After
watching the Passion of the Christ, many are wondering, "Why did Jesus
have to die?" "Why crucifixion on the cross? Why the blood?" I
never understood this myself until I read the first chapter of "The
Transformation of the Inner Man," by John Sandford. Most people
would say that Jesus died on the cross so that we could be forgiven of our sins - and that is true.
BUT that is only a part of the passion of Christ.
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To
confess in order to be forgiven of our sins, one sin at a time, is good but it's like
putting little band-aids over a big problem.
Christ alone provided for our healing, forgiveness of our sins and the solution
for the root problem: our old sinful nature.
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Everyone who witnessed the crucifixion on the cross understood what it meant to sacrifice a lamb
to atone for their sins. The passion of
the Christ revealed that Jesus came be our lamb and to shed His BLOOD, to completely blot out any record of
our sins. He voluntarily laid his torn body down on the cross not
only so that we could be forgiven of our sins and also so that He could give us His
righteousness (right standing with God) as a gift. We all have tried to
improve our behavior to make ourselves acceptable to God, but we still felt
separated from God because of our selfishness and intent to have our own way.
Mankind has always wanted to find his own way to God, hence the many
religions.
What
we really need is a new heart or to have our heart transformed. It is
the CROSS that is the solution for our sinful old nature. We have many
sinful practices today that are rooted in automatic fleshly reactions
that we have had set up since childhood. We were wounded, we reacted
with sinful thinking, we excused sinful behavior and defended our right to be
sinful! In spite of the passion of the Christ, many of us still do not trust God
to have our best interest at heart.
Most
counseling minimizes sinful reactions and emphasizes environmental
conditioning. We are taught to analyze what life did to us because most
secular counseling is problem centered. Every one of us has been hurt;
some find healing and some don't. We need real healing of real wounds
but we also need to have the unbelieving areas of our hearts transformed.
Healing does not come when we believe about Jesus with our minds; it
comes when we believe in Jesus with all of our heart. Romans
10:10 explains that the passion of the Christ was death on the cross so that we could choose to receive a
divine new
nature or new heart.
Most
Christians believe that Jesus endured crucifixion on the cross for us so that we could
be forgiven of our sins and our sinful old nature gradually improved. The fact is, our
sinful old nature could never be improved but Jesus died so that it could be
replaced with a divine new nature. He did die as our
substitute for our sins, but He also died so that "our sinful old nature could
be reckoned dead on the cross..." Romans 6:6 and so that we could
be receive a divine new nature instead.
He didn't go through crucifixion on the cross just to help us "do right" but
to birth a divine new nature in us and make us new creations in Christ. 2
Peter 1:4 "He has granted to us His precious and magnificent
promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine
new
nature ... " 2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore if any man be
in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away;
behold, all things are become new."
was not just to help us conform to a higher standard but to transform
us or to renew our minds. Romans 12:1 "But do not be
conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds ...
" He died on the cross
as our substitute for our sins and so that we could identify with that death
and allow Him to bring our sinful old nature to death. Romans 6:5-7
"If we have been united with Him like this in His death on the cross, we will
certainly also be united with Him in his resurrection. 6 For
we know that our old man was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might
be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin- 7 because anyone
who has died has been freed from sin."
Most
of us have already tried everything to improve our sinful old nature and to make
ourselves better and better. A sinful old nature can't be improved.
Because of
Jesus' death on the cross to destroy the power of our sinful old nature that controlled us. We
have a choice now. In Christ, our old sinful nature is dead and buried
and we are raised to newness of life in Christ. (Roman 6) We can choose to allow Him to transform our hearts
and to live out of a divine new nature.
Secular
psychologists (and some Christian counselors) would mend and build our
self-images so that we can have confidence in ourselves. Christ would
have us identify with His crucifixion on the cross so that our confidence is no
longer in our self-image but we have a Christ-in-us image.
"I can do all things through Him who strengthens me."
Philippians 4:13
It
isn't just a few troubled people who need transformation by the power of His
death on the
cross. It is vital for every believer to surrender every part of their
heart to transformation, from every moment in life, from conception to the
present. We may have already been forgiven of our sins but have
we reckoned our sinful old nature dead? Our issue isn't
our problems but whether we are willing to identify with His death on the cross.
If we are happy to be forgive of our sins, as provided by Jesus' shed blood
and have never reckoned our old sinful nature dead on the cross,
our heart has only been healed partially. Jeremiah 6:14
"They have healed the brokenness of My people superficially, Saying,
"Peace, peace,' But there is no peace."
Jesus' death on the cross wasn't just so that we could have a never-ending lifestyle of guilt
and confession to be forgiven of our sins. He died on the cross so that He could give us a whole new eternal
life - past, present and future. He wants to be invited to live
His divine life in us, as us and through us. For the old sinful nature,
there is no healing, but only death and rebirth. To try to mend or
band-aid the sinful old nature, is to work against the cross. We can admit that
we have true guilt because we have a true savior.
We
cannot peel off layers of corruption until we get down to the pure and holy
us. Jesus took our sin, as our substitute, and wants to
give us His righteousness as a gift. He took our stripes and wants to
give us His healing. All we have to do is to confess our inability to
make ourselves righteous and ask Him to transform us, by a death and a
rebirth. Read St. John 3 He alone has the power to heal every
wound and make every weakness into a strength.
Forgiveness
says we are no longer guilty and erases the record of our sin.
Because of Jesus' death on the cross so that we could come back from death and be born into a whole new life
that lasts forever and ever. He paid our price for us and will redeem
every experience that we have ever had, take the pain out of it, and leave us
with new wisdom that we can impart to others.
Jesus'
inner healing is not just putting a band-aid where it hurts or fixing
something that was broken. He didn't die in our place just to earn the
right to patch up our sinful old nature. If we will give all the areas
of our hearts to Jesus, He will actually resurrect in us a
new heart. Transformation is the process of opening all the areas of our
hearts to Jesus so that He can gently heal and renew each one.
If
you would like to order more band-aids, see www.medibadge.com
But, wouldn’t you like to lay all your self-improvement plans on the
cross and invite Jesus to come into your heart and renew every area today?
Jesus is not a time creature; He will go back in time and heal every ouch.
He doesn't just band-aid our old natures. When Jesus heals and
restores, its no longer like our little band-aid said:
"the ouch is under here."
Thank you, Jesus,
for voluntarily laying your life down by crucifixion on the cross. I confess my sin, my bent to trust in myself instead of you
and my inability to earn my own righteousness. I choose to put my trust
in the forgiveness and transformation that you died to provide. Please
come into every area of my heart today and transform me into your image. Bring
to death every thing in me that still resists you.
Please take control of my life and live the "Christ-in-you" life through me.
Amen
