The wonder and majesty of the cross and what Jesus Christ did for all of humanity is an amazingly lovely image and also you’ll usually instances hear many Preachers and Pastors speak about it, particularly round Easter time, and it’s great, however right here’s what’s so usually missed…
They’ve unhealthy theology.
First, if Jesus didn’t die on the cross for our sins, He would have finished it one other method.
Secondly, nothing can cease God’s plan (Job 42:2).
Now that you already know the solutions 😉 let’s unpack these slightly extra!
God Didn’t Want the Cross
I’ve heard it stated by Pastors, “What IF Jesus didn’t die on the cross for us? What IF He by no means did this for us? With out that one act that He did for all of humanity, we wouldn’t have what we have now. We wouldn’t be saved.”
We wouldn’t be saved???? Actually???
We will perceive that after Adam and Eve sinned, all of humanity from then on was born into sin.
However to say that we wouldn’t have what we have now if He didn’t die on the cross is NOT true.
Hear, if Jesus Christ by no means died on the cross, He would have finished it one other method!!!!!!!!!!!!
Don’t you see how the message they’re saying, whereas harmless on their lips and with no ill-intention on their half, will be degrading to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ?!
God didn’t NEED the cross. He didn’t want some tree.
He had a system. The folks introduced their sacrifices and supplied them to Him. He gave them the Ark of the Covenant. Via the generations, they’d methods in place.
If Jesus by no means died on the cross, we’d nonetheless be capable of stand earlier than God in the present day, however we’d be sacrificing animals.
If Jesus by no means died on the cross, He would have finished it one other method. God isn’t sure by our human phrases or to be put in some field. He didn’t need to die on the cross, He may have paid our debt in any method HE wished to; in any case, He IS GOD!
It’s not the cross that makes the story, it’s God.
And you may’t refute that. Should you strive, I’d merely ask you a query…
If the cross saves us, then what occurred to all the real believers BEFORE Jesus died? Did all of them go to Hell? 👈
What Jesus did on the cross is superb and unbelievable, but it surely’s NOT what saves us. GOD is who saves us.
As people, we’re always attempting to deglorify God. We make idols, we worship a bunch of worldly issues and say they’re our gods. There’s solely ONE God.
We’ve got to cease serious about issues in humanistic phrases.
“I’m so glad for what Jesus did for me on the cross,” somebody says.
That’s nice! Completely!!! However we neglect that He sacrifices in the identical method for us each single day of our lives!
In that method, we steal His glory and we don’t even understand it.
The Bible says…
“Jesus Christ is identical yesterday and in the present day and perpetually.” Hebrews 13:8
The Bible, God’s Phrase, says He doesn’t change. If He died on the cross for us 2,000-ish years in the past, if He sacrificed for us again then, you higher BELIEVE He’s sacrificing for you in the present day. And yesterday. And tomorrow!
Each DAY He’s sacrificing for us. 😮💣💯
EVERY…DAY!
He didn’t cease loving us or go to Heaven and stop to cease being HIMSELF!
No, He sacrifices for us daily. And He deserves honor and reward for that EVERY SINGLE DAY! Not JUST on Easter.
Sure, if Jesus didn’t die on the cross, He would have finished it one other method.
We will’t say, “If Jesus by no means died on the cross for us…” As a result of it places the glory on the cross. It places the glory and majesty of what He DID DO for us on a bit of wooden. On a one-time motion in historical past.
If He didn’t do it that method, He would have finished it one other method. Why? As a result of God is sovereign.
HE, and He alone, determined He wished it to be as a option to die on the cross.
He picked how.
He picked the place.
He picked when.
Nobody else selected. And nobody else MADE Him do it.
We may nonetheless be sacrificing animals. Sacrificial methods have been arrange and in place. He CHOSE to die on the cross for us. He selected that.
Nobody instructed Him to do it (Isaiah 43:10 says there isn’t any different god earlier than Him, nor will there ever be after after). Nobody made Him do it. He wished to, due to His nice love for us!
Nobody can cease His will.
If God desires one thing to occur, you can’t cease it.
- Kings can’t cease it.
- Stars and the moon can’t cease it.
- Time can’t cease it.
- Devil can’t cease it.
Job 42:2 says “I do know that you are able to do all issues, and that no objective of yours will be thwarted.”
There’s nothing larger than God and nothing that may cease Him.
Aren’t WE fortunate that God is sweet?! That He’s not a tyrant, power-hungry god.
Aren’t WE fortunate that He’s beneficiant and good and truthful…and LOVING?!
As a result of we CAN’T cease Him. As an alternative of being a slave to an unfair, unjust god, we have now a holy God we are able to go to any time we wish. He’s there, He’s near us, He listens.
However nothing can cease His will. So not solely do you could have a God who CHOSE for Jesus to die within the actual method, within the actual time that He did, and never solely do you could have a God (Jesus) who WILLINGLY went to the cross and submitted to God the Father, you even have a God that held all of it collectively to trigger all of the occasions to line up completely to create that.
