What makes the cross so powerful? Is it just because the Son of God died there? It is much more than that. We need to understand that the cross represents a spiritual act by which Jesus destroyed all of Satan’s forces. How did that happen? Satan and all of His hordes stood against Jesus and did evil to Him through the people and the high priests. They flogged Him and mocked Him, stripped Him naked, put a crown of thorns on His head and crucified Him. It was Satan’s full fury released on the Son of God.
Jesus response was love and sacrifice to the fullest. Jesus could have reacted and called on a whole legion of Angels to help Him but He acted in accordance to God’s will. He loved the people that crucified Him and He forgave them. He reacted in the opposite spirit. That was what crushed the enemy totally. This is the ground on which we stand against the enemy. Loving when we are hated, sowing truth where there is a lie, walking in liberty where there is bondage and so on. This is very important.
The whole of the New Testament has its roots in this truth. That is why we are asked to love our enemies, do good to those who hate us and despitefully use us. If we don’t stand our ground on what the cross stands for, we will struggle when the enemy attacks us and sometimes even loose. This is an important foundation for spiritual warfare.
Just as God poured out His Spirit on Jesus without measure so will He on His Bride, but first she has to come to the cross and experienced His love for His enemies as He hung there. She has to do the same to all that hate her and persecute her.
The Cross an act of obedience
When Jesus went to the cross He did it simply in obedience to God’s will. Even though His will was in conflict to God’s he submitted and as a result of that the greatest victory was ever won.
When we walk in obedience to God’s will in our lives we might face difficult and trying circumstances but we will experience our greatest victories over the enemy. We will walk in increasing authority as we align our lives more and more to God’s will.
If we read Romans 16:19 and 20, we can see that one of the things necessary for God to crush Satan under our feet is obedience. In order for us to walk in the authority Jesus purchased for us through the cross, we have to walk in obedience to God’s will and purpose for our lives. It is Christ’s obedience till the cross that gave us back our lost authority and it is our obedience that will ensure the enemy’s total destruction. Brethren let us walk in obedience as Christ did. Let us be transformed by the renewing of our mind that we may know the will of God for our lives and walk in it in all obedience.
The Cross a symbol of humility
Philippians 2:5 to 11
“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond servant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of a cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted him and given Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow every tongue should confess that He is Lord”
We see in this passage Jesus’ road to authority, and one of the significant things we learn is that humility was the pathway to it. It took humility on Jesus’ part to strip himself of all His Godliness and step down from His position of equality with Jehovah God and be born in the likeness of men. It was humility in expression as He made Himself of no reputation and took on the form of a bondservant. It was the most humbling experience a human being could ever undergo as He lost all self esteem for our sakes, hung naked on the cross and died. He wasn’t forced to undergo any of it. He did it out of His own free will because He loved us. Proverbs says before honor is humility and that is exactly what happened to Jesus. Since He humbled Himself to do God’s will till the cross, God highly exalted Him and gave Him a name above every name.
When we see that humility expressed through Christ we will automatically be inspired to lead lives that display humility. The more we walk in humility, the greater access we will have to His authority. When we walk in humility we will be able to discern with precision and through it we can achieve lasting victories for the kingdom of God.
Matthew 5:5 says, “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth”. As His end time church we know that we will inherit the earth and one of the keys to that is walking in humility.
Obedience, humility and God’s love should be the foundations we stand on when we are fighting against the enemy.
We access God’s promises through the Cross
We have access to all of God’s great and many promises because of what Jesus did on the cross. If we are claiming His promises on any another ground its like throwing stones at a huge and tall apple tree expecting the apples to fall down while we can climb the ladder and easily pick up the apples. When we go through the cross every one of God’s promises is available to us.
The Cross a place of victory for every area of our lives
Earlier we saw that in order for us to experience the power of the cross we have to stand our ground on what the cross stands for in our own lives. Secondly we need to know what His cross has given us victory from. Unless we know it we cannot effectively fight the enemy. The word of God says in Hoshea 4:6, ‘ My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge’. When we know our rights and our inheritance Christ purchased for us through His cross we can stand against the cunning schemes of the enemy successfully.
a) The Cross sets us free from the law:
Ephesians 2:13 to 15 – ‘But now in Christ Jesus you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace’.
When we come across this passage we need to first understand that there are three kinds of laws. God’s moral laws, ceremonial laws and civil laws. It is the ceremonial laws (observing feasts, the laws Levites and priests observed, the different kinds of offerings in Leviticus) that Christ set us free from. The civil laws vary from culture to culture and are different in different countries. God’s moral laws are eternal and they should be our standard of living.
In the Old Testament in order to be right with God you have to offer certain burnt offerings. And also in order to approach God, the high priest had to fulfill a lot of requirements and regulations.
Christ has abolished all of it and His cross has made us a way wherein which in Christ we as His sons and daughters are free from those rules and regulations when coming before God. We come before Him in simple faith on Christ’s completed work on the cross and his shed blood. While many of us as Gentile believers might not have any problems with Jewish laws and traditions, we still have our own traditions and man made rules that we need to be free from. We can come before God, anytime, anyplace, and just as we are and He will meet us.
The enemy has used self-righteousness and tried to bring in rules and regulations in the ways we approach God. It has gradually led into a spirit of legalism trying to control the church in general. Some have overcome and many are in the process of breaking free.
b) The Cross sets us free from the curse and condemnation of the law:
Galatians 3:13 – ‘Christ has set us free from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”)’.
In this context it is the law as a whole (moral, ceremonial and civil). Before coming to Christ all of us were under the curse of the law, as all of us had broken the law in different ways. Christ took the curse upon Himself as He hung on the cross, with it He also took on Himself all of our guilt and condemnation so that we can be free. Simple faith in this truth sets us free forever of all curse and condemnation. When the enemy tries to accuse us of our past let us stand firm on this truth.
