DAILY DEVOTIONAL FOR TODAY, JANUARY 18, 2018
THE CONQUERING POWER OF THE CROSS
For the Christian, life can be lived in an abundance of peace and joy through the conquering power of the cross. While many suffer from anxiety and depression, the Christian has an arsenal of spiritual and physical resources to overcome every mental and spiritual challenge of life. We truly can be “anxious for nothing” by accessing the resources that God provides in His Word, in His creation, in His salvation plan, and especially in the prized, secret power of the conquering cross.
My son wears a gold cross around his neck and will not take it off. He has several friends who have this practice as well. In fact, while serving as the captain of his high school baseball team, he inspired the other seniors to each adorn a cross-- as a statement of sorts. They looked cool with their jewelry, but I had hoped that I had given my son enough information for him to truly understand the very real power in the cross.
The cross overcomes every curse and every cursed thing that dares to come against us. Galatians 3:13 states “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.” By taking on the ultimate curse of dying on the cross, Jesus purchased our freedom from the Curse, so that the power of every Curseth thing is absorbed in the CRUCIFIXION. “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness; by whose stripes ye were healed.” I Peter 2:24
As you see through this scripture in I Peter 2:24, the curse of sin has no bearing upon the true Christian. Those of us who are true Christians are completely righteous, not in ourselves or in our own works, but through the blessed righteousness that God adorns us with. A spiritual robe of righteousness covers our carnal, mortal man and makes us Children of the Living God- holy, accepted, and beloved. It is through this power of the cross that we conquer every circumstance in life and even in death. Have you ever wondered why there’s a cross planted on the top of the believer’s grave? "As it is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.” (I Corinthians 15:54)
“O death, where is thy sting? O grave where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
(I Corinthians 15:55-57)
As true Christians who have entrusted our lives to Christ, we can live with an abundance of peace and joy knowing that Christ has done a complete work on the cross-- and it is finished. Even death has no sting and the grave has no victory. For there is a conquering power in the cross that not only obliterates every curse in life, but at the point of death, the cross ensures our eternal life with God and a bodily resurrection at the appointed time. Yes, the conquering power of the cross overcomes EVERY obstacle in life and death. Now that’s Good News!
