The power of the Cross

Jesus died on the Cross of Calvary on this day some 2,000 years ago, so that man and woman will live forever by believing in the propitiatory blood shed for sinners there. His substitutionary death made redemption possible, annulling the God-given Mosaic Law, “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 7:23). The sting and power of death and sin were broken there.

People know the power of the ballot, the bullet, mammon and man, but in order to live the divine nature and show love in action one should have crucified life. Jesus was scorned, scourged, ridiculed, made to wear a crown of thorns. He was broken, beaten and left bleeding. Yet he could say: “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:24). The Cross reconciles man with God and man with man. God so loved the world and gave his only begotten son to die for every person of each race on earth, erasing barriers and burdens. Jesus carried a heavy Cross so that we may bear his burdens and lighten the burdens of fellow-beings looking unto him with faith.

Faith saves, humility keeps and love serves. Jesus humbly washed the feet of his own disciples, setting an example. He came to wash the sins of all, and it is said: “Blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanseth us from all sin” (I John 1:7). The priceless and precious blood of the Lamb of God is the remedy for all ills, and the Cross is New Testament’s covenant to live a holy and new life. Jesus used his divine power to heal the sick, raise the dead, and transform sinners, but not to escape from the Cross or to destroy those that hated him without a cause.

This is the power of the Cross and the empty tomb which makes men dynamic, valiant and profitable in the parameters of truth and love in the fast- changing, degrading and shaking world by the power of the Holy Ghost, the third entity in the Trinity.

Oswald Chambers wrote: “The Cross was a superb triumph in which the foundation of hell were shaken made the redemption the basis for human life, that is Jesus made a war for every son of man to get into communion with God.”

T. Prabhakar Rao (Machilipatnam)