understand. We are born in the first Adam, if we are to change, then we have to change families. This is what happens at the new birth.

2.Since we are born in Adams family, how can we get out?

3.How can we become disentangled from the wretchedness of our inheritance in the first Adam?

4.There is only one way, through death.

5.By union with Christ (the last Adam) in His death, God sets us free from sin that reigns over Adam and his posterity. By our identifying with Christ in His death, we become free from the entanglement of the first family.

IV.God Not Only Speaks Of The First And Last Adam, But Also Of The First And Second Adam.

1.There is a great truth in this fact that there will never be another Adam.

2.When the Lord Jesus was crucified, He was laid in the tomb as the last Adam. He took on the form of a man, and in His crucifixion, was laid in that tomb as the last Adam.

3.All that was in the first Adam was gathered up and done away with in Him.

4.So, In Gods reckoning, Adam was left in the grave. This truth has to take hold of us. We were included there. This is part of the symbolism of baptism. The Bible says, we are buried with Him in baptism (Rom. 6:4). The old Adam went into that watery grave. Now we are raised up to walk in the new life, that is the life of the new creation.

5.We were buried with Him in His death, and by His death.

6.By Jesus death, the old race of Adam was completely wiped out. There will never be another Adam.

7.As Christ, The Last Adam died, He carried the whole family into the grave, and provided the end.

8.Now, in the second man, He brings forth the new race in resurrection.

9.The symbolism of baptism is identifying with Him in His death. Being raised up, we identify with Him in His resurrection to walk in this new life.

V.The First Man Is Of The Earth, Earthy: But The Second Man Is The Lord From Heaven...And As We Have Borne The Image Of The Earthy, We Shall Also Bear The Image Of The Heavenly (1Cor. 15:47-49).1.By one master stroke, God has provided death to the old man and to the earthy.

2.At the same time, He has provided life through the second man, the Lord Jesus, who becomes the life source of the new heavenly creation.

3.Through death, burial, and resurrection, we pass from the old family tree into a new family tree. We are no longer in Adam, we are now in Christ.

4.Paul writing in the Corinthian letter says, By one Spirit we are all baptized into one body (1Cor. 12:13). Just as in the old creation, when we were born the first time of a woman we were in Adam. We were all in the loins of Adam when he committed that crime against God. So by one mans sin, death passed upon all of us. All were made sinners. But in the new creation, in the second Adam, we have become partakers of His life; hence by one mans righteousness, we all are made righteous.

VI.In This New Position, God Considers Us Beyond The Claims Of Old Tyrants, And Under His New Government.1.What God counts as true of our position, we must appropriate as true in our life and walk. We must believe that.

2.Our victory is in our recognition of all that God designed to accomplish. Christ died my death. His resurrection was my resurrection. His victory was my victory. I must deal on that. I must believe what I believe. We are now in Christ, and are righteous because of that.

3.On no other reason or grounds are we accepted with God, except in Christ. In this new creation we now are righteous because we have received His righteousness, just as we received that sinful nature from the first Adam as sinners.

4.In the cross, God has liberated Adams race from four tyrants: death, sin, the law, and the flesh. Paul gives us this in the middle chapters of Romans.

a.Chapter 5 lays out this truth of freedom from sin and sins penalty - death.

Rom. 5:1Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

Rom. 5:2By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Rom. 5:3And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also; knowing that tribulation worketh patience;

Rom. 5:4And patience, experience; and experience, hope:

Rom. 5:5And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of Christ is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

Rom. 5:6For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

Rom. 5:7For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.

Rom. 5:8But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Rom. 5:9Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.

Rom. 5:10For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

Rom. 5:11And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.

Rom. 5:12Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:

Rom. 5:13(For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.

Rom. 5:14Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.

Rom. 5:15But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.

Rom. 5:16And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgement was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification.

b.There you have it, freedom from sins penalty - death.

c.Chapter 6: Freedom from sins tyranny - bondage.

Rom. 6:22But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.

Rom. 6:23For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

d.Chapter 7: Freedom from sins strength - the law.

Rom. 7:1Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over man as long as he liveth?

Rom. 7:2For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.

Rom. 7:3So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.

Rom. 7:4Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are 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.

Rom. 7:5For 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.

Rom. 7:6But 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 oldness of the letter.

e.Chapter 8: Freedom from sins presence - redemption of the body.

Rom. 8:1There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

Rom. 8:2For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

Rom. 8:3For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:

Rom. 8:4That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

Rom. 8:5For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.

5.Being moved from Adam into Christ is more, much more, than having a new family position.

6.In Adam, we receive all that was of Adam as a life source.

7.In Christ, we are to receive all that is of Christ as a new life source. This is brought out so beautifully in John 15:5, Jesus says, I am the vine, you are the branches.

