JESUS’ DEATH WAS POWERFUL
1 Corinthians 1:17-18 (TLB) 17 For Christ didn’t send me to baptize, but to preach the Gospel; and even my preaching sounds poor, for I do not fill my sermons with profound words and high sounding ideas, for fear of diluting the mighty power there is in the simple message of the cross of Christ. 18 I know very well how foolish it sounds to those who are lost, when they hear that Jesus died to save them. But we who are saved recognize this message as the very power of God.
JESUS’ DEATH UNIFIED ALL CHRISTIANS
Ephesians 2:16 (TLB) As parts of the same body, our anger against each other has disappeared, for both of us have been reconciled to God. And so the feud ended at last at the cross.
JESUS’ DEATH WAS A SACRIFICE
Colossians 1:20-22 (TLB) 20 It was through what his Son did that God cleared a path for everything to come to him—all things in heaven and on earth—for Christ’s death on the cross has made peace with God for all by his blood. 21 This includes you who were once so far away from God. You were his enemies and hated him and were separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions, yet now he has brought you back as his friends. 22 He has done this through the death on the cross of his own human body, and now as a result Christ has brought you into the very presence of God, and you are standing there before him with nothing left against you—nothing left that he could even chide you for.
JESUS’ DEATH DEFEATED SATAN
Colossians 2:14-15 (TLB) 14 . . .and blotted out the charges proved against you, the list of his commandments which you had not obeyed. He took this list of sins and destroyed it by nailing it to Christ’s cross. 15 In this way God took away Satan’s power to accuse you of sin, and God openly displayed to the whole world Christ’s triumph at the cross where your sins were all taken away.
JESUS’ CROSS IS AN EXAMPLE FOR US
Hebrews 12:2 (TLB) Keep your eyes on Jesus, our leader and instructor. He was willing to die a shameful death on the cross because of the joy he knew would be his afterwards; and now he sits in the place of honor by the throne of God.
CHRISTIANS SHOULD PICK UP THEIR OWN CROSSES
Mark 8:34-38 (TLB) 34 Then he called his disciples and the crowds to come over and listen. "If any of you wants to be my follower," he told them, "you must put aside your own pleasures and shoulder your cross, and follow me closely. 35 If you insist on saving your life, you will lose it. Only those who throw away their lives for my sake and for the sake of the Good News will ever know what it means to really live. 36 "And how does a man benefit if he gains the whole world and loses his soul in the process? 37 For is anything worth more than his soul? 38 And anyone who is ashamed of me and my message in these days of unbelief and sin, I, the Messiah, will be ashamed of him when I return in the glory of my Father, with the holy angels."
QUOTE OF THE DAY: "The Cross has made us flawless." Mercy Me.
Source of Scripture and Headings: NLTse Bible Verse Finder, Holy Bible, New Living Translation, 1996, 2004 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Database © 2005 WORDsearch Corp.
