The Cross: A Picture of Victory

THE CROSS—a picture of what God has done for us in Christ

Colossians 2:13-15 , “And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us.  And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.  Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made  public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.”
We were dead, but Christ made us alive.  We fell short of God’s law—his expectation for humankind—because we were contrary to it.  The law is no longer needed because He disarmed the principalities and powers which wielded it against us.
Jesus disarmed: Death (Galatians 2:20 ); Sin (Romans 6:3-7); Satan (1 John 3:8); and the Flesh (Ephesians 2:1-2)

JESUS DISARMED DEATH
Crown of Thorns.  “I will ransom them from the power of the grave…O death where is your sting?” (Hosea 13:14)  Death has thorns, stabbing experience.  The curse on Adam! The sting (thorn) of death is sin (1 Cor. 15:55-56)  Jesus knew no sin, but He was crowned the king of sin.

JESUS DISARMED SIN
Jesus’ hands and feet were nailed—He could do nothing.  Salvation does not depend on man’s will, desire, or strength. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

JESUS DISARMED THE FLESH and THE DEVIL
-There was a sign above His head: “King of the Jews.”  The Jews rejected God historically, so God had to kill the flesh, which the Jews obeyed.
-Jesus was pierced in the side, through the heart.  “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick.  Who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).  God has—and will completely one day—destroy all wickedness.  
-When disarming the flesh, He also disarmed the devil—CAN’T tempt a dead man (Ephesians 2:1-5, “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we al once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.  But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).”

WHEN JESUS WAS RESURRECTED there was no blood in His body—it had all been drained. The blood is “defiled” (Isaiah 59:3)  My hands are dirty, but on the inside.  That is why Jesus’ blood was drained.  He was walking by the Power of the Holy Spirit (John 20:24-Thomas put hand in-no blood in His body)  That is how the Lord wants us to walk: by the Spirit, in faith.

Jesus’ blood being drained was foreshadowed by the Jewish Passover…In Exodus we see God’s miraculous deliverance of His people from slavery.  The last plague on Egypt: the death angel passed over all the houses which had the blood of a spotless lamb on its doorposts.  They had to be in the house to be safe.  That is a picture of being IN CHRIST.  Are you IN CHRIST?  That is the only safe place to be from God’s wrath.  Jesus took the full wrath of God so we don’t have to.

God looked at Jesus on the Cross and He saw me—so that one day when I stand before God He will see Jesus.  And He’ll say “enter, My son, into eternal rest.” 
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