You have got Herod attempting to kill Him as an toddler He needed to get by way of. Luke 13:31
You have got Him strolling invisibly by way of the crowds after they tried to assault Jesus, the Bible stating as a result of “it wasn’t His time”. Luke 4:30
You have got Him telling Judas to do what he would do (His giving PERMISSION to Devil to do it; Devil has no authority over God. God LET it occur). John 13:27
You have got Devil taking part in into God’s arms by being the automobile through which Jesus WAS crucified and “caught”. John 13:27
You have got Jesus, the person, not combating His temptation to NOT die when He was praying within the Backyard of Gethsemane; willingly submitting to the Father’s will. Matthew 26:39
All all through the whole story of Jesus dying on the cross, you see an ideal image of God and His sovereign will, which I feel that so many individuals miss.
Sure, we must always all reward what He did for us, He died on the cross for us and it’s superb and nice. I’m so completely grateful I don’t need to go and sacrifice an animal to cowl my sins!
However there’s a lot MORE to the story that you just’re lacking!
His sovereignty.
Nothing stopped it from occurring. He deliberate it from earlier than the start of the world, He brought on all of it to occur in precisely the best way and time He wished it to occur. Nothing stopped it, nothing slowed it down, nothing prevented it.
THAT’S the facility of the Residing God.
👉 You don’t serve a tiny God who lives up in house someplace who doesn’t care about you.
He’s right here with you. He selected what you’ll do in your life from eternity previous (Ephesians 2:10). His will on your life was set in stone far earlier than “stone” was even a phrase! 😮
Do you perceive how BIG He’s? 🙏
Do you perceive how a lot POWER He has? 🤯
Do you perceive how a lot He LOVES you? 🎁
He selected what you’ll do. He selected you to be born (Psalm 139:13). He selected your life. Nothing can cease what He desires to occur, however He does permit us CHOICES. Human will.
Jesus had a alternative.
Jesus may have stated no. He’s God, in any case.
When Jesus was sweating LIKE drops of blood He may have stated no. He may have stated no in Heaven earlier than He was born as a human. All alongside God, the Father’s plan, Jesus may have stated no to it, however He didn’t. He selected to do the Father’s will.
We’ve got that very same alternative daily as nicely.
- Will we do the Father’s will?
- Will we do what He desires us to do?
- Reside our lives for Him?
- Take the Bible significantly?
- Pray our guts out each second of daily?
- Will we be taught extra about Him in order that we are able to honor Him and present Him reward?
- Will we be a very good steward of all of the issues He offers us right here on Earth as a way to please Him with the sources He offers to us?
- Will we attempt to sin much less?
God has a plan for us all so intense and so lovely that you wouldn’t imagine Him if He instructed you. 💯
Sarah laughed when God stated she’d have a child (Genesis 18:12). I laughed at Him when He stated I might be like Moses and lead lots of people 10 years in the past. We are likely to not take Him significantly. We are likely to not imagine these outrageous issues. However the truth is, they’re true!
God has such an unbelievable plan on your life (Jeremiah 29:11). He selected it earlier than the earth started and there’s nothing that might cease it however He permits us to decide on.
He didn’t create a military of robots, He created people. He offers us that free will, choices, and selections. He WANTS us to CHOOSE Him.
He offers us alternatives to decide on His will and Him daily.
If there’s an idol in your life, one thing you’re choosing over God, and also you’re not repentant, ultimately He WILL take it away. God is a jealous God (Nahum 1:2, Exodus 20:3).
Hear…God is sovereign. God selected for us what He wills for our lives from eternity previous. God creates all of it to occur. He orchestrates the whole factor. But…YET, He desires us to need His will. And after we don’t, after we sin, after we comply with our OWN gadgets, typically He lets us go down these paths to show us a lesson. To show us that He’s all the time proper! He lets us fail typically and that’s OUR fault, not His.
We lose loads of time that we may very well be helpful to Him in service, we torture ourselves as a result of we go down the unsuitable highway, all as a result of we aren’t keen, as a folks, to maintain our eyes targeted and stuck on Him (Matthew 23:37).
Jesus fastened His eyes on God. Who’s consideration was His on as He died? He was speaking to God, to not people (Matthew 27:46). His focus was on God all through His total life and ministry.
After we take our eyes off God, unhealthy issues occur. We lose every part!!!
More often than not, we don’t even comprehend it. 😮
👉 What number of issues, what number of blessings in your life have you ever misplaced since you went down the unsuitable highway willingly? Since you misplaced your concentrate on God and when He tried to convict you to inform you about it, you ran away, rebelled, denied His good pleasure?
After we maintain our concentrate on Him and Him alone, after we stroll within the Spirit and don’t let the temptations of the world pull us beneath, God has amazingly BIG issues saved up for us to have.
Perhaps it’s a ministry, perhaps it’s being utilized by Him, perhaps it’s displaying the world He exists by way of you, however no matter it’s for you particularly, it’s BIG.
Why?
As a result of we serve a BIG God. 💣