Three Crosses

Luke 23:32-43, “Two others also, who were criminals, were being led away to be put to death with Him… one on the right and the other on the left. But Jesus was saying, ‘Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing…’ And the people stood by, looking on. And even the rulers were sneering… The soldiers also mocked Him…saying, ‘If you are King of the Jews, save Yourself!’… One do the criminals who were hanged there was hurling abuse at Him, saying, ‘Are you not the Christ? Save Yourself and us!’ But the other answered, and rebuked him said, ‘Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed are suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong.’ And he was saying, ‘Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom!’ And He said to him, ‘Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.’”

It is so like God to have me study what is traditionally taught at Eastern in the Christmas season. But this comes from driving past a church on the way to a field trial for my dog this past weekend. The church is called Livingway Church in San Antonio, Texas. On their building are three crosses. As I passed their facility the Holy Spirit said to me, “There were 3 crosses at Calvary.” And so while I continued driving I pondered Christ hanging between 2 thieves. All of which was a well and good pass time until the idea of three crosses was mumurated at the field trial itself by a woman wearing a 3 cross pendant. Again the thought of the three crosses on Calvary reverberated in my spirit.

Even now I think of the first criminal who taunted Christ. Perhaps he thought that in taking the side of the executioners, and the religious zealots that it might earn his freedom. Why else in that position of suffering would he be anything but focused on himself? The first criminal reminds me of Eddie Haskell from Leave it to Beaver. Saying what the adults wanted to hear, or in the cast the religious leaders, but completely deviant plans otherwise. He was taunting Jesus I believe to because he believed the executioners had the power. Man, not God, to this person had the power to save him from this imminent death.

The second criminal on the other hand knew he was a sinner. And he knew he was a sinner because in his heart He knew there was a God who held the ultimate accountability. But what shocks me the most, and the thing that I would want everyone reading this to ponder is that this man was “saved” simply by acknowledging Jesus would have a kingdom and asking Him to remember him. One sentence of defense of Christ, one backhanded acknowledgment that Christ would be in authority over a kingdom, and this criminal was saved and received the eternal reward of heaven. Jesus Himself said, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.”

This truly should give us all pause as whole denominations of men have declared doctrines that demand outward acts to achieve salvation whether it by communion, baptism or beyond. And yes the rituals all have importance, but the second criminal is our eternal reminder of Matthew 25:40 where Jesus said, “The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mind, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’” As much as we would like to hide behind an ego created persona. As much as we would like to trust in the doctrines of men for our salvation. As much as we would like to play both sides of the fence. The end will all come down to His remembrance of our heart and the acts it inspired. Simple belief in the kingdom of Christ, but also how did we treat Him getting there? 

Paid as Agreed

Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the FREE GIFT is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

I was watching a video the other day on how a credit score in the US is calculated. No one knows the exact formula except for the Fair Isaac Corporation, but the speaker summarized the scoring processes as a risk assessment tool based on whether or not you pay as agreed. Every time you do not pay as agreed then your score comes down. And among the many things this made me think about one was that “Jesus paid the price for my sin.”

I thought about how cool it was to think that accepting Christ as Savior means I have an 850 spiritual credit score. As I thought further I wondered who He paid, and what did He pay for, and if paid at all do I now owe Him. I thought about the Christian song, Jesus Paid it All. Did Christ purchase my debt like a collection agency might purchase a bad credit card debt?

The truth is that there was no “debt.” There was a sentence of death hanging over me. A convicted murderer sentenced to death cannot buy his way off death row. That same criminal cannot send someone in substitute and walk free. But with God all things are possible.

This sin and death entered humanity by the sin of one man Adam. And life too returned to humanity through one man Christ because He had known no sin. Therefore death could not hold Him or have rights over Him because He had no sin. In other words Christ defeated death, and in doing so offered us the same eternal life as a free gift to believing in Him.

Unlike a balance of payments, Christ delivering us from death is free. This is not a collection that is later paid. This is a wiping of the sin complete off the spiritual credit report as if it never occurred. Or debts were not paid! Our sins were forgiven! There is a big, big difference. The question is, what will we do with this free gift?

Will we use it to approach God and ask for, and engage in relationship? Will we accept this free gift, or go about trying to earn something that cannot be paid for? Will we condemn others for their mistakes when we ourselves have been given the priceless gift of eternal life after and before committing those mistakes ourselves?

In the end Jesus did not pay a thing, but rather did what we could not do… namely live sin free from birth to death on this earth. It was love that from that point the Father allowed us to share in His eternal life as a free gift. A gift opened in believing in Him.

In fact the same song that says Christ paid the price for me also says He washed my sins away. The truth that I read in my bible is He became my sins, and those sins went to the cross, but now I live in Christ. In fact, the washing comes from US not Christ according to Revelation 7:14, “they have washed their robes…” it says. Not Christ.

I will close with this. In Christ your sins, past, present, and future were destroyed on the cross 2000 years ago. Death is a non-event, but eternal life is to those who will believe in Him. The washing of the robes, the becoming godly, holy, or whatever spiritual term you would like to use is nothing more to me than "surrender." This washing is surrender in relationship to God and becoming alive and aware in His kingdom.

Growing – Moral Excellence

2 Peter 1:5, “…in your faith supply moral excellence…”

In our spiritual growth we see that the second thing to develop behind our foundation of faith and trust in Christ is moral excellence. Moral excellence means a lot of things to a lot of people. To some it is what they eat or drink and what they wear. To others it means forsaking modern comforts. To most I think moral excellence is represented by pious behavior, even if that behavior is really just a show when around other “morally excellent” people.

