Come to the cross of Calvary where our Jesus was crucified and there lay all your hopes and dreams, fears and regrets, desires and fortunes, that they all may become debt that requires our very lives to pay. For all of our life before the cross, being premised on the lies of a fallen world, lead us (by Gods mercy) to the feet of Jesus on the cross whereby He set forth an example of obedience unto death, that we may also follow His example, partaking in His death by faithful obedience that we may also become partakers of His life.
"If any man desire to come after me, let him take up his cross and follow me” (my example)
"If any man claims to have Jesus in him, he must walk as Jesus did”
"Reckon yourselves dead unto this world, but alive to Christ”
All that we hold dear and even believe that is good and true, even our ideas of God have to be nailed to the cross, before God can ever show us the truth of Himself according to Himself. Anything else is born of unbelief, I f bias, and at best is partial and lacks the mark of Gods presence, namely His Spirit.
Without the cross there is no need nor potential for the resurrection of Christ. So it is with Him so shall it be with us as He is our forerunner and His faith is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto the path that leads to salvation and everlasting life with God.
"Until you be fully formed in Christ” (salvation = cross)
"Until Christ be fully formed in you” (sanctification = resurrection life)
Until we see the enormity of our sin we will not stay on the cross but will turn back and sanctification cannot be achieved in the spirit but instead is replaced with "works”, wether actual doings or the acquisition of knowledge, both seek to "justify” our coming down off the cross.
The spirit is grieved for He cannot complete His work in the s because we are too busy (Martha) to come and kneel before His feet (Mary).
Until we admit,... confess that "God alone is true and every man a liar” based on our seeing that it is true, that the world (short of a miracle) is beyond saving and "there is none righteous, no not one”. We will not come completely to the cross and truly die there to all this world is, was, or could be, then we will always leave a part for ourselves in the world and will inevitably turn back like Lot’s wife. For we will not give up our right to believe there is still good there worth sparing the agony of the Cross. Tho to do so is to condemn that thing we call good, for we place it outside the need of the power of Gods salvation, as such there can be no redemption.
And this is the miracle of God, that thru the death on the cross we may lay hold of eternal life... but only by the inheritance that comes by faith in the work of the cross,... first in Christ then in us. Embracing the cross is to embrace the righteous judgment of the Father upon the life we have lived based on the lies of the devil. "For the whole world lies in the grip of the evil one”
Unless we renounce and reject this world as having any potential to offer any good, we cannot bear our cross, for there would be no need of it. Many (most) of us try to fit the cross into our world but Gods intention is to fit us to the cross in His world (kingdom).
"Every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights in whom there is no shadow nor variance of turning.”
Freedom,... true freedom from the lie we’ve been living can only come in our death to that lie and the only place that can happen completely, totally and finally is the Cross. Let it have its work done in you so that we may say with Christ,...”it is finished”
May the Spirit give life in its fullness to all who seek it thru the Cross of our Lord Jesus ðŸ™ðŸ»