Date:   05/07/06

Text:   Galatians 6:14

Title:    Cross and the Christian Growth

Theme: Since the cross is a manifestation of God's character, it is an integral part of Christian growth.

Introduction:

  The cross comes in many different shapes and sizes. This is the cross of the Celtic Christians. This is the cross of the Egyptian Christians. This is the cross of the Greek Orthodox. Many of us wear crosses as jewelry. This is a cross that we see every Sunday.

  What does the cross mean to you? When was the last time we think of the cross? Yes, we heard it during the Easter weekend. We often associate the cross with evangelism. We share with others how God loves us and died on the cross for us, urging them to come to the cross and confess their sins. In recent months we are learning what it means to grow spiritually? So, what does the cross mean to us in our Christian growth?

  In the first century, there were some problems with several churches. The church at Corinth had faith, but they wanted to add Spiritual Gifts to it at the expense of the fruit of the Spirit. The church at Galatia had faith, but in addition, they also wanted circumcision. The church at Colossae had faith, but added rules and regulations. There was a similar pattern among these churches: In order to grow, there must be faith plus something else.

  So what was Paul's response? To the Corinthians he wrote 1 Corinth 1:22-23, “ 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified..” To the church at Galatia , he wrote, Gal 6:14, “ 14 But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” To the church at Colossae , Col 2:13-16, “ ……. 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.” When some of the early Christians taught that Christian faith, Christian living includes faith plus spiritual gifts, or circumcision, or rules and regulations, Paul's response was precise: Go back to the cross. The cross can't be separated from our growth. If we are to grow spiritually, we have to come back to the cross; we're to understand the meaning of the cross.

I.   The cross provides us with the assurance of God's grace towards us.

  The cross tells us something important about God.

  1. The cross demonstrates God's love for us. John 3:16, “ For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Paul wrote in Romans 5: 8 , “ 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Gal 2:20, “……Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” From these and other passages, it clearly tells us that Jesus' death on the cross is a public and visible demonstration of God's love for us. It is a sacrificial love.

  We, because of sins, are separated from God. However, God took the initiative to find us and to win us back. How? By sending his son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross. Can you imagine this? He gave up his son in order that we may come back to him. Its like saying that you have two children. One of them had gone astray. In order for him to come home, you have to give up the one you have now. It is unthinkable, right? This is exactly what God did so we can come back to him.

  Its like saying, God loves you. How much does he love you? He loves you this much (two hands stretched out); this is the cross. We don't deserve this love, therefore when we see the cross, we see God's grace towards us.

  2.   The cross demonstrates God's justice. I vividly remember one Christmas season when I was still attending college in Japan . There was a Christmas service and the speaker was the well known Situation Ethicist, Joseph Fletcher. In the midst of the warm candle light, his sermon was on God's love. He forcefully and eloquently stated that because the Christian God is love, therefore it is impossible to imagine that he would condemn men to hell, to eternal death. At first it sounded very convincing and had a great impact on me. In the following months, in my reading and reflection, I began to realize that the Christian God is also a holy and just God. He has clear and distinct moral standards. None of us can stand before this holy and just God. Being a just God, He would have to make us pay for our sins, to punish us. If so, how about his love? Being a loving God, he could easily brush our sins away and tells us not to worry about them. If he does this, then it would contradict his Justice.

  So, what did he do about our sins? Isaiah 53:5-6, “ 5 But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” 1 Pet 2:24, “ 24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.” What did the just and loving God do about our sins? He placed all our sins on Jesus Christ on that cross. Jesus himself is sinless but because of our sins he was punished and nailed on the cross. On the cross he cried out, “my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” If we were there, we would have answered: “he was forsaken by God, his Father, because of our sins.” Jesus' death on the cross satisfied God's justice.

  Again, do we deserve this? No, before this just God, we only deserve to be punished, separated from Him. Yet he placed our sins on Jesus, and considered us as just, as righteous. This is grace. When we see the cross, we see God's grace.

  3.   The cross demonstrates God's wisdom. What do men do about their sins? In the eastern religion, there are several ways. First, we are to quit sinning right away ( ???????? ). Secondly, we have to wait to reap its consequences and thirdly, we try to accumulate as many merits as we can so we can cancel out our sins and wrong doings. You notice that all these are man centered. And experience tells us that its hard if not impossible to stop sinning, or to suffer its consequences. There is no way we can accumulate enough merit to cancel out our sins. We sin far faster and more than the good works we can do.

  So, what did the Christian God do? He loves us and took our sins and put them on Jesus Christ. Jesus' death on the cross satisfied his love and justice. The cross is the meeting place of his love and righteousness. No religion has approached human sins this way. For this reason Paul writes in 1 Cor 1:18-24, “ 18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. …..but we preach Christ crucified, …… Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” When we look at the cross it tells us about God's wisdom.

  When we look at the cross, we can truly say, Gal 2:20, “……Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” What does it mean to us today? Romans 8:32, “ 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” This means that since God loves me and gives me his own son, then I also know for sure that he will also give me what is best for me. When I see the cross, I have the assurance of God's love and grace towards me.

