The centrality of the cross: Applied to believer, the substituted sinner made ambassador

A.    The Death at the Cross applied to the believer (Romans 6:1-4)

"We who died. . . ." (Romans 6: 2, R.V.) "Discharged ... having died." (Romans 7: 6, R.V.) "Ye died with Christ. (Colossians 2: 2o, R.V.) "For ye died. (Colossians 3: 3, R.V.m.) "For if we died with Him, we shall also live. .(2 Timothy 2: 1 1, R.V.)

Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus ended chapter two with the saying that In Christ we are members of God’s house hold. I said the kingdom of faith is now our home country. We leave in the world but we are not of the world. Our old self was crucified and we live in newness of life in Christ. To the Roman’s he calls out with a question. Should we keep on sinning so that God can keep on forgiving?
If we’ve left the country where sin is sovereign, how can we still live in our old house there? Did you not realize that we packed up and left there for good? That is what happened in baptism. When we went under the water, we left the old country of sin behind; when we came up out of the water, we entered into the new country of grace- a new life in a new land!
Ro 7:6,7 “But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”” So the saying is true that “if we have died with Christ, then we will also live with Him.”
People thought that grace will cover their willful violation of the law. Others that they could be slack in their Christian duties, believing that God’s grace would save them in their laziness. No. Grace is not a license for sin.
Christians have been set free from sin and law by God’s grace, but they have not been set free to sin against law. The law is established by our thankful response to grace (Rom 3:31)
Those living with Christ are those who have died with Christ. Therefore if we are not living with Christ, then we have not died with Christ.

B.     The cross: The substituted sinner made ambassador (2 Corinthians 5: 14,15)

One man died for all, therefore all died. He included everyone in his death so that everyone could also be included in his life, a resurrection life, a far better life than people ever lived on their own. Living for him who died for the sake you and I and was raised. Because of what Christ did by his love, we do not evaluate people by what they have or how they look. No, we do not regard according to the flesh but we evaluate from inside and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah is a new creation; he gets a new fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it!
The man who was rebellious has become representative, ambassador because of what the master, Jesus Christ did in taking His wretched position to die for his sin. Christ’s disciples are known by their love of one another (John 13:34,35). The Christian does good works because of what the good works will do to the people for whom he works. The good works are sacrificial and focused on the recipient of the works. So the Christian has a new life haven been washed of sin (Act 22:16) and he walks in life for the benefit of others. So, in living for others the ambassador, the substituted sinner manifests his love of the Lord (Ro 6:11).

C.     Continuity of the 'Cross' for every believer. (2 Corinthians 4: 10- 12)

What they did to Jesus, they do to us- trial and torture, mockery and murder; what Jesus did among them, he does in us-He lives! Our lives are at constant risk for Jesus’ sake, which makes Jesus’ life all the more evident in us. While we’re going through the worst, you’re getting in on the best!
In bearing the cross, one recognizes his humanity and dependence on God for survival in Christ (2 Cor 1:8, 9). Trials and persecutions drives us to depend on God. The life of our Lord can only be manifested in our body if we willingly suffer for the name of Jesus when preaching the gospel (Rom 8:17, Gal 2:20). The trails of an evangelist is an opportunity to live for Jesus (Rom 8:36).

The Centrality of the cross: The Place of Unity between believers (Place of peace) (Ephesians 2: 16).

Remember that the Gentiles or the uncircumcised in the flesh by the circumcision made by human hands were separated from Christ in the past. The Bible says in this verse 11 of this Ephesians “what is called circumcision”. It is not the true circumcision which God wants us to undergo. God wants us to have a circumcision made by His own hands, which transforms us. But by then we were separated from Christ, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now, by the blood of Christ; as He died that death and shed that blood, we who were once out of it altogether are in on everything. Hallelujah!

Vs 14 “For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility”.  Jesus Christ is our peace. He has united us to the Jews, we who were outsiders and the Jews who were insiders have all become one in Christ Jesus, because in His death he has broken down the wall of hostility. He has abolished the law of commandments and established the law of love through his blood. Was it just to have us reconcile within ourselves? No, so that we may also be reconciled to God the Father through the cross.

How have you been thinking about your fellow brother in Christ? How have you been thinking about your fellow human being; the neighboring tribe, the neighboring village, the other church fellowship, the other group of people in your country, the whites, the blacks, the Jews? Do you know that Christ’s death on the cross also reconciled you to them in His blood? Cultural peace is established between Jews and Gentiles through Jesus Christ. The church is therefore called to bring all men together in Christ; because the Old Testament law was nailed to the cross. It’s no longer an obstacle to the Gentiles. All men are brought together under the law of Christ. Those reconciled to God are in one body “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks….” (1 Cor 12:13) .Christ repealed the law code that hindered us rather than helped us. He started things all over; not continuing with two groups of people who were separated by animosity and suspicion. He created a new kind of human being, a fresh start for everybody by the cross. The cross got us to embrace, and that was the end of hostility. Why is there hostility in the world today? They do not know Christ and what He did on the cross. If we claim that we know what Christ did on the cross and that we have received Him and we still live hostile lives here on earth, then we are liars. We do not love God.

Christ treated us as equals and made us equals. Through Him we both share the same Spirit and have equal access to the Father. The kingdom of faith is now your home country.