Kept By The Cross

     The Cross of Christ is the “power of God unto salvation”. (Romans 1:16) Everything we need to know about God, or indeed can know about Him, is revealed in the Cross. For all eternity we will find in this Cross our science and our song. The Cross is also what will keep all of God's created beings, including us, from ever sinning again.

      In speaking about the Cross of Jesus, I am not referring to just the two pieces of wood on which our Lord was crucified. Rather it refers to the process by which God has revealed His character of self-sacrificing love, which led to the plan for our salvation.

      The power of God as revealed in the Cross involves different aspects of God's plan for our salvation. It involves forgiveness of our sins, and how wonderful that is!  But the sad thing is that the large majority of Christians today stop right there. They seem to think that forgiveness is all that is needed. In fact it has been stated that even the angels will find the forgiving power of the cross to be what keeps them from falling. Unfortunately, this reveals a very shallow understanding of the gospel.

      Before the creation of our earth Lucifer, in heaven, rebelled against God and led a third of the angelic host to follow him in his rebellion. As the angels who did not rebel have watched the continued working out of Lucifer's (now Satan's) principles as well as God's principles, they are able to understand and rejoice in God's plan of government. But what will keep them from repeating Satan's fall in some far distant future? Is it the “forgiving power of the cross”? They haven't sinned, and need no forgiveness. The forgiveness that means so much to us means nothing to them personally.

      Even for us, the infinite value of God's forgiveness is not enough. While we are thankful for the forgiveness that comes to us as a result of Jesus' death in our behalf, we need more than forgiveness. “If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” (1John 2:1) What happens when Jesus ends His work as our Advocate? In the far distant future when we are livng the life of the saved, will it be the memory of an event far in the past that keeps us from falling again? Will we obey God because we don't want to have to be forgiven again? Is the fact that we have been forgiven enough to keep us from falling again now?

What we will rely on in the future, and what we need to experience now, is the Keeping Power of the Cross. What all of the intellegent creation of God will have is that power of the Cross that keeps us from falling. The apostle Peter, talking to the “elect”, says they are those: “Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation”. (1 Peter 1:5)

“Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling...” (Jude 1:24) Being perfect is no guarantee that you won't sin. Sin originated in the heart of one who was in the very presence of God. Adam and Eve were perfect, without any tendency toward rebellion against God, yet they fell. So what will keep us in the future? It is only the power of God as revealed in the Cross of Christ. The more we study the Cross, the more humble, submissive, and obedient we will become. The view of what God was willing to do for our salvation leads to a love that will not fail. “We love Him because He first loved us”. (1 John 4:19) 

      It is this love from God that grows in us and keeps us from sinning against Him. We can have that power of love now working in us to keep us from falling. As this love grows we become ever more secure against the evil of transgressing God's law. And it all begins by “looking at Him Whom we have pierced”. (Zechariah 12:10) The more we look, the more love grows, and the more God's power grows in us; until His power completely controls us and we are fully secure in Him.