In the last lesson we ended talking about religion and the cycle of dead works. Repentance from dead works is the first step in learning to live in union with God. The whole point I was making in the last lesson is that dead works, or self-effort, can’t absolve us of our sins nor save us from sin’s power or give us a clean conscience. We can’t make lasting change through dead works since they only lead us into despair because religion only produces bondage. The solution to religion is the message of the cross.
The day that Adam and Eve sinned by eating from the forbidden tree then the course of redemptive history took us down the path towards the ultimate act of transforming humanity through another tree. The man and the woman were separated from God through a tree so in like manner, God united himself back to humanity through a tree. I Peter 2:24 says of Christ that he himself bore our sins in his body on a tree and in Galatians 3:13-14 it says, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us - for it is written, cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree - so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the nations, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
The message of the cross is a message about the redeeming work of a tree.
The message of the cross is not a sidetrack or a little tributary, but it is the river or central message upon which the foundation of our faith is built. The message of the entire Bible is the message of the cross. From the book of Genesis to the book of Revelation the message of the cross is woven like a skilled seamstress would weave a pattern into a costly garment. The book of Genesis starts out with a river and a tree. The book of Revelation wraps up God’s word to man with a river and a tree. Revelation 22:1-3 says, then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.
The Lamb who was slain from the foundations of the world is where the river of life flows from. The river of life is to flow into our hearts individually and eventually the entire created order will be restored by the tree of life and the river of God’s Spirit. It was Paul who helped us to see the importance of the cross and its message in his first letter to the Corinthians. Paul instructed them to become singly focused around one simple message, which he called the word of the cross in I Corinthians 1:24. The word of the cross is the power to overcome religion, sin, Satan, the world and the flesh, but it is also the wisdom to build an intimate relationship with God and others. Wisdom is the very essence of how to live a life of overcoming purpose through the manifest presence of God. The message of the cross is more than Christ's death by crucifixion, but it also entails his burial, his resurrection, his ascension to be seated at the right hand of the Father and the outpouring of His Spirit.
All four of the gospels give us details about the crucifixion of the Lamb of God.
The Pharisees who represent legalism and the Sadducees who represented lawlessness joined together to hand over the innocent lamb of God to be killed by the Romans. It was during the Feast of Passover that the Jewish authorities seized Jesus and took him to the Roman authorities. Pilate the governor of Judea found no fault in him. It was customary at the Jewish Feast of Passover that the Romans as an act of goodwill would let a Jewish prisoner go free and Pilate tried to let Jesus go. However, the crowds that cried Hosanna to the king just days earlier when Jesus entered Jerusalem were now crying out crucify, crucify him! Pilate gave them their request and instead released the Jewish revolutionary Barrabas.
Just at the time the Passover lamb was being prepared for the Jewish nation, the Lamb of God was being prepared to take away the sins of the world.
Mel Gibson’s movie The Passion of Christ is probably one of the most realistic portrayals of the crucifixion of Christ that has ever been made. It’s hard to watch because the crucifixion was a brutal and agonizing way to die. Jesus came in the fullness of time. Jesus coming was at the right time in history and it was during the rule of the Roman Empire. The Romans did not originate crucifixion, but they perfected its practice to maximize pain and suffering.
As I said in lesson 6 the Jewish scribes could not reconcile the fact that the messiah had to first be the Suffering Servant before he would be a ruling king. Isaiah 53 was one of the most misunderstood sections of scripture in the prophets, yet it was the very reason Jesus came into the world. The sole purpose of God becoming human flesh was to be the Lamb who was slain before the foundations of the world. Isaiah 53:4-5 says surely, he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities, upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace and with his wounds we are healed.
Crucifixion wasn't just about killing someone, but it was about killing someone in a horrible way.
Crucifixion was meant to maximize pain and was the most disgraceful form of execution. It was reserved for slaves, foreigners, revolutionaries, and the worst of criminals. Flogging was done before every crucifixion and the intent was to beat a person so badly, they were just about dead.
On the night before Jesus was crucified, he was whipped, spit upon and mocked by the Roman soldiers. The whip had iron balls and sharp sheep bones. The iron balls would cause deep bruising, while the sheep bones would cut into the skin. After a few lashes, the skin would be cut open, and the muscles would begin to be cut and pop out of the skin. Blood loss was enormous with the pain putting the victim into a state of shock. After the flogging, the victim would carry his own cross bar from the flogging area inside the city to the crucifixion area outside of the city walls. Jesus was flogged so badly that he was too weak to carry his own cross, so the Roman soldiers made another man along the pathway carry it for him.