If we go back in time and look at the original Greek term “arête” we see that moral excellence is synonymous with virtue and a virtuous course of thought. But perhaps equally important is the word is a noun and not a verb. So moral excellence is a state of being, and if a state of being what other term can we find that defines a virtuous state of being? Perhaps salvation is a good Christian term.

So faith supplies salvation. And yet as merely one of the building blocks of our Christian growth this concept of salvation somehow increases or grows as we continue in this ever growing being of virtuous thought. Perhaps this is why Paul wrote to the Philippians, “… work out your salvation with fear and trembling.” Again the root word being a noun, and so we see that our salvation, a possession, result, and state of faith must be exercised. Our spirit which contains all true virtuous thought must be worked out just like we work muscles in a gym.

And this is beginning of Christianity. By the power of the Holy Spirit we are shown Christ as the Son of God. When we accept His lordship by faith we are saved as our spirit is reborn and His Holy Spirit becomes alive and active in us. And what happens next?

The typical Christian begins to “try to act” more pious. Habits and practices or moral excellence are attempted. But more often than not these attempts meet failure because the flesh is trying to accomplish what the Spirit wills. And so the failure brings the crisis, and we return to the faith. Time and time again brand new Christians will give their life over and over again to the Lord thinking their failure in moral excellence demands it. But as that moral excellence grows, and it does very quickly the next aspect of the Christian that must grow comes into view, namely knowledge.

Now lest you become arrogant and think that you are beyond a return to the foundation of faith, I will say that for most (if not all) crisis return us to the foundation of faith and a need to increase our moral excellence and every other aspect of our Christianity. So even if you have godliness a crisis will come that brings you back to faith and then moral excellence and then knowledge etc. This is normal and healthy spiritual growth, and something to embrace. It is part of surrender, and it is pleasing to God.

Salvation - The Beginning... not the End

The Apostle Paul - Rimbrandt

Romans 7:18, "For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not."

Why is it that we as Christians think that because of salvation we are suddenly perfected? Why do we believe that just because we have escaped judgment for sin, that we are no longer sinners? That is a great lie and a source of spiritual arrogance. This idea that one can be of less sin than another is used often by Satan to feed the lust of power and domination. The truth is far from that.

Paul, an apostle, writer of two thirds of the new testament says of himself, "nothing good dwells in me." He understood what he was. He time and time again had to look at himself in the light of the truth. Why is this? It is because he was in constant fellowship with Christ. He saw himself for who he was time and time again because with Christ in him he clearly saw the difference in who he was and who Christ is. After years of sanctification, after years of taking up the cross and allowing it to crucify his flesh, and for Christ to be resurrected in its place; he still could see so much in himself that was still completely other from Christ.

Is it this that we can say is the true mark of a Christian? Someone always aware of his/her otherness from Christ because Christ is always there in fellowship showing Himself.

We on the other hand receive salvation as an end and not a beginning. We accept the forgiveness and somehow believe in sinlessness from that point forward. Our life continues, seeking, hoping for, asking for God’s blessings on our efforts all the while Christ wanting to show us those efforts are not His -- even if done in His name.

But Lord, I built a mega ministry for you… Depart from Me, I never knew you. Why would He not say that if it will be said of those who and cast out demons, healed the sick, and raised the dead. (Matt 7)

Why do we try to repay the free gift of salvation? It is priceless and no amount of church attendance or service in the guilt of that gift will repay. In fact, to try is to cheapen the sacrifice of our Father and the obedience of our Lord.

The only thing that can be done is to seek Him, to seek His face, to seek to be aware of His presence and to spend time in that presence. To walk with God as He intended for Adam, and to continue to be prepared for the day when we, under Christ Lordship, walk in dominion. There is no repayment, but there is obedience. Obediently going where He goes today. There is humility that will allow everything that is not Christ to be stripped from us.

Listen to what T Austin-Sparks wrote on the subject, "But I am going to put that in another way. It is the breaking of the power and the stripping off of the whole natural life. The whole natural life of man now since the fall since Satan’s interference and man’s response to Satan’s interference is in itself the great obstruction in the way to God’s purpose in him and for him; and when I speak of the whole natural life I am not just speaking of that sinful life which everybody recognises and acknowledges to be evil. I am speaking about man as he is. According to this world’s standards, and according to the best standards of men, he may be called a good man, but God says: "There is none righteous, no not one." And the great apostle himself said: "In me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing." That lies behind our religious life very often. Our very religious life can be energised by nature. Our interests for the Lord may be by the energy of our own natural life, and so we find the flesh sporting itself in the things of God, a kind of natural interest carried over into divine things: that just as you might be taken up with interesting things in this world, and study them, and apply them, and use them, and turn them to certain account for the furtherance of certain interests, so you have swung all the application of mind and heart and wisdom to the things that are divine, and you begin to manipulate things for God, and organise things for God, and govern things for God, and be something in the things of God. It is all the natural man brought over into divine things, which can be interesting, fascinating. Yes, the deep things of God making an appeal to that in us which can be so fascinated, things such as prophecy, the things to come."

Don't be fascinated with knowing about God. Be consumed with knowing Him. Don't believe salvation has changed a thing other than access to God. But know that knowing God, walking in constant fellowship with Him, aware He is alive in you, that His kingdom is in you - - that will change your life... whether you want it or not.