“The cross was not about some mythical pagan deity demanding a blood sacrifice – destroying his own son like Molech. Someone may ask … but wasn’t blood required for the forgiveness of sins? Yes, but not in a paganistic Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom sort of way. Yes, blood was needed for the forgiveness of sins. Not because the Father needed it, but because we did. We were running from God; He was never running from us. In Hebrews 10:22, Paul writes, “let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience. …” The blood was for us. The sure solid proof and substance of God’s love. God did not need the blood for Himself. It was His blood. He poured it out for us.”
― John Crowder, Cosmos Reborn
The fire and brimstone message of all time is the deep belief that either I do what is right by my own free will or perish in the eternal fire we know as hell. There are so many things wrong with that whole belief system and its something I believed growing up. Many times I fell into back sliding and “messing up.” I was always falling short of what I believed God needed as a perfect sacrifice: my perfect obedience and right living. The days of living in fear of the next temptation or next secular song I heard playing as I picked up some bread and milk at the local grocery store and how it would cause me to stumble. I really believed that God was angry and the only way to make Him happy with me was to be a perfect believer. But about 6 years ago I had a radical revelation for the first time. I saw God in a light I had never seen before. And I really saw Jesus and the cross in a way that forever rocked the very foundation of my being.
Christ dying wasn’t a pay off for an angry God and it wasn’t Jesus changing the mind of the Father towards us. But rather changing OUR mind towards the Father Himself.
Now really consider this, read it a few times, understand the words and the actual meaning. God didn’t create us, then right when one messed up He threw His hands up and said I give up they’re hopeless. People picture Jesus stepping in and saying “Hold on God they’re good, I promise. And to show you I’ll offer you my blood in their place to satisfy your need for revenge.” Literally just writing that and the thought of it makes me so incredibly nauseated. We all know that God so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son….. but do we know that? Yet our constant need to please and perform in order to be in right standing with God completely negates Jesus and what He truly accomplished. God through His son reconciled the world to Himself, He loved us so much and it was us doing the running away and hiding the whole time. When Adam fell God called out to Adam where are you? God sought after Adam and Eve even after they had fled and hid in shame and guilt.
God is madly, deeply, and passionately in love with us. He made us for Eden, which is called the garden of PLEASURE. He made this world as our playground, the loving Father who gives this whole beautiful world as our playground and seated us with Him in Heavenly places. And all He asks for us to do is Believe. Understand this one thing….
Belief is resting in the reality that even before you were fallen in Adam, you were found In Christ.
Before the creation of the world you were chosen in Him. Therefore before you even had the chance to fall or run you were already found in Christ. God reconciled the whole world to Himself. Acts 17:28 For in Him we live and move and have our being; as even some of your (own) poets have said, For we are also His offspring. Where could we go that He is not?
Even the act of repenting is the act of just changing your MIND!!! The greek word for repent is “metanoeo” meaning to change your mind. But what would we change our minds about? We change our minds about our sin and we agree with God that we accept His righteousness because our own is as filthy rags. (Isaiah 64:6) For just as by one man’s disobedience (failing to hear, heedlessness, and carelessness) the many were constituted sinners, so by one Man’s obedience the many will be constituted righteous (made acceptable to God, brought into right standing with Him). Romans 5:19 Why is it so easy to believe that one man can bring us all down and condemned to sin that equals death, yet so hard to believe that one man’s act of obedience put us all in right standing with God and made us all righteous? That one man’s obedience (Christ on the cross) made us whole, complete, lacking nothing, without shame or blame? No longer referred to as the old wretched Romans 7 man but dead to sin and alive to God!!
Maybe this is the first time you’re hearing it stated like this, and maybe you’re a little offended and taken back. Let me just speak this over you and pray God even now renews your mind and open your ears to the true Happy Gospel and see the good news for the first time as actually GOOD NEWS.
Maybe no-one has ever told you that this whole intimate romance with God and us is simply a passionate lover showering you with lavished gifts and love. That God never hated you and there was no reason to run or hide. And all He did was out of complete grace and mercy to send His only son to die and take all the pain, sadness, depression, curses, guilt, condemnation, etc. upon himself so you didnt have to feel a thing. That perfect union that was once in the garden of Eden (Pleasure) has been restored through Christ and now you can experience that same pleasure in your relationship with the Father.
Maybe no one told you that repenting was simply changing your mind about God and who people say He is and letting Him romance you and tell you things you longed for yet never heard? That your perfect, blameless, whole and righteous, without blemish and through Jesus Christ you are a son or daughter of the King. That your old nature and who you were was crucified on that cross with Jesus, and before you can even say ouch you were made whole and in perfect union, ingrafted in Him and living now the ressurected life of the Almighty. A Coheir of all the inheritance and riches of the King.
That you are not merely a follower of Christ but He Lives and breathes in and through you. You’re not just a walking robot trying to imitate a perfect man named Jesus, but its no longer You who live but Christ that lives through you? And all the repentance stuff is you saying yes to love and changing your mind on who you assume He is and what you view yourself to be. And that you’re a new creation, not just a better version of what you were. But altogether new in form, matter, look, smell, touch, etc. Altogether new and whole in Him and pure in the sight of the loving Father who never needed to satisfy His revenge. But His perfect sacrifice was a gift to us, for us and now has made us in right standing with Him just as you are. Not in the future or when you get it together, but now.
This is the simple gospel, the 1,2,3, A,B,C of the good news and its all you need to know. That when Christ died, you died, and when Christ was raised you were raised
I pray that God begins to show you the many things that happen there at that old rugged cross, and what really took place.That He wasn’t some angry dad looking for His belt but He pursued you even when we ran and tried to hide. He sent His only son to die for you, as you, for the wages of our sin was death. (Romans 6:23) But He died in our place and we died there too. One nail two hands, and before we can say ouch He made us whole and in right standing with Him, and gifted us with eternal life.
O The Bliss of those Who Know
Death to Life 