The benefits we reap because of the Mystery of God.
The Cross of Christ is what he suffered on the cross at Golgotha. He separated from his body his perfect life, or spirit, which is the sacrifice for the world’s sin. God then put into the body of Jesus the sinful life of humankind. By abandoning, or forsaking, Jesus on the cross at Golgotha, God destroyed humankind’s sinful life forever. Therefore, the sinful life in the body of Jesus died the second death, with no resurrection. “God made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we would become the righteousness of God.” 2 Corinthians 5:21, NET. The benefits we reap because of the power of the Cross of Christ are more than we could imagine. Here are a few:
– God has restored his image in us. Our sin in the Garden of Eden separated us from God, so we lost his image, in which he created us. We have become sinners by nature. God and sinful humankind could not dwell together. What God accomplished through the body of Jesus on the cross at Golgotha forever removed our sin from us, which had separated us from him. He has forever destroyed our sinful spirit, life, and our sin. Thus, God has restored us to himself as his children. Now, by the power of the Cross of Christ, we stand in the eyes of God as though we have not sinned. Isaiah 44:22.
– God has freed us from sin. The power of the Cross of Christ, the true Mystery of God, has freed us from slavery in the kingdom of sin and darkness. God accomplished it by having us die to sin in the body of Jesus Christ on the cross at Golgotha. “We know that our old man was crucified with him so that the body of sin would no longer dominate us, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. (For someone who has died has been freed from sin).” Romans 6:6 – 7, NET.
– We now have a new and eternal life. God made our sinful life die in the body of Jesus Christ and, in exchange, gave us the perfect and eternal life of his Son. Therefore, here and now, we have eternal life in Jesus Christ. “Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that since Christ has been raised from the dead, he is never going to die again; death no longer has mastery over him.” Romans 6:8 – 9, NET. What God has accomplished for us, in Jesus Christ, will be an active subject for eternity.
– What we have become in Christ Jesus was the main subject of preaching and teaching in the first-century Christian Churches. This subject should also be the central subject of preaching and teaching in Christianity today. Our transformation by the Cross of Christ’s power has infuriated Satan because he could not frustrate God’s plan for humankind. Chapters 13 through 22 of Revelation describe Satan’s plans after the Cross of Christ and God’s response.
The Beasts of Revelation 13 – read the next blog.