The crucifixion area was always outside the city because the process was horrible and disturbing to citizens. Jesus was crucified on the hill of Golgotha outside of the city of Jerusalem. Golgotha means skull and it was on this hill that the serpent of old from Genesis 3:15 had his skull crushed. The god of this present age, Satan may have bruised the Messiah at the cross, but what he did not understand is that through the Messiah’s death his power was being destroyed.
Once the crucifixion area was reached, the victim would be offered a drink of wine mixed with myrrh to act as a mild painkiller, but Jesus refused it. The victim would then be nailed to the cross bar. A sign would be posted above the criminal detailing his crime. Jesus' sole crime was that he was king of the Jews.
The nails would then be driven through the wrists. The cross bar would be raised and placed on the upright post, where the victim's heels would be nailed to the post. Once upon the cross, the victim would have his body weight suspended by his arms. In this position, it is difficult to breathe. The victim could take shallow breaths for a while, but eventually would be forced to push himself up to take a full breath.
At this point three things happened. The victim's weight is now fully supported by his feet. As the victim pushed up to breath, the wrists would rotate against the nail causing intense pain in the arms. The wounds on the victim's back from the flogging would push up against the wood causing the wounds to push out horrendous blood loss with tremendous pain. This combination of pain would quickly force the victim to lower himself back down. Eventually, the victim would no longer be able to raise himself up and would eventually suffocate. Matthew 27:45-54 describes the scene when Jesus gave his last breath.
At the arrival of Jesus' birth, the created order declared his arrival through the aligning of the stars. We call it the star of Bethlehem that the three wise men followed. At Jesus' death it says that all of creation stopped to watch the curse of sin be reversed on the tree that we call the cross. It says that from 12 pm to 3 pm there was darkness over all the land. So, for three hours the created order declared the ending of an era. It was a declaration that the curtain had closed on sin and death. Just like when you watch a play when the act comes to an end the curtains are closed.
God was closing the curtains on religion, sin, death and corruption. He was about to open up a new scene inaugurating the kingdom of God on earth.
At 3 pm Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? The curse of sin and death was laid upon the innocent Lamb of God. The sin of all humanity was transferred to this innocent man. Like a sponge Christ literally absorbed the curse of sin and death in his sinless body of flesh. Christ literally became sin. The sins of the world and the curse of the fallen created order was placed upon the Lamb of God who was slain on a tree, on the Hill of the skull, outside the city of Jerusalem.
He suffered an agonizing death so that not just man’s sins could be forgiven, but so that eventually all of creation could be healed, reconciled, redeemed, and restored. It is the central word or message of God to humanity. The separation between God and man had been removed. The kingdom of God could now be ushered in through the power of the Holy Spirit and the restoration of all things could begin.
In Matthew 27:51-52 it says the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened. In Luke 23:46 it says that Jesus calling out with a loud voice, said Father, into your hands I commit my spirit! Having said this, he breathed his last breath and said ‘It is finished’.
The central reason for Jesus becoming man had been accomplished and sins' power had been crushed. Jesus was buried and resurrected from the dead three days later. He then appeared to his disciples for 40 days speaking to them about the kingdom of God before he ascended to the Father. 50 days after his resurrection the Holy Spirit was poured out upon his disciples in Jerusalem during the Jewish Feast of Pentecost.
The message of the cross is not just about Jesus’ crucifixion, but it includes his burial, resurrection, ascension, the river of the Holy Spirit flowing from the throne of the Lamb and his return to rule the nations from the city of Jerusalem. It is a message about God himself breaking in upon this creation and beginning the process of restoring not just man back into union with the Creator, but the hope that all of creation is going to be restored when he sets his feet back upon this earth.
Repentance from dead works is turning away from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and embracing the tree of the cross. We have a lot of people that talk about grace these days and the freedom that Christ brings, but most of the time I fail to hear the understanding of covenant that is part of the message of grace. The message of grace flows from the cross and if you separate grace from the cross then you get a different gospel. Let me repeat that so that you get it. The message of grace flows from the cross and if you separate grace from the cross then you get a different gospel.
What we’ve done and especially in America is that we’ve compartmentalized the gospel just like we compartmentalize our lives. What I mean is that many believers wear different hats and change their colors like a chameleon lizard. It depends on their environment as to how they are going to act. I grew up a good Baptist just like most Texans back in my day.
