There At The Cross

There has always been and will always be well-meaning church members that will balk at the idea of the free gift of salvation.  Such a gift requires something in return, does it not?  

There was a group in the early Christian church called the “Judaizers,” who thought that way. “Judaizers” is a Greek word meaning to live according to Jewish customs. If you were a Gentile, you first had to become a Jew by following their customs, and then you could come to Christ and be saved.

We remember the question Nicodemus asked Jesus, “What must I do to be saved?” But do we remember Christ’s answer?  I remember the story told about a very important man, a very successful business man whose reputation and influence was spread wide. He was therefore asked to be a keynote speaker.

He told of passing by a Salvation Army kettle at Christmas time and making a donation. The woman tending the kettle asked, “Sir, are you saved?” He replied by listing all the charities that he had supported. As if she didn’t hear a word he said, she pushed the matter further. “I mean, have you ever given your full life to the Lord?” At this point, the president told his audience, he let fly at the woman. “I am a very important man.” He began to impress the woman with his stature and accomplishments. The lady considered his response for a moment, and then replied, “It doesn’t matter wherever you’ve been, or whatever you are, you can still be saved.”

Had Nicodemus been confronted by that woman he’d have let fly with his importance with the same sense of “how dare you question me?” It’s amazing how many of us refuse the scrutiny of the cross as is sung in the following hymn. Down at the cross where my Savior died, Down where for cleansing from sin I cried, There to my heart was the blood applied; Glory to His Name!

There is something about the cross that speaks the truth about our hatred for God in our clamor for importance, especially within the Christian church. We speak boldly of God’s importance in our life plus our own importance that the affairs of God might be met.

At the cross we are leveled. As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. Ephesians 2:1-3

The sure sign that the flesh is winning out is when we use our positions in church as a means to make ourselves important. That is when everything is showmanship, an outward façade of religious importance.

The whole meaning to the Doctrine of Justification by Faith is that we are worthless and by the blood of Jesus Christ we have been justified before God. When we consider the message of the cross, we see God’s law having condemned us and God’s grace and mercy having alone saved us. We resist the cross so strongly that we come up with our own ways of justifying ourselves which condemns us all the more.

Paul’s glory was not associated with anything he had accomplished or how he was viewed in the eyes of others. The wisdom Paul leaves for us to consider is that he had no confidence in himself.

May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
 Galatians 6:14