A gospel that appeals to our reason or righteousness will always be popular, for people like to feel that we can circumvent the cross of Christ. The cross left no footing for man to stand upon. It put the responsibility of man's redemption upon Christ. Had not man failed? And was he not and is he not continuing to fail? Hasn't history proved that "there is none righteous, no, not one"? (Romans 3:10).
The cross comes with its mighty power to bring low as well as to exalt, for it exalts none but those whom first it humbles. It calls the pious worshiper to come down out of his ivory tower and to take his place at the cross with the outcast and the vile. It tells the earnest seeker and the anxious inquirer that by their own efforts they are made not one whit better until they put their hope fully in Him who was slain. It tells the sincere evangelical, whose mind is a treasury of orthodox doctrines, that he must stand beside the drunkard and harlot and say, "God be merciful to me a sinner!" (Luke 18:13).
I realize that these are hard sayings, but the Bible says that the cross is an offense to the righteousness of man. The cross says that "all have sinned" (Romans 3:23). It decrees that every person, marred by sin, must be remade. It is more than pardon, for forgiveness cancels the old wrong but leaves a man where he is morally. It is even more than justification, for justification makes a man judicially worthy in the sight of God. The cross means life.
 Do you have life through the cross? | |
Prayer
Lord, forgive us for thinking that we can create our own righteousness. Help us to learn what it means to put our hope fully in Christ and to have life to the fullest. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Scripture quotations are taken by permission from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, copyright ©1979, 1980, 1982 Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers, Nashville, Tenn. From Billy Graham: "Decision" magazine, February 2012, ©1956 BGEA.
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