Parousia Second Coming of Jesus- The Cross, The Controversy and The Atonement
This is a subject that am incapable of understanding—my heart is desperately wicked, I am evil and sold under sin. I have prayed that you in the following Bible study will see glimpses of the love of God for humankind and His plan for your restoration as sons and daughters of God.
The very heart of the New Testament is the cross. https://www.secondcoming.org/
It is the supreme manifestation of God’s agape love= God’s love manifested on the cross (love that is untainted by any selfish motive).
Matthew 22:36-30
36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Satan’s rebellion against God in heaven was against God’s agape love, lucifer found the idea of self-sacrificing love, love untainted by any selfish motive to be restrictive. He introduces self-love or eros.
Isaiah 14: 12-14
12 How you have fallen from heaven,
morning star, son of the dawn!
You have been cast down to the earth,
you who once laid low the nations!
13 You said in your heart,
“I will ascend to the heavens;
I will raise my throne
above the stars of God;
I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly,
on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon.
14 I will ascend above the tops of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.”
At the cross God met the just demands of the law on behalf of the human race, Jesus Christ demonstrated God’s power by defeating Satan and sin.
1 Corinthians 1:18
Christ Crucified Is God’s Power and Wisdom
18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
The truth of the cross must be restored, light flowing from the cross will illuminate the whole earth with God’s glory.
John 12: 31, 32
31 Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”
At the cross Lucifer was totally defeated, judged and condemned. https://studio.youtube.com/channel/UCIHo35zNI1a7f7I0uZQpfNQ/playlists
Revelation 12: 9
9 The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray.
The great controversy met its determining conclusion at the cross, the great deceiver was fully exposed to the whole universe in his true character as a liar and a murderer.
At the cross, Satan was given full control of Christ to do with Him as he pleased. Sin is rebellion against God and His law of self-sacrificing love. If allowed to have its own way, sin would murder God in its hatred of Him.
John 15:18
The World Hates the Disciples
18 “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first
1 John 5:19
19 We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.
The wicked one hates Christ. It is not surprising that the Jews followed at Satan’s urging:
John 19:15
19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.
At the cross, Satan revealed his hatred for God in all its hideous reality, putting Jesus to public shame, inflicting excruciating suffering, and finally murder Him. Nothing else would satisfy Satan’s frenzy.
This shameful death was reserved for the worst of criminals and runaway slaves, crucifixion was an unusually painful way to die. Roman Crucifixion was a method of capital punishment in which the victim was tied or nailed to a large wooden beam and left to hang, perhaps for several days, until eventual death from exhaustion and asphyxiation.
The flogging that preceded the crucifixion caused great suffering itself- sometimes even death.
The condemned person was forced to drag his heavy cross (up to 300 pounds) on lacerated shoulders to the place of execution. There, nailed alive to the cross, the victim suffered beyond description.
It is of utmost importance that we realize the shame and suffering inflicted upon Christ did not come from God.
The cross was in God’s plan. He allowed it, in part to expose Satan’s true character. But God was not responsible for the cross. It came as a direct result of Satan’s hatred and sin (self-love).
This means that Christ endured on the cross with the sacrifice that saves us. We must never confuse what Satan did to Christ on the cross with what God did to His Son there. God and Satan were not partners at the cross.
Satan, who was solely responsible for Christ’s suffering on the cross and has deceived many Christians into believing that the suffering is the supreme sacrifice that accomplished our salvation.
NEVER! If so that would mean that Satan contributed to our salvation. Satan revealed his true nature at the cross. This demonstration before the universe brought his downfall.
As Christians we represent Christ on the earth. The “offense of the cross” that Christ endured for us must also become ours.
Galatians 5: 11
11 And I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why do I still suffer persecution? Then the offense of the cross has ceased.
As Christians we have said goodbye to our position in the world and have been crucified to the world in order to become one with Christ.
John 17:16 New King James Version (NKJV)
16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
Galatians 6:14 New King James Version (NKJV)
14 But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
This means we have become enemies of Satan and his world. Therefore, what Satan and the world did to Christ, they will do to us. This is the “offence of the cross” that all true believers must endure.