I had a friend whose dad was the owner of a car dealership in the little Texas town in south Dallas that I grew up in and he was part of a prominent family in town. I remember going to the deer lease with him one time. I was only 10 years old at the time. When we get down there sitting at the kitchen table is one of the deacons of the Baptist church I went to. He had a bottle of Jack Daniels in front of him and there were women there that were not wives. Knowing what I know now, I’m sure there was some white powder floating around in some of those noses too. How I know, is because this town was notorious for illegal drugs which I sold in that town as a teenager and this man was one of the leaders of the town. This good religious deacon had his party hat on at the deer lease drinking jack, snorting coke and committing adultery. When he went to church Sunday morning, he put back on his deacon hat where he was a good religious man. When he went to work on Monday morning, he put on his boss hat.
I tell this story because it is the reason many people reject the gospel, because they see religious hypocrisy on display.
I’ll be honest that I’ve preached in a lot of churches in America and at times have asked myself, would I want anyone to come into this place? The answer many times was no because the people were in religious bondage. I tried preaching freedom, but a lot of people prefer religion because it’s safe and comfortable. I hope you are in a good congregation of believers and there are a lot of good congregations here in America, but there are a lot of people in religious bondage. Yes they regularly go to a building they call church, but are involved in nothing, but religion.
A lot of people outside of the church want God, but they reject the religious hypocrisy of institutionalized Christianity. I don’t like religion because it’s simply legalistic bondage. Religious legalists call people sinners who do drugs, have lots of sex and like to party. If you’re not a believer and you want to snort coke, drink heavily and party all night long I’m not going to judge you because you’re not hurting me, you’re just hurting yourself. If you call yourself a believer and are doing these things, then you have to ask yourself what do you actually believe? Do you just have religion or is God really a part of your life? Now for the believer and non-believer God won’t stop you from fleshly pleasures, but if you call yourself a believer don’t live two lives.
Religious hypocrisy is living a dualistic life.
I’m not going to judge you for partying. I’ve done plenty of it myself. God has given man the freedom to make his own choices, but you also have to face the consequences of those choices. You will reap what you sow it’s the law of the cosmos. If you drink heavily and do drugs it will wreak havoc on your body, mind, relationships, and financial stability. However, to me religious legalism is a lose - lose. Religious people have boring religion and don’t get any pleasures in this life. I feel sorry for religious people and no wonder religious legalists are so mean and miserable. To not have the life of God, but just lifeless religion and then not to get to experience the pleasures of this world is a miserable life.
I’m encouraging you to embrace the grace of God freely poured out through the Holy Spirit descending from the throne of the Lamb where true freedom is experienced. The highest high is not LSD, Mescaline or any substance from this world, but the power of the Holy Spirit. To be filled with the Spirit is the cleanest, purest, most heavenly experience you will ever taste on this earth; however to taste it you have to embrace the cross. The gospel that Jesus taught was not a compartmentalized message that changes due to the group of people that you are around. You are not a chameleon lizard, but a child of the most high God. You change the atmosphere in the room when you walk in, it does not change you.
The gospel of the kingdom changes you from the inside out no matter what anyone else is doing around you.
The gospel of the kingdom has been laid down in the terms of a covenant, bringing man into union with God. It’s out of our covenant with the Lamb of God that grace flows because grace in its simplest terms is the free gift of Christ. The terms of the covenant are the body and blood of Christ. Jesus was the fulfillment of the Passover lamb who was slain on a tree.
In John 6:51-56 Jesus said, I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever, and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. The Jews then disputed among themselves saying, ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat? So Jesus said to them, truly, truly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him.
Repentance from dead works is turning from independent self-effort, which is called your flesh or the sinful nature and turning with complete reliance on the broken body and blood of Christ. It’s a principle of the created order that you are going to become what you eat. If you eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil it can only reproduce religious corruption, but if you eat at the table of the broken body and blood of Christ you will experience spiritual freedom from the inside out.
No man, woman or child can live the Christian life on their own. It is an utter impossibility which will end in frustration, failure and hypocrisy.
It’s living a life of religion and it’s why we see so many believers frustrated because they are trying to do something that is impossible apart from covenant. If you don’t have an understanding of covenant, then you don’t have the full story. I was teaching about the concept of covenant years back in Central Texas. In that part of the county where rivers or creeks run then you have Pecan orchards because they need a lot of water. A pecan is a perfect picture from nature to explain covenant. I grew up in the Dallas area and every fall I loved to go out and pick pecans, crack them, and eat them. If you get really good at picking a pecan open then what you will find is that it is one whole nut, but at the bottom it is joined together so there are two separate sides to the nut.
