24. JohN 10 - TLJC Willingly Offers Himself.
The Cross Throughout the Scriptures - Part 24
29. Paul Discovers the Cross.
Our Lord, appearing to His disciples, Act 1:3, took them at once without a moment’s delay, back to the Cross.
TLJC does not ask His disciples to forget what took place at the shameful, disgraceful, degrading Golgotha.
At the cross, the head of that old serpent the devil was bruised.
At the cross, the rights and authority of man’s greatest enemy were forever annulled.
Through death the Redeemer destroyed him who had the power of death, the devil, Heb 2:14.
Gal 6:14 But may it never be that I should boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
It was his duty to drag Christians to prison, make them blaspheme the Name of Christ, and even see them stoned, as with Stephen, the Church’s first martyr.
Had the Lord said, “I am Christ,” the effect would not have been the same.
Joh 4:25 “I know that Messiah is coming and when that One comes, He will declare all things to us.”
What Saul did not believe was that Jesus, rejected and crucified as a blasphemous impostor, was the Christ.
He knew the glory which had knocked him to the ground was the glory of God - yet the voice was the voice of Jesus.
Col 1:19 For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him,
Col 1:16 For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities - all things have been created by Him and for Him.
Although wicked hands had slain TLJC, it was in the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God.
Rom 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
1Ti 1:15 It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all.
Rom 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Paul, under TLJC, would become the master-builder of the church, constructing her doctrines, extending her borders like no other, and establishing the principles to govern her.
He would begin by pointing to the forgiveness and grace of God.
It would be reaffirmed by one who was the number one enemy of the early church.
Because of the cross where another had borne his guilt, the very One whom he hated.
Col 1:12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.
Col 1:13 For He delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son,
Col 1:14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Phi 3:13 but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead,
Eph 1:7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace,
Law has no meaning if there is no punishment for those who break it.
With all His love which can never be measured, He could not pass over man’s sin, because of His justice and righteousness.
Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries 2002