If the world does not hate us or put us to shame it is simply because the world does not see Christ in us. But let Him be revealed in our lives through the power of the gospel, and the whole world will turn against us immediately.
John 7:7
7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that its works are evil.
1 John 3:13 New International Version (NIV)
13 Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters,[a] if the world hates you.
It will put us to shame
Acts 5:41 New International Version (NIV)
41 The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name.
Persecute us unto death
John 16:33 New International Version (NIV)
33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
Romans 8:17-18 New International Version (NIV)
17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
Present Suffering and Future Glory
18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.
At the cross the world under Satan had to make a choice between Christ, in whom Pilate could find no fault, and Barabbas, the worst criminal they could find in jail. Without hesitation, the word chose Barabbas and to crucify Christ.
The world today is still under Satan, and it will make the same choice if forced to.
In heaven Satan had struggled with Christ and was defeated. At the cross they met once more in battle. Satan was confident in victory, but his apparent victory was turned into defeat from which he can never recover. Praise God for Jesus!
Let’s recap:
- The great controversy that began in heaven between Lucifer and Christ met its determining conclusion at the cross. Here the deceiver was exposed in his true character to the entire universe.
- At the cross, Satan was allowed to do with Christ as he pleased. Now, the entire universe could see what sin really is and to what lengths it will go.
- The shame and suffering inflicted on Christ at the cross did NOT come from God; it came as a direct result of Satan’s hatred and sin.
- Satan, who was solely responsible for Christ’s physical sufferings on the cross, has somehow deceived Christians into believing that this suffering is the supreme sacrifice that accomplishes our salvation. If so, then Satan has actually contributed to our salvation!
- The offense of the cross that Jesus endured will also become ours. What Satan and the world did to Christ on the cross they will attempt to do to us as well.
Parousia Second Coming of Jesus- The Cross and the Atonement
1 Corinthians 1:23-25 New International Version (NIV)
23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.
We will now look beyond the terrible physical sufferings of Christ on the cross to an even more terrible anguish He suffered there. His physical suffering played no part in our atonement. The physical pain came from Satan. The supreme sacrifice, the means by which sinners are reconciled to a holy and righteous God, came from another source.
John 1:14 New International Version (NIV)
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
At the cross of Christ, God’s glory, His self-sacrificing love, was fully displayed. Like the disciples, we must behold that glory of self-sacrificing love, if we are to grow into the fulness of His image.
Corinthians 3:18 New International Version (NIV)
18 And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
We can appreciate the significance of the cross only as we realize what sin has done to us. Sin separates us from God.
Isaiah 59:2 New International Version (NIV)
2 But your iniquities have separated
you from your God;
your sins have hidden his face from you,
so that he will not hear.
Makes us enemies with God.
Romans 5:10 New International Version (NIV)
10 For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!
Thus we need to be reconciled to God, brought into harmony, into oneness at the cross.
2 Corinthians 5:18-19 New International Version (NIV)
18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
Ephesians 2:16 New International Version (NIV)
16 and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross,by which he put to death their hostility.
How did the death of Christ reconcile us to God?
Besides being something that God hates and cannot tolerate, sin is “lawlessness”
1 John 3:4 New International Version (NIV)
4 Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness.
He has made it absolutely clear that “the wages of sin is death”
Romans 6:23 New International Version (NIV)
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in[a]Christ Jesus our Lord.
And this penalty of sin is not just death, but eternal death.
Scripture brings to view two kinds of death. There is the first death, which the Bible refers to as a “sleep”.
John 11:11-14 New International Version (NIV)
11 After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”
12 His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” 13 Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.
14 So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead,
This is the common experience of all humanity, saved and lost alike.
Then there is the second death, which is an eternal death. It is goodbye to life forever. This is the death that the lost will experience at the end of the millennium
Revelation 2:11 New International Version (NIV)
11 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who is victorious will not be hurt at all by the second death.
The first death, terrible as it appears to us, is not the wages of sin. It is only the consequence of sin. Therefore, all who die the first death will be resurrected — the saved to eternal life, and the lost to face the second death, the wages of sin.
