Episode 36 - Benefits of the Cross - Pt3

Speaker 1 00:00:07 Hello, and welcome to the unveiling with your hosts. IJ, mark, and Tim three guys discussing the one true gospel. We hope you enjoy today's discussion. Let's dive right in. Hello and welcome to the unveiling podcast with your host. Yeah, we're all here today. AJ mark and Tim guys. I know it's an audio podcast, but we can see each other as recording. Good to see you. Welcome back, mark. We missed you. Speaker 2 00:00:37 Well, it's great to be back, Tim and I, I gotta tell you, man, I've got a little bit of a bone to pick with you though, because when I was gone, you told people I was dealing with personal issues or something to that effect. Speaker 1 00:00:50 <laugh> I meant to say that you were dealing with personal issues. I mean, <laugh> Speaker 2 00:00:54 Not personal. I wasn't in rehab or, you know, in personal Speaker 1 00:01:00 Business Speaker 2 00:01:01 I was out of town on business. Okay. So it wasn't first. Speaker 1 00:01:05 Well, AJ, it's good to see him and it's good to have you back and all of us together today. How are you doing AJ? Speaker 3 00:01:11 Pretty good, Tim. Pretty good. I saw this as always. Good to see you guys and looking forward to, to our podcast today. Speaker 1 00:01:18 Excellent. Well with you having said that it must be time to introduce this episode. This is episode 36 benefits of the cross part three. You may be remembering that. Uh, gosh, it seems like so long ago we started, uh, benefits of the cross and we got interrupted and now we're back on track. So, uh, we've talked about a couple of the benefits already as we got a couple more. We want to go through today. I believe the first one on my list is that Jesus nailed the law to the cross. Well, that sounds like, uh, benefit of the cross. And AJ, I'm gonna let you, I'm gonna hold off and letting mark talk right away to, just to make everybody wait and make the anticipation bigger. <laugh> so why don't you go ahead and start us off today. Speaker 3 00:02:04 Awesome. Awesome, Tim. Yeah. So one of, uh, my favorite, uh, pastors and preachers, I used to go to church in Dallas. He said, unless, you know, the finality of the cross, you cannot experience the reality of the resurrection. So as Christians, you know, growing up in a Christian family, we have known about the cross, right? The first thing we knew is cross, you know, Jesus died for our since and heroes again, and he died on the cross. But you know, at that time it is just like an event and, you know, but we simply believe in that fact, even as children growing up in Christian family, but for many, many years, right when I was a child, when I came to know or at least heard about the cross. And then when I actually understood the grace of God in, uh, I think almost, uh, in 2008, I dunno, almost 15 years back, you know, the cross keeps on growing on us, right? Speaker 3 00:03:03 You know, the more we look at the cross, the more we find out about the cross and cross has made an eternal difference to all humanity. That's where everything we need is accomplished. Everything we need is accomplished. And we have been looking into some of the benefits of the cross and, uh, today, uh, one of the benefits, you know, we want to look at is that the law was nailed to the cross. You know, most of us, even though we are saved most of us, we, even though we came to know the law, Jesus Christ, we still hang onto the law. We still try to, uh, go back and keep the lies, Christians that is because we really do not understand what has happened on the law, on the cross to the law. So I quickly want to read one portion from the scriptures. Uh, and then, you know, we can take it from there, uh, in collusions chapter two from verse 13. Speaker 3 00:03:53 And when you were dead in your wrongdoings, in the circumcision of your flesh, he made you alive together with him having forgiven all your wrongdoings, having canceled the certificate of debt, consisting of decrease against us, which was hostile to us. He has taken it out of the way. Having nailed it to the cross. When he had disowned the rulers and authorities, he made a public display of them having TriMed over them, through him. See here, you know, we see actually three things here. I'm going to quickly mention that and toss it over to you guys. Um, but you know, one thing to notice is, you know, we were dead in our wrong to sins and trespasses. When we were dead, he made us alive together with him having forgiven all your sin. So what he's saying is having forgiven this has to happen before he could raise us again from the dead. Speaker 3 00:04:51 And he says, you know, before he made us alive together with Christ, he did these three things. Foste is he has forgiven all our wrongdoings. And then he says, you know, he has canceled the certificate of debt. This is actually referring to the law consisting of decrease against us, which was hostile to us. And then he has taken it out of the way and nailed it to the cross. And the third thing is mentioned here is by doing so he disowned the rulers and authorities, basically one of the awesome things here is, you know, first is, you know, he has taken us out from under the law and he has also disarm the enemy. What it means is the main weapon of the enemy is the law. You know, the devil is called accuser of the brethren. And what is he accusing people with? He's accusing us with the law when we are no longer under the law, then he has no weapon. Yeah. So I think here, one thing to realize is enemy has no weapon. And we as believers do not understand that the enemy has no weapon because we do not realize that the NA lavas nailed to the cross and it was taken out of the way. Speaker 2 00:06:01 Well, that's awesome. I mean, you know, we've talked many times on the unveiling and if there's one thing the unveiling has been about is about the, is about the fact that Christ has crucified the law. It's been nailed to the cross. And because of that, we are no longer under the law. And that's, that's why we named this, the unveiling it's about tearing back the law, which is a veil between God and us to reveal the perfect pure gospel of the Lord, Jesus Christ. So that's such a great point, uh, Jay and what a, a great picture that is the law being nailed to the cross. So such a visual, just to, just to think on that. And, and, uh, the fact that the devil has been disarmed is just, there are just so many benefits to the cross. I think we can just from now on the rest of our lives, that's all we're gonna talk about. Speaker 1 00:07:00 I know we said this earlier in the series, but maybe this is a good place to bring it up again. This particular discussion about the benefits of the cross applies to believers. We hope that it's attractive to unbelievers who want to know more and wanna receive these gifts. But all that we're talking about right now is the law is crucified for believers. The law is