If you refer back to Lesson 4: Blood Covenant, I taught you about the blood covenant and I told you that it takes two people to make a covenant. If you look at the illustration, I have on the screen what you see is that there are two different sides to the one pecan. On one side of the covenant is everything that Christ has accomplished for you. All the power, blessings, and provision to be free, Christ has accomplished on the cross. On the other side is you. To be a partaker of all that Christ has accomplished for you then you must eat his flesh and drink his blood.
To do this means you are surrendering your life and committing yourself to be completely dedicated to the cross. Jesus gave us 100% and we are to give him 100%.
When you believe in your heart and confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord you are making a covenant to be joined in union with Christ. I Corinthians 6:20 says that you have been bought with a price, which is the blood of Christ therefore glorify God in your body. It’s the call to discipleship. The call to discipleship is a call to follow Christ with all of your heart. It is a commitment to be in a relationship with Him above all else.
The Bible literally declares that when you completely surrender your life to the cross then you become part of his body and the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead comes inside of you, transforming you from the inside out. The kingdom of God is not some outward political kingdom, but the kingdom of God comes within you when you receive the Spirit. I could take from the book of Genesis to the book of Revelation and show you that wherever the blood is applied then the Spirit of God will come and rest. The Father poured out his Spirit upon the Lamb of God and the river of God descends from the throne of the Lamb upon all who surrender to him.
Let’s look at the grace of God in the context of understanding the word of the cross or the covenant of grace. Grace is a small word, but it has a very powerful effect, which can change a man from a sinner to a saint. The Lexical Aids to the New Testament defines grace as, a favor done without expectation of return, absolute freeness of the loving kindness of God to men finding its only motive in the bounty and free heartedness of the Giver. It is unearned and unmerited favor.
Grace is not earned or worked for, but it can only be received.
Ephesians 2:4–9 says God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in our trespasses. Yes, when you were sitting there with the needle in your arm God loved you. God didn’t ask you to try to clean yourself up because he knows you can’t. It goes on to say that He made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace, you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, let me repeat that it is not your own doing it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
The kingdom of God level’s playing field.
The wealthy religious man who gives his large sums of money and the prostitute who gives her body to survive have to come through the same door to enter the kingdom of God. There is no special status in the kingdom of God because there is no room for boasting because you can’t save yourselves. Why is it hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God? Because he thinks he can buy his way into the kingdom, but what he doesn’t understand is God knows the heart. All of our hearts are wicked, that’s why we have to surrender our hearts to the blood covenant and lay them on the altar of God’s grace so he can change us from the inside out.
The message of grace is that God comes to live on the inside, and it is only through his power on the inside that can change our lives. There is absolutely nothing that we can do to change ourselves except surrender to the cross. God will allow you to live your own life. He will let you eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil until you are full of corruption. You can eat your fill of legalistic bondage or lawless corruption. God doesn’t control the fork that is in your hand and if you want to be fat with legalism or lawlessness, he will let you live in that pig pen. He offers you freedom, but it is only freedom through death.
To enter into eternal life, you have to die first. The message of the kingdom is that if you want the life of the kingdom then you have to lay down your life.
Let’s look at the book of Romans 3:21-25 that says: but now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.
Redemption, propitiation, justification, and reconciliation are all terms that are used in the new covenant to describe the word of the cross. The vast majority of people that read the Bible don’t really understand the significance of these terms and what they really mean. I want to clarify each of these words because as I do it will give you a fuller understanding of the work that was accomplished when the Lamb of God was offered up as a sacrifice and the resulting grace that flows from the throne of the Lamb. Redemption is a term denoting being paid for and bought. It can mean taking possession of what was bought or releasing and making free what was bought. It can also mean deliverance or being set free due to a ransom being paid.
Propitiation is one of those words that we just don’t use anymore so most people have no idea what it means. In the Old Testament the word was used mainly in Leviticus and Exodus, and it always had to do with the blood sacrifices and its cleansing power to cover sins; like the blood applied which delivered the children of Israel during the Passover. In the New Testament it has to do with the sacrifice of Christ removing the barrier between God and man.
The temple veil was torn from top to the bottom when Jesus died signifying that the propitiation of Christ sacrifice has forever removed the barrier separating God and man through the body and blood of Christ. The martyr Stephen told us in Acts 7:48-49 that the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands, as the prophet says, Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord? It’s always been God’s intent to dwell within the heart of man which is to be a temple of the Holy Spirit.
