On Day Five we drew a parallel of how Israel's first Passover was a foreshadowing of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. We began to examine the nature of our sin, and the perfect Lamb that was offered for our atonement. Here we want to take a little more time to examine and understand the power of sacrifice so that we can know the power of what He accomplished for us by His sacrifice.
Unfortunately, cults and satanic worshipers seem to understand this basic principle of the spiritual power of sacrifice better than most Christians. A remarkable biblical example of this is found in II Kings 3:26-27:
When the king of Moab saw that the battle was too fierce for him,
he took with him 700 men who drew swords,
to break through to the king of Edom; but they could not.
Then he took his oldest son who was to reign in his place,
and offered him as a burnt offering on the wall.
And there came great wrath against Israel,
and they departed from him and returned to their own land.
Sacrifice has power. Evil sacrifices can release evil power just as this king understood. The greater the sacrifice the greater the power that is released. Had this king sacrificed a sheep or goat, or even a servant, it would not have had this kind of dramatic result. If this heathen king, who offered his son, released power, how much more did the sacrifice of God's own Son release power?
As the Scriptures declare, all of creation was made for the Son and through Him, and in Him all things hold together. There is nothing in this universe as precious as the Son of God. Nothing greater could be sacrificed. That is why the cross is the very power of God (see I Corinthians 1:18). There is no power greater in this universe than what is available to us through the cross of Jesus. If the Passover sacrifice of these lambs that were just a type or a prophecy of the coming cross of Jesus could set Israel free from the most powerful empire on earth at the time, how much more can the actual cross of Jesus set us free from our bondage?
All the combined power of all of the armies on earth could not compare with a single drop of the blood of Jesus. That power is available to us at the cross. That is why it only takes faith the size of a single mustard seed to move a mountain. The reason our "faith" falls so far short of accomplishing much is because it is almost always reduced to faith in our faith, instead of faith in the cross of Jesus.
Just as the purpose of the power of God as demonstrated through Moses was to first set Israel free, we often want to do great exploits with our faith before we have been delivered from our sin. As Christians we may remain in bondage to evil passions, evil desires, and the evil ways of this present evil age. However, if we do, we can never say that we have not been offered the power to be set free from them. For a Christian to say they do not have the power to overcome the sin and evil of their heart is to say that the evil is more powerful than the cross, which is an obvious insult to the cross. The power has been offered to us to be free. We can reject it, but we can never say that it has not been given to us. If we remain under the power of sin, it is our choice, because we choose sin over freedom. That is proof of who we really love and who we really serve.
There are a host of false doctrines that seek to turn believers away from the power of the cross, proclaiming that it is not possible to be free from the sin and evil passions of this world. Some seek to replace the cross of Jesus with human penitence. The devil knows well that these frivolous attempts to pay the price for our own sins are a profound affront to the cross of Jesus. Such foolishness actually empowers human sin by feeding human selfishness. The cross of Jesus is enough, and it alone can set us free.
As the great hymn so powerfully declares, it is "nothing but the blood of Jesus."We must never allow our trust to be put in anything else, because only the cross of Jesus can set us free and set us on the course to our Promised Land.
Of all of the studies that we have made, or will make, there are none more crucial than this one. If we will put our trust in the cross, the power of God will be released in our lives. To this day the enemy of our souls still has a boast before all of creation—that God can forgive us of our sins, but He really does not have the power to deliver us from our sins. Before the end comes there will be a bride without spot or wrinkle that will prove to all of creation for all time that He not only has the power to forgive mankind, but He also has the power to change us. His sacrifice is so powerful that we will not only be restored to the condition of man before the Fall, but the cross actually transforms us into a "new creation" that greatly transcends the original creation state of man. Therefore our goal is not to return to the state of the first Adam, but to abide in the "last Adam," who is Christ.
As the saying goes, "There is a ditch on either side of the path of life." The doctrines of human perfection can cause us to stumble just as much as those that declare there is not enough power in the cross to really change us. This is not about human perfection. The doctrines of human perfection are little more than feeble attempts to resurrect and heal our old nature. Our humanity must be reckoned as dead.
We will look at this in more depth, but for now let us settle in our hearts that there is no limit on the power of God that is available to us through the cross of Jesus. Let us also settle in our hearts that His sacrifice was enough, and anything we try to add to it by our attempts to pay for our own sins, by any means, is an insult to the cross (as established in Hebrews 9:26-10:14). If the sacrifice of the heathen king of Moab had such power, how much more power does the sacrifice of God's own Son have? The cross is the power of God, and if we want to have the power of God manifested in our daily lives, we must take up the cross daily. The power of God is available at the cross. Our trust must be in the cross of Jesus, alone, to set us free and release God's power in our lives to live as He has called us to live.