The Cross
From the Series—Creed
April 7, 2004This evotional continues our Creed series. You can check out the series trailer or evotional archive @ http://www.theaterchurch.com. We’ve explored the Bible and the Creation. In the coming weeks we’ll dive into the Resurrection, the Trinity, and the Revelation. This evotional focuses on the Cross.
A Vocabulary of Faith
I recently read an email titled Top Ten Words that Should Exist. I won’t read all ten, but some of these are pretty good.
Phonesia: the affliction of dialing a phone number and forgetting who you are calling just as it starts ringing.
Elecelleration: the mistaken notion that the more you press an elevator button the faster it will arrive at your desired floor.
Disconfect: to sterilize a piece of candy you dropped on the floor by blowing on it, somehow assuming this will “remove” all germs.
Carperpetuation: the act, when vacuuming, of running over a string or piece of lint at least a dozen times, reaching down and picking it up, examining it, then putting it back down to give the vacuum one more chance.
Telecrastination: the act of always letting the phone ring at least twice before you pick it up, even when you’re only six inches away.
In a sense, this series of evotionals is like learning a new language. We’re trying to get a handle on some of our core beliefs as followers of Christ.
A few years ago, Kathleen Norris wrote a bestselling book titled Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith. She walked away from the faith and the church for twenty years. When she came back she said, “I felt bombarded by the vocabulary.” She said, “I had to rebuild my religious vocabulary. The words had to become real to me.” That is such a profound statement—“The words had to become real to me.”
Marcus Borg said it this way. “Becoming and being Christian is like learning another language—namely the language of the Bible.”
Reconciliation
II Corinthians 5:17 says, “If anyone is in Christ he is a new creation: the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.”
The word “reconciled” is repeated five times in three verses. Then the next verse really defines reconciliation for us. II Corinthians 5:21 says, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
If I had to summarize this passage in two words it would be trading places or trading spaces. In essence, Jesus says, “Here’s the deal. You give me your sin. I’ll give you my righteousness. And we’ll call it even.” That spiritual transaction is called reconciliation.
Debits and Credits
Every couple does it differently, but in our family Lora is the keeper of the checkbook. I’m not sure why, but about several years ago we decided that I would try keeping the checkbook. I think Lora was talking about how much work it is and I thought it looked pretty easy so Lora let me discover for myself how easy it is. At the end of the month, Lora asked me if I had reconciled the checkbook. I said “yes.” She asked me how. I said it was easy. When I got the bank statement I simply looked at the ending balance and entered it into the checkbook. What’s so tough about that? Needless to say, I’ve kept the checkbook a grand total of one month out of twelve years of marriage!
In financial terms, reconciliation is double checking your account balance by adding up the debits and credits. Let me zoom out and make an observation. What we do with our checkbooks month in and month out is what God does with our lives day in and day out.
He keeps track of debits and credits. He keeps track of everything we do wrong—the biblical word is “sin.” And He keeps track of everything we do right—the biblical word is “ righteousness.” Ecclesiastes 12:14 says it this way. “God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.”
I think some people have this false notion that the way to get into God’s good graces is to simply do more right than wrong. You need more credits than debits. It’s all about the scales of justice: if everything you do right outweighs everything you do wrong you’re ok. But that isn’t what the Bible says. James 2:10 says, “Whoever keeps the whole law yet stumbles at one point is guilty of breaking all of it.” So it’s all or nothing.
I think some people are just shooting for the fiftieth percentile. If you’re in the top half of the class you’re ok. There is one problem with that: God doesn’t grade on the Bell Curve.
Romans 3:23 is a reality check. It says, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” So we’ve got ourselves a predicament. All of us fail the test. All of us are in debt. And that is where reconciliation comes into play.
Because God is holy and just He has to balance the books. He won’t let good deeds go unrewarded and He won’t let bad deeds go unpunished. God is holy and just. But God is also loving and merciful. So God, before the beginning of time, came up with a plan to reconcile the world. II Corinthians 5:19 says it this way. “God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them.”
Wire Transfers
The word reconciliation means “to trade” or “to transfer.”
One way of thinking about it is in terms of a wire transfer. A few weeks ago I did a wire transfer between our brokerage account and our checking account. To be perfectly honest, how the money gets transferred is a mystery to me, but it works. Somehow the transfer happens electronically and automatically.
It is mysterious and miraculous, but somehow, when we put our faith in Christ, there is a wire transfer that happens. We transfer our sin to Christ’s account and He transfers His righteousness to ours. II Corinthians 5:21 says, “God made him who had no sin to become sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God.” That spiritual transaction will never cease to amaze me. What a trade!
Bullseye
The word “sin” in verse 21 is the Greek word hamartia. It’s actually an archery term that means “to miss the mark.” It’s the same word that is used in Romans 3:23 where it says that “all have sinned.”
I know that “sin” is politically incorrect in some circles, but I’ve never met a person who had any problem with this word who really understood its meaning. I don’t know anybody who would say that they even come close to hitting the moral bullseye every time. Sin is simply missing the mark. And if you’re like me, sometimes you miss the target altogether! This is where the cross comes into play. Jesus went to the cross to pay the penalty for every sin ever committed—past, present, and future.
Final Installment
The four gospel account record what Jesus said on the cross. John 19:30 is one of the more fascinating statements. Jesus says, “It is finished.”
Those three words in English come from the Greek root teleo. It is a financial term that refers to the final installment on a debt.
