There are so many distractions from the faith and in the faith that it is easy to be distracted and get on tangents. There are many false and partial gospels to get caught up in.
Warning! Anything that stops you short of the conclusion of Gods work in you now, is to be partially saved and held in limbo. Even as Paul said “I seek to lay hold of why Christ laid hold of me”. So we must persist for the same cause lest we fall short of the grace of God. Paul also said “do not let anybody rob you of your reward”. You must learn to apprehend it. To “lay hold” of it.
The main theme of the gospel message is salvation. to be saved from this present age.To be completely refabricated in the heavens of our mind, which is the will of God. (Romans 12.1)
There is one single saving act that all Gods people look to for personal salvation from the wreckage of the fall of Adam passed on to all humanity. This takes place at the Cross of Christ where He took on Adams curse to redeem us from it defined at the fall. All the ills of mankind are the result of the fall of Adam passed on to us. This is the sin based conscience the gospel delivers us from.
The old covenant examples of sin sacrifices were physical pictures of eternal realities pointing to Christ “for us on whom the end of the ages has come”.
Peter wrote of the prophets of old, that they knew the things they had written, were not for themselves, but for us of things ministered by the Holy Spirit.
Moses instructed Aaron and Hur to hold up his arms while the people’s battles ensued. In the same way as long as Moses had his arms held out for His body to form a cross they were victorious. This was foreshadowing the coming of the Cross of Christ. We look back to the cross for the same reason, salvation. Any expectations of future battles and a coming savior rejects the cross, and spits in the face of the Spirit of grace that convinces us.
John 16.8 concurs. The Holy Spirit comes “to reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:9 Of sin, because they believe not on me;
10 Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see (again) me no more (in a carnal way);
11 Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.” Meaning convicted and incarcerated to the will of God.
The cross is our crossover Point into eternity. For this reason we are baptized into the death of Christ in order to walk in newness of life. And just as we are baptized into Christ, we are also raised with him to newness of life through the working of faith. (Romans 6.4)
As long as the Israelite’s looked to Moses arms with his arms held, so we too are victorious when we put our faith in the out stretched arms of Christ at His cross. It was Aaron and Hur that held up Moses arms much like the Law and the priesthood support and looked forward to the cross. Christ’s outstretched arms is the demarcation between the Old and new covenants. Between death and life. Between heaven and earth. The old looked forward, and the New looks backward to this single saving act for the salvation of all would be believers past, present and future. We all have this same focal point. As long as the cross is held up as the single saving act on our behalf from God, we the elect are victorious.
This is why the cross is our singular focal point for salvation. For being energized and transformed. As long as we don’t set down this truth in search of another savior. Like maybe an end time savior? Like another coming Jesus? Then our focus is pure. As it says in John 3.17 that “God has sent His Son into the world to save the world” the first time He came.
Any salvation presentation that does not completely save, restore and preserve completely out of harms reach is incomplete. This is what the good news of the cross of Christ delivers. “On Him was laid our curse and by His stripes we are healed. On Him was laid the iniquity of us all.
Satan, sin and death are all defeated there as scripture testifies. Even the old testament law is nailed to the cross to neutralize its demands on us by Christ performing them for us. They are fulfilled. This is why there is no condemnation for those of us who walk not according to the flesh but the spirit. We acknowledge And live in this reality. (Romans 8)
For This reason scripture also says that “In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body [h]of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through (the working of) faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. 13 And you, who were (past tense) once dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive (resurrected) together with Him, having forgiven you all your sins (past and future) 14 having wiped out the [i]handwriting of requirements that was against us, (the law) which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. 15 Having disarmed principalities and powers (Satan and his minions) He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.” (eternally more spectacular than any celebration or sporting event)
Note: If you are looking for another saving act to ensue on planet earth to save you and restore you to the Fathers provision, you are already distracted from the purposes of God in your life.
The cross is the singular focal point that defeated all of your enemies. Much like a big pinata when stricken all the goods come out. “God has given us everything that pertains to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who calls us to glory”. (2 Peter 1) Now your battle is believing and appropriating this through the working of faith, which is your invisible response to the invisible God who already worked everything out through His Son at the cross to institute His last contract with us called “The New Covenant” now in effect for us to be reconciled with the Father in a way that Adam lost and the Law could not deliver.
Warning! There will be no other saving act from God but a fearful expectation of judgment. Another saving would also demand another sacrifice and another covenant. We are not returning to the old and there is no 3rd covenant mentioned in scripture. Ever.
The cross of Christ (His very name means “savior” the saving one and God with us) is the only focal point and cross over point from death to life with scripture saying “he who has the Son has life, he who has not the Son, has not life”. Christ also said “he who believes in Me has past from death to life”. And so we did. This is the only saving act and ongoing work of God in the spirit, to reverse the curse imposed by Adam on us by His departure of faith and trust in the living God on whom death and all deaths instruments have no hold and delivered to us through the cross.
Here is what Hebrews says about those who overlook the saving of the cross “28 Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29 Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace? ” Let us not be found here.
Amen.
Thank you Heavenly Father for sending your Son into the world to save us. I accept His reality and now live and grow in the knowledge of Christ. In this way we are “In Christ” our new man, and not “in Adam” our old man.
When God does things He does them once and He does them right. So for salvation, He sent his son into the world and He need not repeat Himself, or present a second coming saving because the first one failed.
In the book of revelation we see all the elders gathered around One, casting their crowns and giving total homage to that One. And that One is “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”. What you don’t see there is Buda, Hari Chrishna, Muhamid, or a second coming Jesus. There is no other source, there is no other event than the cross. Even as John the Baptist said “here comes the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”. And so He did. Past present and future sins were grounded out then and only then. That is our focal point and Gods delivery mechanism for everything we need. Mission accomplished, victory is complete. The battle is over. Return to the Father.