Now in our walk with Christ, when we fail or in our shortcomings we need to understand that when we truly repent believing the blood to cleanse us, we are forgiven and free. Christ on the cross once and forever took the curse for all our sins. So the curse and condemnation of the law cannot have any effect over us once we are in Christ Jesus. The enemy has no ground to accuse us. Beloved when the enemy tries to bring in condemnation or accuse us when we stumble let us remember this truth and with the confession our lips crush his attempts.
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus who walk in the Spirit
c) The Cross sets us free from our bondage to sin
Romans 6:6 – ‘Knowing this that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should be no longer slaves to sin’
We saw this in detail in the Artice we dealt on Holiness, so we will just see another aspect of this truth not mentioned there.
On the cross when Jesus’ body was torn apart and ripped beyond recognition, it was not just the punishment for our sins; it also represented the tearing away and the destruction of our sinful nature. The crown of thorns, the nails, the floggings and the spear, all of them were instruments that destroyed not just Christ’s body but our sinful nature. If we can see His flesh torn apart and totally destroyed we can also see that our sinful nature has been totally annihilated. What a powerful revelation! When we understand this with our heart we can be totally free from bondage to sin and all the enticements the enemy has put on this earth to trap us.
d) The Cross provides total and complete healing and deliverance in our spirit soul and body.
Isaiah 53:4 ‘He has borne our grief’s and carried our sorrows’. Matthew 26:38 ‘Then He (Jesus) said to them “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful even until death”’. Luke 22:44 ‘and being in agony He prayed all the more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling to the ground’.
Isaiah 53:5 ‘By His stripes we are healed’.
When it comes to physical healing (from diseases) we as the body of Christ are to an extent educated. As much as we know that Christ has provided physical healing on the cross, we also need to know that He has provided healing to our souls. Many of us have carried sorrow and anguish in our hearts for too long, we need to see that Christ bore all our sorrows on Himself so that we can be free of them. One of the other areas many of us struggle with is in our minds. Many of our minds have been torn apart and we are surrounded with pressure always. We need to see Christ’s mind torn to pieces as he experienced great turmoil and also when the crown of thorns pierced his skull. In the garden due to the pressure He experienced because of what He had to undergo, His sweat became great drops of blood. We can be set free from all pressure and be healed in our minds because of what He underwent for us.
Christ has also taken all our wounds and pain (of the body, soul and spirit) on Himself and has given us His healing. The cross brings in us total inner healing. Brethren as this is our rightful inheritance let us take hold of these truths and walk in increasing joy and peace in our lives everyday.
e) The Cross provides for our needs.
When Jesus hung on that cross, He was totally poor. He had no clothes on, he was hungry and he was thirsty! He became poor that we might become rich ( 2 Corinthians 8:9) . We can boldy go to God for our daily needs on this basis and He will meet our needs. Not only that He blesses us with abundance, that we can be a blessing to others.
f) The Cross gives us the strength to undergo the difficult circumstances in our lives:
There are many different struggles and trials each of us face ranging from losses in the area of relationships to disappointments in different areas of life. If we are struggling with the loss of our loved ones, we need to see Christ separated from His beloved heavenly Father crying out “My God My God why has thou forsaken me”. He lost his closest friends as they betrayed Him and ran away. His family couldn’t comfort Him at that time. He was all alone as He went to the cross.
If we have experienced disappointments in our lives and are overcome by them, we need to see him who had everything to be disappointed for, as He lost everyone and everything. He overcame those circumstances for us, so that we can recieve His grace and strength amidst trials.
I remember during one of the most difficult times in my life I decided that I am going to quit ministry (full time) and find a secular job. That same day Jesus came to me. As He drew near His love and acceptance surrounded me. I could tell from the look in His eyes that He was very concerned. I told Him “Lord it is too difficult”. He didn’t say a word but He showed me a picture of Him carrying the cross and He said, “Take up your cross and follow me”. From that point on I had the strength to go on, situations got thrice as worse as before but it never occurred to me to quit. God’s grace sustained me. In the similar way as we see Him in His sufferings we receive the strength to undergo the difficult circumstances we face in our life.
g) The Cross gives us total authority over the enemy.
Genesis 3:15 ‘He (Jesus) will bruise (crush) your (serpent, Satan) head’
Colossians 2:14,15 ‘having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us which was contrary to us. And he has taken it out of the way having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it’.
Luke 10:19 ‘Behold I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall any means hurt you’.
Before the cross the enemy had legal control over our lives. We had failed in everyway to meet God’s righteous requirements. As a result of that by the law we came under the enemy’s control or authority (authority that he stole from us when Adam (we) disobeyed) and we were bound to be punished for eternity. Jesus destroyed that law by His death on the cross as the spotless Lamb of God, thereby stripping Satan and his hordes the legal authority they had over mankind and also redeeming us from eternal punishment. Now Satan has no authority over us. He and his hosts have been totally stripped of all of their authority and have been put to open shame. Not only that we have been given that authority to destroy satan and his hosts!
It is like this, lets say you are a successful landlord in medieval times and one day an evil slave master tricks you to sign a piece of papyrus (equivalent to paper) leaf which legally makes you his slave. You cant do anything about it as by the evidence and the by the law of the land you are his slave now. You serve him for many years in his cruel home. Then one day another rich man comes to town, gets involved in your situation and just as your now master tricked you, he tricks your master into signing another document which sets you free, destroying the document that was against you with no trace of it. Also the same document gives you all control and authority over your former master.
It is for us to understand our freedom and walk in the authority Christ gave us to crush our enemy. He can in no way harm us.
