Word for the day by Christian Education Forum

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Mid- Lent-The Necessity of the Cross
St. John 3:1-17
V17” For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him”.

Creation itself sprang from a bubbling overflow of God’s love. God wanted to share the life and love He already had so intensely among Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

God was never mad at us. He was mad about us or rather madly in love with us. Thus the incarnation took place to reconcile us with the Father, because we thought we were separated. He came that we might know God’s love; to be our model for Holiness and Wholeness and make us partakes of the divine nature. He came to destroy the power of the evil. 

In today’s passage, Nicodemus comes to Jesus because he saw there was more to Christ than first met the eye. He came to Christ to find out what he was missing. Being born again is the beginning of the new life with Christ. As we are born again by the spirit, we should walk by the spirit. That means we are walking in a relationship with God Himself. It is that relationship that transforms and changes lives. The real spiritual rebirth of which Jesus spoke requires far more effort on God’s part. Jesus was making it clear that salvation is not about what we know, what we do, or what we manage to accomplish in our lives. 

The cross is both a physical ‘lifting up” and exaltation. “At the cross God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor5:21). Today we are the righteousness of God in Christ. The cross did not activate salvation. It revealed salvation. The Cross, a symbol of shame, became through Christ the symbol of challenge. The Cross, a symbol of death became through the symbol of life. The Crucifixion of Christ was not a tragedy. It was the triumph of ages. The work of Christ was to glorify the Father which could be done only by means of the Cross. The Heavens in their wonder glorify God by telling us of His power, wisdom and love of order and beauty. But only the Cross tells us of His love for us as sinners. The Cross was the only weapon that could sweep the devil from His throne. The whole world was judged at the Cross, for Jesus died for the sin of the whole world. Now there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ. The Cross alone sets us free. 

Jesus said that if He was lifted up He would draw all men to himself. So the Cross was necessary to magnetize Jesus, to attract all men to Himself. Silently and inwardly the Cross draws men upward to God. The Bronze serpent in the Old Testament was lifted up on a pole so that all who looked at it lived, all who were bitten by the serpent, attacking the people of Israel. If the sting of death was to be overcome by a look at the serpent on the pole, then Jesus says that He also must be lifted up like that serpent so that all who are under the attack of the old serpent, the devil, may also look and live. The Cross is the antidote for all the poison of sin. 

Let us keep ever near the Cross for a magnet can pass on the power of attraction. Christ is the master magnet and if we keep near the cross and Christ of the Cross, we too can have drawing power to bring others to Christ. 
            Near the Cross, O Lamb of God
            Bring its scenes before me,
            Help me walk from day to day,
            With it’s shadow o’er me.

Prayer

 Thank you Jesus. We are blessed by your incarnation and saving death on the Cross. Help us to be a blessing to others, in Jesus name, Amen.


Thought for the Day

 “We sinned for no reason but an incomprehensible lack of love, and He saved us for no reason but an incomprehensible excess of love”. Peter Kreeft 

Mrs. Elizabeth Varghese W/o Rev. Dr. Philip Varghese, Kozhenchery. 

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