THE CROSS
In whom (Christ) also ye are circumcised with the
circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the
flesh by the circumcision of Christ: (Col 2:11)
I would like to put it this way, The Circumcision of Christ is
the same thing as the Cross of Christ. The instrument for the flesh is the
cross. The Cross for Abraham in his day was “circumcision”, though he was 99 years
old when the Lord commanded it to be done. Moses and children of Israel had
their own shares. The fundamental thing here is that, this circumcision was
done when it was not convenience. It was never at their convenience time. The
show that, the cross of Jesus Christ as it were is not a convenience thing. You
don’t carry it because it is convenience; you carry it because of the joy that
is set before you.
“For the joy that was set before him, he
endured the cross…” Hebrew 12:2b
I know a great deal of books has been written concerning
the Cross but, I want to put in a simple way what the cross simply means.
The Cross means God’s will “crosses” my will!
Since, there is only one will and one desire in heaven,
this gives no room for my will or yours to be done. We must either conform
to His will willingly or be crush into His will unwillingly. Either of the two, His will must be done. We must either choose to decrease by embracing His cross
or be forced to decrease by His eternal counsel. All things must of necessity
decrease, and Christ must increase. That’s the counsel of God and nothing can
alter that.
We see the cross as the instrument of our circumcision,
because that is what God has ordained. Daily, we must carry our cross, embrace
it. The cross is the center of God’s will for all creation and not just for
Christians. The Judgment of God on all flesh is the Cross.
There other thing I felt I should mention before going
further in this… Most of the circumcisions that were done were done on the
way. Moses circumcision was on the
way to inn.
For they were
uncircumcised, because they had not circumcised them by the way (Josh 5:7)
The Lord says in the book of John “I am the way, the
truth and life”. This means that as we purpose to follow the Lord since He is
the way, he does not wait for us to be "ready" before he introduces his cross to
us. Once we make our intentions know to him that we want to follow him and
become his disciples, he then introduce his cross to us. Should we then refuse
to be circumcised "on" the way; well, God may give us another opportunity to be
circumcised by sending us into wilderness. Either of the way, we must be
circumcised or else no Promise land for us.
Life can only be made manifest in us after we've accept
the sentence of death in our flesh. This death is not suicide; we cannot kill
ourselves, neither can we crucify ourselves. The Romans soldiers did it for
Christ. Brothers and sisters, our Romans' soldiers that will do this crucifixion
for us are always at our corners on daily basis. Those circumstances,
situations, stormy-wind, that brother, that sister, that wife, that husband and
all those unpalatable moments are for our crucifixion but how often do we
embraced them?
Our Lord on His earthly ministry depends wholly on God.
It wasn't that he was weak or because He didn't have the means to do his own
thing, but He was willing and ready to embrace the cross on daily living. The
climax of that willingness was His Crucifixion. It is possible for us to
confess “I will die for You” but fail in our daily death. To die for Christ
once and for all its simple but we must at every point in time try the challenging
one which is living for Him.
That’s where our wholeness or Perfection lies, in the
Cross of Jesus Christ. Our being made complete is in the Cross. It is not at
our born-again experiences rather our crucifixion daily. Paul says “I die
daily”. No just yesterday or last year but I carry the sentence of death in my
flesh.
Joshua 5:8
And it came to pass, when they had done
circumcising all the people that they abode in their places in the camp, till
they were whole.
It is very interesting to note that they were not healed.
This above verse didn't say that “after they were circumcised and abode in
their places in the camp, till they were healed”. These are two different
things.
It is very possible to be healed and not be made whole. This
is why it is a fruitless efforts to be jumping from one program to another; from
one mountain to another. You can get healed in your body; surely you cannot be
made whole. Wholeness is at a different pedestal. You have to experience
circumcision and stay in your camp before wholeness can be achieved. God must
bring to you a "camp" that seems right for you.
In 1 Thess 5:23 it reads
And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God
your whole spirit and soul and body
be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
This is actually what the Lord was doing for the Children
of Israel after their circumcision, making them whole.
We see that wholeness is a complete package, it does not
just happened to your body, it involves your soul and your spirit. As we yield
to the Cross of Jesus Christ, the work of wholeness is set in motion for in us.
The end result is a resurrected life, a life that is preserved from
blamelessness. That is the whole essence of our circumcision that we might
become perfect just as our Father in Heaven.
Josh 5:9
And the Lord said unto Joshua, This day have
I rolled away the reproach of Egypt
from off you. Wherefore the name of the place is called Gilgal unto this day.
We've come now to another point. I want to really stretch
and emphasis this word “Rolled away”. It’s really a big word
there. What does it really mean?
We've seen from the beginning of this write up that the
Reproach of Egypt is nothing but Death. We should be getting the understand of what
the Lord is saying here. If that verse has to be re-read, I will like to put it
this way:
And the Lord said unto Joshua, This day have
I rolled away the reproach of Egypt (Death)
off you, wherefore the same place is called Gilgal (Rolled away) unto this day.
The same word that was used in this verse of the
scripture for the children of Israel is also the same word used when Christ
resurrected:
Matt 28:2
And, behold, there was a great earthquake:
for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door,
and sat upon it.
This same word also was expressed when Lazarus was dead
and buried. Take away, taken away, rolled away, rolled back (see John
11:39, 20:1). They are all in contrast to death. This is nothing but
resurrection. God in wisdom can only roll away the reproach of Egypt which is
death and grant resurrection to those who are circumcised. This may be
different from what we’ve been taught but this is the truth.
The way to resurrection is the Cross. No cross no death
and no resurrection!!
Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a
corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone: but if it dies, it
brings forth much fruit. 25 He that loves his life shall lose it; and he that
hates his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. (John
12:24-25)
The whole essence of circumcision is to bring us to a
place of resurrection where death has no power over us any-more but first we
must DIE! This is worth living and dying for on a daily basis.
If you want the life of Christ to be made manifest in
your mortal body, embrace His cross. The good side of the cross is that it does
not only kill but prepare us for resurrection. That’s twofold work of the
cross.
I must at this point clarify one thing, it is possible to
be carrying our own self-made cross and think we are carrying the Cross of
Jesus. God designs the cross for each one of us and this leave out the
conclusion of “I should carry my own cross”. The cross is God’s instrument not
our own. Our own job is to embrace it. There are many crosses we may be
carrying that are not the cross of Jesus.
Some may be the crosses of our “Denominations”, “Our
Rules and regulations”, “Our creed or what we've made to believed”. All these
cannot lead us into resurrection rather more death. We must be able to ask the
Lord “which and who’s cross am I carrying?” Christ himself had to confirm that
this is the cross Father has made for him.
There is a need to embrace His cross, and also be sure that
the Cross you are embracing is not man-made cross.
to be continue in Part 2.
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