The Cross and the Law of Christ

All of that Jesus took on the cross. That is what he did on the cross for the world, for us, for you and me, bearing away our burden. He didn't have to. He was God's son, but he came into this world, died even to death on a cross to take that sin, to enter into our brokenness, and carry our burden. This is the law of Christ. And so he's talking to the church in Galatia. When you restore one another in gentleness, when you forgive one another, when you're patient and loving and kind to each other, when you persevere with each other, that is fulfilling the law of Christ. [00:58:02] (61 seconds)  #LawOfChristLove

Now, it doesn't end there, though, and this is what especially we're gonna be looking at this coming week, Easter Sunday. The pattern doesn't end with but. Doesn't just end with Christ emptying, but it ends with Christ's exaltation. The cross has meaning only because of the resurrection. The cross has meaning only because of the resurrection. If there was no resurrection, the cross is just foolishness. It's just pain. It's just suffering. It's just death. It's pointless. [01:12:44] (48 seconds)  #CrossNeedsResurrection

As I reflect on Joe Joe and Heidi's time in Fresno and what's kept them there these ten, eleven years, what is it? What is it, you think? Surely not just a sense of obligation and duty. No. Not just even willpower and faithfulness. I don't think so. I think it has everything to do with his deep, unshakable conviction that the cross is not the end of the story, that suffering and pain is not the end of the story. [01:16:16] (34 seconds)  #CrossIsNotTheEnd

Because Jesus was raised in the body, in the flesh, two thousand years ago, that story is also ours. Do you see? When we participate in the cross and that becomes our story, that's not the only part of the story that becomes ours, but also resurrection. That becomes ours too, and the joy of resurrection. Joy. That's what we get to look forward to next Sunday as we relive that part of the story. [01:15:44] (33 seconds)  #ResurrectionIsOurs

We talked about atonement several weeks ago. Might all the sin, all the brokenness, all the darkness, all the evil, the wickedness in the world, And there's a lot of it, isn't there? We're inundated with information about it constantly now, every day. And we don't have to look on the news, look to the news. We know in our own circles, even in our own hearts, that that darkness is there. All of that. All of that Jesus took on the cross. [00:57:33] (38 seconds)  #JesusTookItAll

So in our context, something like this, although we have resources and reputation, although we have gifts and influence, although we have training and knowledge, although we have energy and enthusiasm, although we have wisdom and insight, although we have time and freedom, although we have rights and status, not for our own sake, not for our own advantage, not for our own gain has God given us these things, but we release them. We expend them. We empty ourselves of them for the other, for the neighbor, for the one who is not privileged, for the community, for our brother, for our sister. [01:11:47] (54 seconds)  #PrivilegeForService

That's why he can write to them as he did in second Corinthians, as we talked about a few weeks ago. Death, he's saying, is at work in us, him, the apostle, and his Death is at work in us, but life is at work in you because of the the sufferings and the pain and his own life that he was pouring out so that others could hear about about the message of the gospel. That's the pattern of Christ. That's the law of Christ. [01:11:09] (33 seconds)  #LifeThroughSacrifice

Paul, it's even though there's this suffering that he's spreading from prison, even though he's expounding on this law of Christ, this pattern of Christ, it can't help but just come out of him. It's joy that is the end of the story. Every act of sacrifice, every act of self giving done in Jesus' name brings the believer closer and nearer to the pattern of Jesus' life. And, if your life is patterned after Jesus' life, then not only is the cross yours, not only is the cross yours, but his resurrection also yours is yours. [01:14:54] (49 seconds)  #JoyAfterSacrifice