Lora and I purchased a home a few blocks from Union Station eight years ago and we’ve had a mortgage payment ever since. I think we’ve got something like 170 mortgage payments left to go. Let me guarantee one thing: we’re going to celebrate when we make that last payment and we have zero debt on our house!
This phrase “It is finished” refers to that final payment. I love the way the old song says it, “I owed a debt I could not pay. He paid a debt He did not owe.”
The Files
A few years ago I got an email “The Files.” It is a pretty powerful angle on forgiveness.
In that place between wakefulness and dreams I found myself in a room. It was a room filled with small index card files, like the ones you find in libraries that list titles by author and subject in alphabetical order. The files stretched from floor to ceiling and filled the large room. Somehow, I knew exactly where I was. This room with its endless files was a catalog system for my life. Here was written every thought and action, every moment of my life recorded in specific detail.
A sense of curiosity coupled with horror stirred within me as I began randomly opening files and exploring their content. Some brought joy and sweet memories, but others a sense of shame and regret so intense that I looked over my shoulder to see if anyone was watching.
Each file had a title that ranged from the mundane to the outright weird—“Books I have read,” “Lies I have told,” “Acts of Kindness I have done,” “Jokes I have laughed at.” Some were hilarious because of their exactness, “Things I’ve yelled after stubbing my toe,” but others I couldn’t laugh at, “Things I have done in anger,” “Things I have muttered under my breath.”
I was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of the cards. Could these millions of cards really be the record of my life? But, each card was written in my handwriting and signed with my signature.
When I pulled out the file “Television shows I have watched” I was shocked by the size of the file. When I came to the file marked “Lustful thoughts” I felt a chill run down my spine. I immediately thought to myself, “No one must ever see these files. I have to destroy them.” I tried burning the cards but they wouldn’t ignite. I tried tearing the cards but they were as strong as steel. I realized the cards were indestructible.
I’ve never felt so helpless and hopeless. I fell down on my knees and started to cry. That is when I noticed that someone had walked into the room —it was Jesus. I wanted to keep him from looking in the files, but all I could do was cover my face in shame. He seemed intuitively to go to the worst files first. Why did he read every one?
Finally he turned and looked at me with pity in his eyes. He walked over and put his arm around me. He didn’t say a word—He just cried with me. Then he got up and walked back over to the files. He started at one end of the room, took a file out and one by one began to sign his name over mine. I tried to stop him saying, “No, your name shouldn’t be on the cards.” But he just smiled at me. I don’t know how he did it so quickly, but the next instant every card had his signature on it, written in blood. He closed the last file and said, “It is finished.” We both walked out of the room, but there was no lock on the door because there are still more cards to be written.
I’m not sure what is written on the index card files of your life, but if your files are anything like mine there are lots of files you want destroyed.
Abort
A few months ago I read a powerful story in Relevant magazine written by Shellie Warren. I’ll let her tell her story in her words.
“Although I am a single, 29-year-old with no living children, whenever people ask me if I have kids, I usually say that I am the mother of aborted children. Four to be exact. It’s okay to read that line over again. I know it is alarming enough to hear a woman—especially one who professes to be a Christian—admit that she has had even one abortion, let alone more than one.”
“It was Fourth of July weekend, approximately four months after I started having sex, when I saw a positive result for the first time on a pregnancy test. The only thing I could think was, ‘My mother’s going to kill me. I have no money, and I’m not ready.’ So I raised $400 under the guise of an emergency and went alone to a clinic.”
Shellie said the anesthesia dulled the physical pain, but there was no anesthesia for the emotional pain. She said, “Denial was my drug of choice for my spiritual and emotional stability.”
Fast forward six years. In 1999 Shellie went to have her fourth abortion but something happened that hadn’t happened before. She saw an ultrasound picture of her baby.
“My world crumbled. I mourned that pregnancy more than any other. I was growing weary of the cycle. For the first time I realized that my decisions were not just about me. For every person, God has a plan and when we decide to ‘play God’ we are aborting the mission of others. There is no telling what God desired for my children—what generational curses they could have broken, what destinies they could have fulfilled, what lessons they could have even taught me in my own stages of development.”
Shellie concludes her story this way. “By sharing my story, I hope to provide healing for women ridden with guilt and self-condemnation due to abortion. Healing is a long road to travel. Ask God for forgiveness and then make the daily conscious effort to forgive yourself. Romans 8:1 and II Corinthians 5:17 were written for people just like us.”
Great advice! “Ask God for forgiveness and then make the daily conscious effort to forgive yourself.” Let me make an important distinction.
God’s love is unconditional. In other words, you can’t do anything to make God love you more or love you less. God loves you perfectly! But forgiveness is conditional. We’ve got to plead guilty! God cannot heal what you don’t acknowledge.
I John 1:8 says, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse from all unrighteousness.”
Righteousness
Jesus paid the penalty for our sin on the cross, but that is only half the transaction. We get credit for Jesus’ righteousness.
This is another one of those incomprehensible mysteries, but here’s a way to get a handle on it. I’ve got a Starbucks card that I use whenever I walk into a Starbucks. They swipe my card and give me my drink of choice—we have a wonderful relationship! If I want, they’ll even reload my card so that I can continue using it. I’m not sure exactly how that magnetic strip works on the back of the card, but somehow it keeps track of my credit balance.
When we put our faith in Christ, it’s almost like God swipes our card.
Romans 4:9 says, “Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness.” The ways spiritual transactions happen in God’s economy is via faith. God has already initiated reconciliation, but faith completes the transfer.
Let me do what II Corinthians 5:20 tells me to do as an ambassador of Christ: I implore you on Christ’s behalf—be reconciled to God.