Author: Jay Lehman

“For He Himself is our peace, who has made us (Jew and Gentile) both one and has broken down in His flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that He might create in Himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us (Jew and Gentile) both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. (Ephesians 2:14-16).

The cross has reconciled us to God and has reconciled us to each other.  The cross of Jesus has brought us together into one body.  Paul explains it further in the rest of Ephesians chapter 2.

“So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:19-22).  God’s Spirit, a sign of us being God’s temple, God’s dwelling place, abides in all of us who believe.  We have an inseparable connection with God and fellowship with each other.

“But if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin” (I John 1:7).  Here, we see the two reconciliations together.  You are in the Light and you walk in the Light because of your place in God’s family.  And as His child, you have fellowship with each other and the blood of Christ has cleansed you, reconciling you with God the Father.

All of us are equals at the foot of the cross.  There is no superiority.  There is no partiality.  There is no one-upmanship.  We all stand equally guilty and in need of God’s grace.  And grace is exactly what God has given to us.  Peter announced to the Council at Jerusalem, “But we believe that we (Jews) are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they (Gentiles) also are” (Acts 15:11).

“For you are ALL sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.  For ALL of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.  There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are ALL one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:26-28).

“You are all one in Christ Jesus.”  These are not just beautiful words.  They are a powerful promise, brought to fruition by the power of the cross!

“And through Christ to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross” (Colossians 1:20).  Through the power of the cross, we have been reconciled to God.

“Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them” (II Corinthians 5:18-19).

“For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.  And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation” (Romans 5:10-11).

In all three passages above, our reconciliation with God was made possible “through Christ.”  Because our trespasses are no longer counted against us, we are free to enter God’s presence.  We are now reconciled to God, “through Christ” and guilt-free!  The enmity between God and us is gone.  We have peace with God.

“Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1).  Our peace, our reconciliation, is received by faith.  We are justified by faith.  We are made right with God by faith.  How does our faith enter this picture?  How does our faith activate this justification?

We express our faith in Jesus and receive our justification as a one-time gift when we acknowledge our guilt, accept the free gift of Christ’s death in our place, and believe what Jesus says is true.  Jesus died in my place.  Jesus died in your place.  When you believe that He did this for you and you receive this gift of salvation, this gift of rescue, this gift of deliverance, the power of the cross to reconcile you to God Himself goes into action on your behalf.

There is power in the cross to reconcile us to God.

“Having cancelled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross” (Colossians 2:14).

The power wielded by the cross is the power to take away our sin.  The cross, and Jesus’ death upon it, is strong enough to hold “the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us”; decrees held against us because of our sin.  No winds of evil are strong enough to blow that certificate off of its nail.  The nail is firm.  The debt forgiven.

How much of our debt is forgiven?  Just look at the preceding verse, “When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us ALL our transgressions” (Colossians 2:13).  All of our transgressions.  All of our sin.

And the debt is paid, nailed to the cross, not only for us, but for the whole world who believes.  “The next day, John saw Jesus coming to him, and said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world’ “ (John 1:29).  “And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world” (I John 2:1-2).  Christ is our propitiation, our sacrifice, who died in our place to take away our sin; not our sins only, “but also for those of the whole world.”

What incredible power!  Your sins, past, present, and future are forgiven by the power of Christ’s shed blood upon the cross.  How forgiven?  “The Holy Spirit declares, ‘Their sins and lawless deeds I will remember no more.’  Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin” (Hebrews 10:17-18).  That is forgiven, my friend.  Your sins are so far in the rearview mirror that in the mind of the Father they are remembered no more.

Christ paid the penalty for sin at the cross.  “For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.  Not to offer Himself repeatedly – as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own – for then Christ would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world.  But as it is, He has appeared once for all to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (Hebrews 9:24-26).  Christ put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself!

The cross took away the guilt of your sin.  And in its place, God gave you a new identity; holy, blameless, and beyond reproach.  “Yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach” (Colossians 1:22).  Look again at how Jesus gave you this identity; through the death of His fleshly body on the cross.

The cross that will never lose its power has taken away your sin and declares you holy, blameless, and beyond reproach.  There are no “buts” or “what-ifs” or probation period to see how your behavior pans out.  If you have believed the gospel message of Jesus Christ, you have been reconciled to God and are now identified as – you guessed it – holy, blameless, and beyond reproach.

“For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (I Corinthians 1:18).

What kind of things come to mind when you think about the word “power”?  Do you think in the government realm of military or political power?  Or how about the power of money?  Do you think of the concentration of economic power in the hands of wealthy individuals, corporations, or sovereign nations?  Or what about the world of pop culture?  The idolized status of celebrities breeds an outsized social influence among fans and followers.  It seems on a cultural scale, everywhere we turn someone is trying to bring our thoughts, opinions, actions, and our money under their control, power, and influence.

Maybe it is a function of my age, but lately I am losing interest in all of these cultural powers.  My interest in who currently carries the most political power is almost down to zero.  In my work, I seek to do an honest day’s work for my pay.  I don’t think too much about who is pulling the strings or “sticking it to the man” or am I getting my fair share.  And don’t get me started on celebrities.

When I catch the pop culture piece of morning news shows, my response is often, “How did we get to this state of blatant foolishness?  Are the opinions of celebrities weighing in on moral issues of our day really the gold standard of common sense?  Has the world lost its moral mind, its ability to think about rational consequences for our foolish ideas and actions, or have I just fallen into the abyss of curmudgeonliness?”

So here is the thing.  I feel like this world is awash in foolishness.  And over the years and by God’s grace, my response to this foolishness has turned from anger to compassion for a world lost without Jesus.  The world, for its part, is looking at us as the foolish ones.  And this is no surprise.  The Bible acknowledged this response.  “The word of the cross” – the very thing that can save the world – is looked at as “foolishness to those who are perishing.”

But to us, “the word of the cross” is literally the “power of God.”  This is not an illusion.  The cross, for you and me, is literally the power of God.  Somehow, God completely flipped the script on what this symbol represents.  How did God turn a source of shame and humiliation and death into a demonstration of His incredible power?  Stay tuned for this passion week of posts on the power of the cross.