How to deal with the cross

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How to deal with the cross

Everybody loves Jesus. We love to praise Him. We cry to Him, we put our petitions before Him. We say that we truly love Him but when it comes to His cross, we want the benefits of the cross but we don’t want the cross. St. Paul says that we are living as the enemy of the cross. Now, how do we usually honor the cross of Jesus? We make it as a monument by putting it in the compound or the cross of Jesus becomes an ornament which we put it in our neck. Christianity is not about putting a cross in the neck or having a cross in your house or in your compound where you can burn candles or put garlands and honor that cross. We have to live our lives with that cross. In that cross comes, death of our self. If you and I do not become one with that cross with our sinful nature being crucified on it, you and I will never experience the power of the resurrection of Jesus that will flow in our life.

In Exodus, chapter 15 verse 26, the Lord says, “If you will obey me completely by doing what I consider right and by keeping my commands, I will not punish you with any of the diseases that I brought on the Egyptians. I am the Lord, the one who heals you”
In the Bible, “Lord” means Yahweh or some people pronounce it as Jehovah. Here the Lord says that I am Yahweh, Rafa or Rofe, the Lord that heals you. This is His title. It’s his character. Healing is the character of Jesus. He does not change. But there is a condition put here. He says that if you do not listen and obey the voice of the Lord , sickness will then come upon you. The Lord tells the people in the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 27 and 28, “If you break my commandments, if you willfully rebel and go away from me, you will then no longer be under the blessing which I promised you through my covenant and because you have made a decision to come out of my blessing, curses will come upon you”. Now remember one thing, many people misunderstand by saying, “God curses us”. Actually God will never curse us because that is not his nature. In fact, God only blesses us. But if we willfully, come out of my covenant blessings, I can’t help you, I am helpless. So repent, turn, change your lives and come back to the Lord.

In Galatians chapter 5 verse 24, St. Paul says: “Those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, have crucified their passions, their appetites, their desires on the cross for Christ. In other words, they have put to death the human nature which is so bound by sin.
In the book of Romans Chapter 6 and 7, St Paul says: ‘Our human nature which is called the flesh, the sinful nature is totally rebellious and is bent of breaking Gods law.” Here, St. Paul has personified and given a title to human nature and calls it, the old man or a nature of sin or body of sin. We have to renounce the sinful areas in our life. In other words, our sinful nature or our sinful desires within us have to be crucified and put to death on the cross.