In the second death, God, the Source of all life, abandons the unrepentant to their own choice of unbelief, leaving them without any hope whatsoever. Christ’s death on the cross was “to sin”.
This simply means that, as our substitute and representative, He experienced on the cross the “second death,” the eternal death that the Bible describes as “the wages of sin” Romans 6:23 New International Version (NIV)
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in[a]Christ Jesus our Lord.
As Hebrews 2:9 puts it, He “by the grace of God … might taste death for everyone..”
The Scripture promises that those who have accepted by faith their position in Christ, and who will be raised in the first resurrection, will escape the second death.
“Blessed and holy are those who have part in the second resurrection. The second death has no power over them…” [Revelation 20:6].
Why do these avoid the second death? It is because Christ, their Sin Bearer, has already “tasted” the second death for them Hebrews 2:9 New International Version (NIV)
9 But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
On the cross, Christ actually experienced the second death on behalf of fallen humanity. It was this that constituted the supreme sacrifice.
By deceiving the church into believing that men and women have immortal souls, Satan has enshrouded in darkness the glorious truth of what really happened on the cross. You see, if we possess an immortal soul, then death simply becomes a separation of the soul from the body. The second death — eternal death — becomes impossible, for the soul continues to live after the body dies. That is why the Christian church as a whole has focused on Christ’s physical suffering at the crucifixion as His supreme sacrifice for mankind, although, in reality, His physical suffering was no different in nature or degree than that suffered by many humans throughout history. This is the reason, too, that most Christians believe the wages of sin to be not eternal death but eternal torture in the flames of hell.
By causing the church to view the cross from the Roman perspective, Satan has obscured the real sacrifice of Christ. Only when we look at the cross from the Jewish point of view, as did the New Testament writers, can we realize its full significance. The Roman cross was doubtless the most painful and shameful instrument of execution ever devised. First invented by the Phoenicians around 600 B.C., it was adopted by the Egyptians, who passed it on to the Romans. The Romans refined the method and used it to execute runaway slaves and the worst class of criminals. But to the Jews, the cross meant something altogether different than it did to the Romans, something that gives significance to their demand that Christ be crucified.
John 19:5-7 New International Version (NIV)
5 When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!”
6 As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, “Crucify! Crucify!”
But Pilate answered, “You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him.”
7 The Jewish leaders insisted, “We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.”
the Jews insisted that Christ be crucified because “he claimed to be the Son of God” However, when we examine the penalty prescribed for blasphemy in the Old Testament, we discover that the law stipulated death by stoning, not crucifixion Leviticus 24:16 New International Version (NIV)
16 anyone who blasphemes the name of the Lord is to be put to death. The entire assembly must stone them. Whether foreigner or native-born, when they blaspheme the Name they are to be put to death.
Weren’t the Jews in Pilate’s courtyard aware of this? They certainly were. Earlier, when Christ declared, “I and the Father are one,” the Jews “picked up stones to stone him”
Leviticus 24:16 New International Version (NIV)
16 anyone who blasphemes the name of the Lord is to be put to death. The entire assembly must stone them. Whether foreigner or native-born, when they blaspheme the Name they are to be put to death.
Why, then, did they demand that Pilate crucify Him, especially when crucifixion was not practiced by the Jews?
The answer is that they had more in mind than merely putting Christ to death. The Jews equated crucifixion with hanging on a tree, which to them meant that the person so executed was under the irrevocable curse of God.
Deuteronomy 21:23 New International Version (NIV)
23 you must not leave the body hanging on the pole overnight. Be sure to bury it that same day, because anyone who is hung on a pole is under God’s curse. You must not desecrate the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.
For them, this was the same as the second death, eternal death, for remember that the Jews did not believe in the immortality of the human soul.
A good example of the Jews’ idea that hanging someone on a tree represented God’s eternal curse is found in the book of Joshua. God had told Abraham that He would give the Amorites (Canaanites) 400 years’ probation in which to accept Him. During this time, Abraham’s descendants would be slaves in Egypt.
Genesis 15:13-16 New International Version (NIV)
13 Then the Lord said to him, “Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. 14 But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. 15 You, however, will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. 16 In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.”
