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Hope, Agony of YOUR Cross
by Phil Maxwell June 19, 2002
The thing about the cross that all who will truly be Yahshua’s
disciples must bear is that it is all about sin. Let me say that again, the
cross -- our cross -- is all about sin...our sin. When we come to Christ, we
must come to Him at the cross, but I don’t mean standing there watching Him
suffer. I mean getting up on the one next to Him and confessing that we
ourselves deserve this and not Him. The only one given a pass to Paradise on the
day of His crucifixion (aside from Him) was the repentant thief hanging next to
Him. That thief had grasped the truth that could save him by affirming that he
deserved his cross, and not Yahshua.
The cross is judgment, that is, Yahweh’s judgment of sin: Our sin, that is,
and no one else’s. It doesn’t matter how, when, or by whom it is inflicted
upon us either, for none of us can say we don’t deserve it. Oh, we can put
blinders on an argue about the right of our persecutors to mistreat us so, as
though there isn’t a God in heaven who knows every sparrow that falls from the
sky. We can even look around us and cry how unfair it is that we, being so
relatively good, should be treated this way, though Job’s story argues
strongly against such an attitude. We may or may not be able to convince others
of our righteousness, but not the Almighty and Holy God in heaven.
Bear in mind, also, that crosses come with a lot of pain and agony, and worse
yet, humiliation. Yahshua promised a baptism of fire, didn’t He? They will
strip you naked, beat you horrifically, and post all your sins over your head.
Whether or not “they” have a right or others are more worthy, we deserve
every miserable moment of it and more. As it is written in the Scriptures, some
men’s sins go before them into judgment, while others follow after them.
You see, everyone in this world has a cross with their name on it waiting for
them. The only question is whether we will go to the cross voluntarily or
justify ourselves until it comes to us. Our cross is conditional amnesty:
God’s judgment is tempered by our voluntary surrender. He allows us to be
thrown into the fire, but sends Yahshua to go with us.
If you want to go to Paradise with Yahshua, where the tree of life is, then you
must go to it, though. We can either be broken to pieces by falling on the truth
or be crushed by it falling on us. In so doing, you testify that you believe the
gospel, which begins with the judgment of sin, the cross. No, not Yahshua’s
cross, but your own. The hope we have in Christ isn’t in avoiding the cross we
so richly deserve, it is that He’ll go with us if we turn ourselves in.
The cross is also the end of the law for us. There is no escaping the long arm
of Yahweh’s law, the law of sin and death, that is. We are corrupted by sin,
therefore, we will die. The 3,000 who joined the Church on the day the Spirit
was given saw this. When they accepted Peter’s proclamation of their guilt in
murdering Yahshua, they knew they had come to an end of the law; likewise for
Paul.
The law had no remedy for them. All it offered for murderers was the
extermination of them for the sake of the common good. According to the law,
they were irrevocably infected with evil and condemned. They took their cross,
complete with “MURDERER” inscribed over their heads, and offered no further
excuses. And that is where they found deliverance, right out of the fires of
condemnation. That is where we can find deliverance, also.
While we must all accept similar crosses, that is, if we choose to surrender
ourselves to the judgment of Yahweh against our sin while there is time. You
see, Yahshua isn’t going to stay on the cross forever. He has a kingdom to
build. The age of grace is just that, an era with a definite beginning and end,
even if that is merely our unknown days in this world. If we haven’t already
faced it, judgment of our sin awaits. We must come to our cross while He’s
there if we want to escape the judgment of sin that will follows us when its too
late.
If we will take our cross willingly, however, there is good news. Yahshua has a
new name to put over the “MURDERER” sign over our head. We have the
opportunity to share in His sufferings, to be crucified for righteousness sake
rather than sin. We do not have the opportunity to escape the cross, though. We
can go into judgment as a servant, brother, and mother of the “King of the
Jews” rather than His murderer, but only if we’ll take the cross we deserve
first. That is where the Way, the Truth, and the Life the Father seeks to give
us awaits.
The cross hurts -- a lot -- but the Spirit and the Bride still say, “Come.”
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