  This conviction is the key to Christian growth. From time to time I hear people say to me that I am not sure if I can still trust God. I doubt if he really loves me. Look at my life. It's in a mess. Anything that could go wrong has gone wrong. Before I became a Christian, life wasn't like this. But now, look at me. If he really loves me, why would he allow such things to happen? Some of us may be thinking about what life will be like after retirement. There is a sense of insecurity within us.

  However, when we turn to the cross, we are being reminded of how much God has loved me. If God loves me and put my sins, and his wrath towards me on His son, Jesus Christ, how can he be against me? If God has given me his only son, would he not also give me the best according to his perfect will? The reason we lack assurance of God's love and grace is because we focus too much on our circumstances. We let our situations define our faith and who God is. Instead, we are to turn to the cross again and again. For the cross is God's final persuasion of how much he has loved us. Are we still doubting God's love, grace and goodness towards us? Look at the cross.

II.   The cross provides us with the means of holy living.

  We have looked at the cross as God's means of grace. By looking at the cross we have the assurance of how much he loves us. However, there is more to this. Gal 6:14 tells us two things about the cross, “ by which (the cross) the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” To the Christians, the world is crucified on the cross and to the world, the Christian is crucified on the cross. Let's take a closer look at them.

  1.   To the Christians, the world is being crucified. The world is not meant by the material world we see. In the scriptures, the world is a reference to sins, to that which is against God's will, displeasing to God. The crucifixion is not natural; it is a deliberate and brutal execution. Therefore, for the world to be crucified is not something that will happen naturally. It is not something that the longer you become a Christian, then sins and the remnants of sins in our lives will slowly and gradually disappear. No, it requires deliberate effort on our part to nail the world, the sinful nature on the cross. It requires a radical decision to get rid of sins in life. Matthew 5:29-30, “"If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. …..And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away.” This is radical eradication of sins from our lives. Luke 9:23, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” If we are to grow, to live a holy life, then we are to deliberately cut off sins from our lives.

  You remember the parable of the good soil? There are seeds fallen among the thorns, and the thorns grow up and choked them. Because of the thorns, the seeds cannot grow well. It will grow to a certain extent and then stopped. If we don't get rid of the known sins in our lives, it will stop our Christian growth. There are times we see individuals who have been Christians for 10, 15,20 or 30 years, yet spiritually they still are immature. Why? Because they have allowed thorns and sins to grow in them.

  To grow like Jesus did, to be holy like him, we have to crucify the world, those sins in my life on the cross. We have to make an effort to crucify the sins of greed, immorality, resentment, bitterness, an unforgiving spirit, gossip, uncontrolled anger, worry, obscene talks and slander. If we don't get rid of them, we will not be able to grow.

 2.   To the world, the Christians are being crucified. We have learned that we are to grow as Jesus did. There is this guiding principle: 1John 4:17, “ as he is so also are we in this world.” So, what was he? Isaiah 53:3, “ 3 He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” He was rejected and despised by the world. Since he suffered, despised, rejected and grieved, so will we.

  Today, many Christians are seeking a life without pain, a life of health and prosperity. When they face calamities in life, they blame God and turn away from him. This is so foreign to the biblical teaching. This past Thursday I had the privilege of baptizing a cancer patient and his wife in their apartment. When his wife was two or 3 months pregnant, he was diagnosed with advanced stage of cancer. The baby is now two months old. They became Christians several months ago. I think of another cancer patient who was baptized here about 2 months ago. These individuals, in the midst of their pain and suffering, responding to God's call and followed him. I feel they had personified this truth: As he is so also are we in this world.

  There are times the world will reject us because of our faith in God. We can think of Christians in different parts of the world still imprisoned because of their faith. Some faced the threat of death in certain Muslim countries. For us living in this country, we may experience rejection by the world in a different manner. People close to us, may be our spouse or friends at school and work, would say, “how can you still believe in this?” “Why are you going to church? What for? Are you kidding?” “How can people like you go to church?”

  To grow like Jesus is to expect rejection and suffering in our world. The way to holy living is to have the world crucified to us, and us crucified to the world.

Conclusion:

  Some time ago I asked an individual a fairly simple question: Where are you worshipping now. He said it was a long story. Then he went on to tell me that he was at one church for several years, and then went to another church. The church he was at was his third church in 10 years. He explained that at different times in his spiritual growth, he was searching for different things and different churches met those needs. Yes, there was faith, but he wanted to add something else to it. Don't we also sometimes feel like this? If I am to grow in Christ, besides my faith in him, I also need to have some extraordinary experiences or do more good works. Do we also feel sometimes that we are not too sure of God's love and goodness towards us? Are we doubting about God?

  If we find ourselves in such situations, then we need to come back to the cross. At the cross, we have the assurance of God's love for us. At the cross, we find the key to Christian growth. Shall we pray?