When Joshua was leading the Jews into Canaan at the end of this probationary period, five Canaanite kings joined forces to attack him. God gave Joshua the victory, and when the five kings were captured, Joshua killed them and had them hanged on five trees as evidence of God’s eternal curse on those who knowingly and deliberately reject Him
Joshua 10:25-27 New International Version (NIV)
25 Joshua said to them, “Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Be strong and courageous. This is what the Lord will do to all the enemies you are going to fight.” 26 Then Joshua put the kings to death and exposed their bodies on five poles, and they were left hanging on the poles until evening.
27 At sunset Joshua gave the order and they took them down from the poles and threw them into the cave where they had been hiding. At the mouth of the cave they placed large rocks, which are there to this day.
So, to the Jews, Christ being crucified meant much more than mere physical death. It meant that He was cursed by God, the equivalent of the second death.
Isaiah 53:4 New International Version (NIV)
4 Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
The curse of God did indeed rest upon Christ at the cross, but not because of blasphemy, as the Jews accused Him. Christ suffered the second death because God “did not spare his own Son, but gave him up [to the full wages of sin] for us all”
Isaiah 53:4 New International Version (NIV)
4 Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
Therefore, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree’”
Galatians 3:13 New International Version (NIV)
13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.”[a]
Let’s look again at the death of Christ on the cross, this time in the light of the truth about His dependence on His Father. We have already seen what Satan did to Christ on the cross through evil men. But besides that, and apart from it, God also did something to His beloved Son on the cross. Isaiah says that He “laid on him the iniquity of us all”
Isaiah 53:6 New International Version (NIV)
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
The wrath of God against all sin was heaped upon Christ our Sin Bearer as He hung on the cross. That is why the Bible says that God “did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all”
Romans 8:32 New International Version (NIV)
32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
The sanctuary service revealed this truth when the sacrificial lamb, representing Christ, was consumed by divine fire on the altar.
Leviticus 9:24 New International Version (NIV)
24 Fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the fat portions on the altar. And when all the people saw it, they shouted for joy and fell facedown.
The fire represented God’s wrath against sin [see Leviticus 9:24 New International Version (NIV)
24 Fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the fat portions on the altar. And when all the people saw it, they shouted for joy and fell facedown.
Hebrews 12:24 New International Version (NIV)
24 to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled bloodthat speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
Christ implied this same truth when He instituted the first communion service at the Last Supper in the upper room. He took the cup and said, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” [Matthew 26:27-28].
Later, in the Garden of Gethsemane, we hear Him pray in agony three times, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will” [Matthew 26:39].
What did Jesus mean by “this cup”? The answer is found in the Three Angels’ Message of Revelation 14.
A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: “If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on the forehead or on the hand, he, too, will drink of the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath.”
The cup is the irrevocable curse of God, the second death, eternal death.
All during His life on earth, Christ had lived by faith, depending totally upon His Father. Apart from the Father, Christ could do nothing. This was part of the price He had to pay in order to be the second Adam, the Savior of the world. But at the cross, something terrible happened to Him. The Father abandoned Him
Matthew 27:46 New International Version (NIV)
46 About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).
Christ was left alone and without hope. Without the hope of the resurrection. Without the hope of ever seeing His Father again.
The eternal life Christ possessed, and which He had placed in the Father’s charge at the incarnation, was now being taken from Him in order that God might give it to the fallen human race. In turn, the second death, which rightfully belonged to us, was now being experienced by our Lord.
Hebrews 2:9 New International Version (NIV)
9 But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
In the ultimate sense, this is what Paul meant when he said, “God made [Christ] who had no sin to be sin for us” [2 Corinthians 5:21].
This was the supreme sacrifice Christ had to make in order to save us. The Good Shepherd was laying down His life for His sheep, not for three days, but for eternity.
John 10:11, 15 New International Version (NIV)
11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep.
In this context, we can understand what Christ meant when He said, “For God so loved the world that he gave [not lent] his one and only Son” [John 3:16]. When the disciples realized this clearly, it transformed them from a group of self-centered men into truly converted followers, ready to turn the world upside down with the gospel.
