For the message of the cross
is foolishness to those
who are perishing,
but to us who are
being saved
it is the power
of God.
1Corinthians 1:18
Therefore, if you died
with Christ
from the basic principles
of the world,
why, as though living
in the world,
do you subject yourselves
to regulations...
Colossians 2:20
Jesus Christ became incarnate and demonstrated in the flesh God, that He was God, that He was the Messiah, the One hoped for as the Savior, spoken of by the prophets, written about and believed by the Jewish people for so many years. Jesus Christ performed miracles, He healed physically many people as a sign of His Divinity so that there would be no question that He was the One. Yet, when He came in a way that did not fit the picture that the Jewish people had pictured Him; they rejected Him. When Jesus spoke those His terrible utterances they shrunk back. His denunciations had one thing in mind; the cross. If we focus on the Incarnation alone and shrink back from the cross as though the cross is humiliation, then all we have done is denigrate our Lord and Savior making His Incarnation unnecessary and His words hollow and unexplainable, empty as to any real meaning. Paul stated: "For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified" (1Corinthians 2:2). It is the cross where we focus our thinking and our faith is in the crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ. When we focus on anything else we become like the world and focus on the external rather than on the internal. Paul continues: "that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God" (1Corinthians 2:5). The Incarnation was the necessary means by which God would satisfy His justice and that by the death of His Son, His very Wisdom clothed in human flesh. But, If Jesus Christ did not die then there is no salvation and He was not the promised "seed" the savior. Paul in writing to the Galatians the driving force for his life: "But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been creucified to me, and I to the world" (Galatians 6:14). Our spiritual energy comes from the cross, that is what we concentrate upon, that is what is preached. The cross must become the center of our lives and when it is not the center then all types and forms of spirituality occur, those things which are not glorifying to God.
The energy of many Churches is upon the external, those euphoric moments that satisfy our senses and feelings. Oh! We are not to be stoic and so humble, that we forget that we are human and do have feelings and sense, it is that we do not worship God and His Son just to become satiated in those senses and feelings. It is when we focus on experiences as a show of our spirituality that is misleading and false for we have not focused on the cross, rather we have focused on the effects of the cross. Many people have walked away from Church because the Church has become feeble, or they run to Churches that will placate them and satisfy their senses and who focuses on experience, on the miracles of Jesus Christ, seeking those things that would make them feel holy and worthy. Let us face one fact: we are not worthy, we are corrupt and we are not perfected as we will be when Jesus Christ comes and takes with Him true believers, the children of God. It is the tragedy of the cross, the fact that by means of the mercy of God He saves us, and that by the death, the resurrection, and the ascension into heaven to be an eternal intercessor or the children of God. We have allowed the things of this world to avert our focus and attention upon the cross, and we have allowed this world to interfere with our consecration of our spiritual energy to become a counterfeit spirituality. Is it our pride that will not allow me to give up those things that divert my attention from the cross? Is that we have come to believe that we are saved and we are going to heaven no matter what because we are the elect of God? We are commanded to work our our salvation, that is not that we can earn salvation, rather that because we are saved our faith is demonstrated and causes us to work out the redemption; faith is the cause and mover of our works: "Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your won salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:12-13). We are in this world but we are not of it; we are to be disconnected to this world fundamentally, we are not disconnected externally. We cannot do this on our own, we do not have the power to resist the temptations of this world, we are not totally sanctified, the old corruption remains in us, therefore we must rely solely on the gift of God who empowers us with the ability to work out our salvation. God will not do it for us, we must do it, only we have the Holy Spirit within us empowering us to be able to resist this world. This essential gift within us is made effectual by our applying the principles that were taught by Jesus Christ and we, His children, come to understand His teachings, those inexplicable teachings by the Holy Spirit teaching us and guiding us as we read upon His word and apply that word in our lives.
Beloved, I now write
to you this
second epistle
(in both of which I
stir up your pure
minds by way of reminder)
that you may be mindful
of the words which were
spoken before by the
holy prophets, and
of the commandment of us,
the apostles of the
Lord and savior...
2Peter 3:1-2
May God Kindle His Fire In You
Richard L. Crumb
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