Pastor's Corner: The way of the cross

The first Sunday of each month I have been preaching a sermon series called "Focus on the Cross." On Sunday, Oct. 2, the title of the eighth sermon in this series was "No Loitering." The following are some highlights from that sermon.

The word "loiter" means to stand or wait around idly or without apparent purpose.

"No loitering" signs are often used in public places to keep people from persistently "hanging out" with no purpose. A sign like that should also be read at our altars in churches today. In other words, many of us come to Christ and just gawk at, wait around, or stand idly by the cross. "Oh! What a wonderful cross. What a sacrifice!" - we marvel. But that's not enough to silence the devil and live victoriously. We can't loiter at the cross; we must get on it ourselves! This what Jesus meant when He instructed that we take up our own crosses.

Matthew 16:24-25 (NIV) – 24 "Then Jesus said to his disciples, "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it."

While we believe passionately in the power of God for victorious living, we don't completely live it ourselves. Beyond the lip service, our thoughts are just as impure; we struggle with the same habits and maintain the same fears and insecurities as those without a Christian label. We feel helpless. Perhaps over the years you have tried nearly every method of spiritual warfare. Perhaps you have fasted, prayed in the Spirit, attended church events as often as the doors were open, went through deliverance curriculum, and even cleansed your house of things that may be cursed. But even after every demon was rebuked, you still don't have lasting victory. What more could you do? Nothing more! - which is what you must come to realize. Your efforts can't hold you in holiness, but Jesus will! Those methods that you have previously attempted are great and have their place, but they're no substitute for the cross. We need to die, and the cross is the key to finally dethroning the devil in our lives.

As we know, Christ's crucifixion paved the way for His glorious resurrection. And that's God design for our lives too. Jesus' call for us to join Him in crucifixion is so that a resurrected life can follow. He likens this to the experience of a seed, which must first undergo death in order to produce a harvest.

John 12:24-25 (NIV) - 24 "Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. 25 Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life."

Within a single seed is the potential for so much new life. Given the proper circumstances, it will sprout into a plant, which can then produce more seeds that sprout into more plants. That's a wonderful plan, but it's contingent upon a very uncomfortable process. When a seed is dropped into the ground, with the right amount of water, oxygen, and temperature, new life is birthed inside. As water is absorbed into the seed, its outer shell is softened so that when the seed is buried into the proper soil, the shell cracks open and new life can emerge. Notice that the life held inside of the seed doesn't burst the shell open itself. Rather, the shell is first crushed so that the life may arise. Imagine if the seed never died.

The potential inside of it would never be seen, and it would never have the ability to reproduce.

Do you see the tremendous parallels for your life? At salvation God plants His seed in you, and new life is birthed.

1 John 3:9 (NIV) - 9 "No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God."

What's holding back your new life? Is it slavery to sin, guilt, shame, doubts, or feelings of worthlessness? These are the things that the outer shell of the seed represents, which must be cracked, crushed, and killed so that all of the potential in you can burst forth. When you follow Christ in crucifixion, you're finally set free from what's in the way of victorious living so that your life can help many others experience the same.

There's no getting around that the way to life is the way of the cross. But it often gets a little vague from there. How and to what must we die? Certainly we can't follow Christ to a literal death, nor should we. Notice that Jesus didn't call us to take up His cross, but to take up our own. Our crucifixion is not physical, but rather it's death to the things that uniquely hold us back to fully live for God. Before you get into the trap of thinking about what you must do to die to these things, remember the victory is not a result of your own efforts and striving. You can't crucify yourself with a bunch of rules and legalism. It's not about living a life of lack or adhering to a list of "can't haves." Don't live in fear of wearing nice clothes, having a good car, or enjoying some entertainment. Taking up your cross doesn't mean inflicting yourself with burdens God's people lived under law for thousands of years, and Jesus came to set us free from this! Here's the key point that you can't miss: Paul remarked that crucifixion happens with Christ.

Galatians 2:19-20 (NIV) - 19 "For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."

That is, your crucifixion happened with Jesus'. Still, it's made effective in your life when you consider it.

Romans 6:11 (NIV) - 11 "In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus."

Consider or count is an active word that means to think carefully about. The devil's playground is the mind, so we must defeat him in the place he attacks. To consider yourself dead to sin is really a constant renewal of your mind according to what Jesus exclaimed is finished on the cross.

The Apostle Paul never taught that sin is dead, but that you're dead to sin. Sin will always have its lure, and just as soon as you lose sight of the cross, it will regain its appeal to you. I honestly believe this is what happens with most fallen Christians. At some point they lost sight of the cross, and their sin nature regained its power. Once that happens, it's game on for sin's crazy cycle and the devil's accusations.

The cross is an anchor for holiness, and when you mind remains fixed upon it, the things that once enslaved you or held you back aren't so influential. This is what being crucified is all about: you're dead to every power except Christ, who's alive in you! Isn't it freeing to know that your victory lies not in what you do but in what He's done? This, my brothers and sisters, is the way of the cross!

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Written by the Rev. Edroy "Curt" Curtis, president of the Greater Havre Area Ministerial Association, chaplain of Northern Montana Health Care and lead pastor of Havre Assembly of God Church.

Devotion taken from the book "Silence Satan" by Kyle Winkler (pages 103-107); copyright 2014 by Charisma House Publishing