8.Paul talks about us being grafted into that vine. Thats the new birth. We were grafted into the vine, Christ Jesus.

9.Jesus said, I am that vine and you are that branch. If any branch doesnt abide in Him, then His Father takes it away. The implication is, we are the branch in the vine, and we know that the sum total of the life source of that branch is from that vine. Whatever is in the vine, is in the branch.

10.God intends this new life to be more than an experience. It is to be a new way of living, a new purpose for existence.

11.It is here that men miss the key which opens the way of life unto God.

VII.The Important Key.1.So many have tried to make the truth of identification with Christ in death and resurrection real in their lives, yet it never seems a reality.

2.The problem is evident - we have been more concerned for ourselves than for Him.

3.Most Christians are much more alive to what they want God to do for them, than what they might become to Him.

4.If they could, they would use God and the work of the cross for their own ends.

5.Here is the source of trouble! The cross is not the threshold to selfish attainment, but a terminal to selfishness.

6.Even among those who are thirsting for God, you find many whom have fallen victim to this vicious snare.

7.After years of seeking the deeper things of God, they are still camping around their old self center. Getting all God has for me, possessing all my possessions, appropriating all my inheritance in Christ, the whole thing revolves around themselves.

8.May God shatter this, and uncover every attempt at using the cross instead of dying on the cross.

The late Dr. Ravenhill was in service with me on one occasion when I had preached on the cross. After the message as we were talking, he said, Brother Clendennen, I have found that it is a fairly simple thing to get people to come to the cross. The difficult thing is getting them on that cross.

9.Hidden behind most begging and pleading for God to give victory is the secret concern for ourselves - and not for Himself. What a truth! If you take hold of this lesson, you will have come a long way in becoming the minister that God wants you to become. I pray that this school prepares such a place, and that you are able to see this great truth; that it is not ourselves, but is God that matters.

10.For years I taught the truths of Romans 6, and counseled those who were in defeat before I found this key - In His death I am to become alive unto God.

VIII.As Long As The Believers Primary Concern Is To Get Victory Or Deliverance, It Means That In A Subtle Way He Continues To Live Unto Self.1.Four times in four verses in Romans 6, God emphasizes, the key is living unto God.

Rom. 6:10For that in he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.

Rom. 6:11Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Rom. 6:12Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.

Rom. 6:13Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourself unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.2.In actual practice, this simply means that the primary thing God will realize through the cross is to change mans old center and purpose of living, and bring him unto Himself and His ultimate purpose.

3.The law is - when we seek Him first, then all things will be added (Mat. 6:33).

4.The very moment one becomes alive unto God, the door is open for God to give victory and full deliverance.

IX.Two Families - Two Trees.1.All who have their source in the life of Adam have followed in his selfish way by living unto their own purpose and plans.

2.Through the cross, God has laid the ax at the root of the old family tree, in order that He might move man into a new family, and life unto God.

3.The neo-Pentecostal emphasis proves to us that Satans methods have not changed since the Garden. He is still offering the same substitute for the tree of life.

4.Today it is a modern cross in place of the old.

5.The new cross says, Come and get. A selfish human would be contrary to his own nature if he refused. He will use the cross for his own benefit.

6.The old cross says, Come and give, and for the moment entirely ignores anything the individual receives save a baptism unto death.

7.The old cross was meant by God to be the symbol of death to the old Adam life - the new cross simply redirects him.

8.The new cross gears Adam into a cleaner, fuller way of living and saves his self-centeredness and ambition.

9.To the self-assertive it says, Come assert yourself to God; to the egoist it says, Come and do your boasting in the Lord.

X.The Old Cross Would Have No Truck With (Carry Nothing From) The World.1.For Adams proud flesh it meant the end of the journey.

2.The old cross carried into effect the sentence imposed by the law.

3.The new cross is not opposed to the human race, rather it is a friendly pal, and if understood aright, is the source of oceans of good clean fun and innocent enjoyment.

4.The new cross lets Adam live without interference. His life motivation is unchanged, and he still lives for his own pleasure.

5.The new cross offers a living unto self. The old cross points to the heavenly way of living unto God.

XI.The Holy Spirit Must Reveal.

1.The Holy Spirit must reveal in Gods planning, that the cross and the crucified One have become the gateway to life.

2.Apart from this gateway there can be no movement on the highway of realizing Gods purpose.

3.We shall not forget the pit from which we have been dug, nor the rock to which we have come, but we move onward and upward in the realization of Gods purpose.

4.What previously have been crisis will now become a walk into His image.

5.This is truly life - a new kind of life in a wholly different sphere.

6.Death has yielded its throne to the higher law of love; flesh has yielded its throne to the Spirit - all of that is what the cross has realized for God.

7.We have changed families.

8. May God make this so real to our hearts that we put it into practice.