“For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the Gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the Cross of Christ should be made of none effect.  For the preaching of the Cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.”  1 Corinthians 1:17-18.

Sadly, many do not understand the “preaching of the Cross” is not the wooden beam but what Jesus there did as the Sacrificial Lamb of God to pay the sin debt in full for whosoever will believe and to give the Believer dominion over their sin nature.  If the Believer gets the Cross wrong and what Jesus there did, we get the Gospel wrong and the Cross of Christ is made of none effect.  

Jesus Christ IS the New Covenant.  His spotless Blood is the only Sacrifice God can accept for payment of our sin debt.  The wages of sin is death.  The blood of bulls and goats reconciled the Old Testament Saints to God to restore fellowship but could not atone for sin in full.  Animal sacrifices could not remove the handwriting of ordinances against us (Colossians 2:14). 

Knowing WHO Jesus is and what He accomplished on Calvary’s Cross for whosoever will believe, there is no doubt of His Resurrection.  The glorious Resurrection of our Lord and Saviour was dependent on His finished work on the Cross…He had to die in order to be resurrected.  Jesus’ work on the Cross was not dependent on the Resurrection.   It is at the Cross that our sin debt was paid by Jesus Christ.

“8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him:

9 Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dies no more; death has no more dominion over Him.

10 For in that He died, He died unto sin once: but in that He lives, He lives unto God.

11 Likewise reckon you also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”   Romans 6:8-11.
If we have accepted Jesus and His finished work as the only payment of our sin, which is death, then we have come to the understanding under the conviction of the Holy Spirit that we are a sinner and the payment of our sin is death. There is but ONE answer to sin’s curse and that is the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Knowing this, Who Jesus is, and that being raised from the dead, death has no more dominion over Him; likewise we reckon ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin and alive unto God through Jesus.  

“The Cross”, the power of God, is the finished work of Jesus which saves the sinner and gives the Believer dominion over sin.  There have been many schemes of man from the vanities of their own minds to obtain dominion over sin once the Believer accepts Jesus and His Sacrifice as the only substitute for their sin debt  which is death.  Blessed are those who understand it is Jesus’ same work on Calvary’s Cross, not the schemes of man, self efforts or even other Scriptural doctrines (fasting, communion, etc.), that also gives us dominion over sin nature.  This IS the power of God for those who are saved.  There are no 40 days of purpose…everyday is a day unto the Lord.  

Blessed are those who are determined to know nothing but Christ and Him crucified…for to us, His finished work on Calvary’s Cross IS  the power of God – not just the glorious day we were born again and made a new creature in Christ Jesus but EVERY day.

-Donna Clark Warren