Acts 17:6 King James Version (KJV)
6 And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also;
This same transformation will take place in our lives when we fully realize the meaning of the cross
2 Corinthians 5:14-15 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
14 For the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore, all have died. 15 And he died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them.
Unseen by human eyes, Satan watched the great drama play itself out at the cross. He was aware of the issues involved. And although he was responsible for putting Christ on the cross, he didn’t want to see the human race saved, nor did he want God to display His unconditional agape love. So while Christ was suffering incomprehensible mental anguish under the wrath of God, Satan came to Him once more with fierce temptations beyond anything we can understand. “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One,” Satan inspired his human agents to mock. “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself” [Luke 23:35-37].
How can we understand such superhuman temptations? From the human point of view, Christ had every reason to save Himself and let the ungrateful world be lost. But no! Christ’s love for the sinful race was greater than His love for Himself. “This is how we know what love [agape] is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us” .
1 John 3:16 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
16 We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for one another.
At the cross, Christ had to make a decision that would determine the destiny of the whole human race: Would He go against the will of His Father and exercise His own divine power to come down from the cross and save Himself? Or would He make a total, eternal sacrifice of Himself and save the world by submitting to the just wages of sin? This was the real issue facing Him. He could not save Himself and the world at the same time; it must be one or the other.
Christ chose to say goodbye to eternal life so that you and I could have it. In exchange, He accepted the second death, the just penalty for sin, which you and I deserve. Christ’s divine life didn’t end at the cross, but He laid it down for you and me in exchange for the second death that rightfully belongs to us.
He gave up His eternal life, not just for three days, but forever. This is the supreme sacrifice of the cross; this is the bitter cup Christ had to drink and that produced great drops of blood at Gethsemane as He pleaded in His humanity for the Father to release Him.
Once He made the self-sacrificing choice that as the second Adam He would accept the second death for every human being, Christ cried out, “It is finished!” [John 19:30]. Then He bowed His head and died. What was finished? The sacrifice of the atonement. The price for every sin was fully paid once and for all.
Romans 6:10 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
10 The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
While we were yet sinners and enemies of God, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son Romans 5:8 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
8 But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. Romans 5:10 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
10 For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life.
“God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ” 2 Corinthians 5:19 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.
Look and Live—Hanging upon the cross Christ was the gospel. Now we have a message, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world.” Will not our church members keep their eyes fixed on a crucified and risen Saviour, in whom their hopes of eternal life are centered? This is our message, our argument, our doctrine, our warning to the impenitent, our encouragement for the sorrowing, the hope for every believer. If we can awaken an interest in men’s minds that will cause them to fix their eyes on Christ, we may step aside, and ask them only to continue to fix their eyes upon the Lamb of God. They thus receive their lesson. Whosoever will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. He whose eyes are fixed on Jesus will leave all. He will die to selfishness. He will believe in all the Word of God, which is so gloriously and wonderfully exalted in Christ. 6BC 1113.1
As the sinner sees Jesus as He is, an all compassionate Saviour, hope and assurance take possession of his soul. The helpless soul is cast without any reservation upon Jesus. None can bear away from the vision of Christ Jesus crucified a lingering doubt. Unbelief is gone . 6BC 1113.2
The Cross of Christ Moves the World—The cross of Calvary challenges, and will finally vanquish every earthly and hellish power. In the cross all influence centers, and from it all influence goes forth. It is the great center of attraction; for on it Christ gave up His life for the human race. This sacrifice was offered for the purpose of restoring man to his original perfection. Yea, more, it was offered to give him an entire transformation of character, making him more than a conqueror. 6BC 1113.3
Those who in the strength of Christ overcome the great enemy of God and man, will occupy a position in the heavenly courts above angels who have never fallen. 6BC 1113.4
Christ declares, “I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” If the cross does not find an influence in its favor, it creates an influence. Through generation succeeding generation, the truth for this time is revealed as present truth. Christ on the cross was the medium whereby mercy and truth met together, and righteousness and peace kissed each other. This is the means that is to move the world (Manuscript 56, 1899).