Let’s look at justification which simply means that we have been acquitted. We are all lawbreakers, and we all deserve punishment, but Christ took our place. He justified us or acquitted us of all of our crimes. The word righteousness can many times be used as an alternative and is pretty much synonymous to justification. It basically means that when the Father looks upon you, he sees the blood covenant and in Christ you are made right, cleansed, forgiven and given freedom because you are identified with him.
Reconciliation is the result of redemption, propitiation and justification which paid for our sins through the sacrifice of Christ acquitting us of all guilt and bringing us back into union with the Father making us children of God. We’ve been made part of the family of God by legal birthright as a result of being born from above through the blood Christ. Grace flows from the river of the cross and places us into the family of God. Blood covenant is about partnership and grace is the gift that brings us into participation of all that Christ has provided to us through the cross.
Jesus didn’t say to pray a little prayer and then live whatever life you want to live. Jesus said to take up our cross.
He has established his side of the covenant and he’s done all he is ever going to do. He finished his work and when he took his last breath he said, “It is finished.” All that the prophets foretold has been done, but you can only partake of that covenant if you lay down your life at his feet and surrender.
Just because you know the gospel in your head does not mean it has changed your heart. Just knowing facts is religion which is eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but surrendering your life means that you become that which you know. Jesus told us to eat his flesh and drink his blood so that we are absorbed into a total identification with him. When you eat something and drink something it becomes a part of who you are. It’s not just an idea, but your identity.
The message of the cross, the message of grace, the gospel of the kingdom of God, it’s a message of total surrender. Christ is our message! The problem that we have in America is that you think you can live and act anyway you want, then go to church and everybody thinks you’re a good boy. You’ll have your little back patted and told Johnny you’re such a good boy. It’s simply American Christianity, which is nothing, but a dead religion.
I hear you saying, Darren, you’re getting out of control: you’re just a radical. Am I or is it actually what the Bible teaches? The word radical actually means the root of things. Radical discipleship is simply a call to completely dedicate your life to the cross. Man was created a spiritual being that was to be in union with God. The void left in man’s heart will be filled by something. If you don’t surrender to the cross, then you will surrender your life to a substitute. The void in your heart is going to be filled by something and you need to ask yourself what are you filling your void with?
I want to end this lesson by showing you what I call the cycle of new life. It’s the cycle of new life that gets you off the hamster wheel of dead works.
As I said in the last lesson the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result. Are you tired of fighting sin's power only to find yourself over and over being overcome with evil instead of being an overcomer? Are you tired of living with a guilty conscience always feeling bad about yourself? The center of the cycle of new life is grace which flows from the message of the cross. We have been placed into Christ and our new identity is a child of God. In him we live, move, and have our being as we totally surrender to his ability.
Paul said in Galatians 2:19-21 that we are to live as dead men so that we might live to God. Then he said “It is no longer us who lives, but Christ who lives in us. And the life we now live in this body we live by faith in the son of God, who loved us and gave himself for us.” We do not nullify or set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness were through religion, then Christ died for no purpose. The center of our existence as believers is not religious activity or going to church somewhere, but Christ living in us by the grace of God. As a result, we are forgiven of all our transgressions. The power of sin is broken over our lives so that we can live from the inside out. The cycle of new life is about basing our lives on what Christ has done for us.
Living under grace does not mean living freely in sin, but being joined in covenant with Christ and not allowing sin to have control of your life. Habits can be destroyed not through our own strength, but as we surrender to the cross, we find the power of the Holy Spirit working on the inside of us changing, transforming our inner man setting us free from sins grip. We are justified and acquitted of all our wrongs we have done to others and ourselves. Our sins are not just covered, they are removed as far as the east is from the west and the Father no longer sees them. We have been given a clean conscience. Hebrews 9:14 tell us that the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purifies our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
To be justified is to be rendered free. Free not to live our own lives, but free to live the life that God has for you.
He has set us free and reconciled us to himself. Jesus was crucified on a tree, and you were crucified with him so that you can now live your life in union with the one who created you. He is the only one that can fill the void in your hearts. You simply have to surrender your life to him. Death is the only pathway to true eternal life of the Spirit. Stop struggling, stop fighting, just surrender and you will find the power from on high, the Spirit of the living God coming into your heart to change you from the inside out, it’s the Cycle of new life.
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