still in, in effect for unbelievers. And, you know, I just wanted to make sure that that was clarified. Speaker 3 00:07:30 Yeah, that's an awesome point, Tim, because you know, most of the time we mix believers and unbelievers the state before salvation and after salvation and that confuses things a lot. And that's where, like we said, you know, it also leads to this, uh, universalism kind of theology, you know, some extreme grace people, you know, are almost, you know, inching into universalism. But I think when we understand that, you know, what applies to believers and what applies to non-believers, you know, uh, things get clear. Well, you know, one thing I wanted to kind of, you know, mention in this is, you know, one is a law is, um, crucified, right? It was nailed to the cross. And the effect of that, we just saw that, you know, the enemy is disarmed. You know, when we talk to any average Christian, right. What we see, you know, they always bring up devil, you know, devil is doing this. Speaker 3 00:08:19 Devil is doing that, you know, oh my God. You know, if I do, it's almost like, you know, we are more scared of devil than the confidence we have in our Lord. Jesus, Jesus Christ. So I think it's very important to realize that we, as Christians devil has no weapon devil can take people for a ride. Only those who are under condemnation. You know, those who are building themselves up, those who are trying to keep the law and then trying to win the favor of God, devil takes them for a right. But for, for a Christian who really truly understands and believes and accepts the fact that we are no longer under the law devil is no weapon. So I think the practical way of not giving devil any room in our life is not to receive condemnation. You know, we all, as Christians, we sin, we make mistakes and we do things, you know, that we are not supposed to do as believers. Speaker 3 00:09:16 In fact, every day, there are so many things we do, right? We get impatient. And, uh, even, you know, if you don't do those big, big things, we get impatient and we get angry and we get frustrated and not, we don't believe and rested in God all the time. Anything not of faith is sin. That's what the Bible says. So in that, uh, regard, you know, we sin almost every day, but you know, when we sin our responses, you know, when we go into condemnation and guilt, then we give a room to devil and then he can wield his weapon on us. But when we realize that, you know, even when I sin, I am the righteousness of God in Christ and there's no condemnation for me. The sooner we get to that state, then the devil has no weapon against us. So that is a practical application of not, uh, having devil power in our life is not to take condemnation. Speaker 2 00:10:03 That's an awesome point. AJ, I wanna also bounce on something. You said, Tim, you used the word attractive. And I'm speaking right now to believe is that our listening to this podcast and that is that the cross is meant to be, it, it should be attractive to unbelievers. It should be beautiful to them because it is the ultimate display of God's grace and his love for humanity. And yet how many people that have not believed yet in Christ, don't see the cross that way as something beautiful or attractive, it offends them. It's, it's a negative, bad thing. They feel condemned well that's because of the way believers have shared it. And you know, we've talked about, uh, the misuse of the S scripture, uh, where they say the cross is meant to be an offense. Yes, the cross is an offense, but not to unbelievers because it is the ultimate symbol of grace. Speaker 2 00:11:06 It offends those who are trying to earn their own righteousness, but to unbelievers, the cross should be beautiful and attractive because it's, God's love. And grace now what's the law that is meant to offend them. So I'm not telling Christians out there don't ever to bring up, don't ever bring up the law when you're sharing the gospel, because that's the context that makes the gospel so beautiful that we are all condemned under the law, but that's not the gospel. That's just the hard truth of all people without Christ. The gospel is beautiful. There is nothing more beautiful and attractive. And I feel like the church needs to finally start preaching that gospel, cuz that's not the gospel that has been preached throughout the ages. Speaker 1 00:11:55 Yeah. And the reason I use that word anymore is because so many nonbelievers like to use the excuse of, you know, the church is just dos and don'ts and all the don'ts or all the things I kind of wanna do. And it's all about performance and it doesn't sound attractive if you're just, you know, beating yourself up and working yourself tirelessly, there, there is no attraction to that, but this is life changing, freeing. And this is what should be ultimately attractive to anyone is I am free of the law. Yeah. Speaker 2 00:12:29 That's the ultimate perversion. According to Paul it's when people are preaching the law as the gospel, this is Christianity. And unfortunately in my experience, which is quite a lot of it being in ministry my whole life, as well as going to church. And I know from talking to you two guys, the same experience that the majority of churches are doing, just that they're preaching the law as though it were the gospel. This is it. And I've been in so many churches that I've even ministered in as a worship leader where people in the congregation thought that that flavor of Christianity, which is a perversion of the law and grace mixed together, they don't know there's anything more. They think that's it. That's Christianity I've yes. God loves me. Jesus loves me. He died for me, but now I better do a, B, C, and D. I better give my 10% and I better do it cheerfully <laugh> I better serve. I better read so much scripture. You can fill in the blank. It's just a durable wheel as we've called it. That gets you nowhere, but that's not the cross. That's not the gospel. And if one thing ever comes out of this podcast, that understanding, I just pray would just flow out to all those that listen to this. Speaker 3 00:13:48 Yeah. Mark, I think, uh, like you said, preaching laws, gospel, you know, it's not only inaccurate. Uh, but I think it's also cruel, right? You know, the very reason people run to law, Jesus Christ is, you know, they have been dealt by the law either directly, somebody telling them do this, don't do this. Or either the law of their return in our hearts and Bible says Romans to, you know, like our conscience bearing witness. So even unbelievers have a sense of right and wrong. And the conscience tells them what is right? What is wrong? So the reason they run to Christ is they simply could not do it. I cannot keep the law. And I understand, you know, I am a sinner and I need help. And then they go to the gospel and the gospel they hear is here. You are to keep this law. You are to keep these rules to be saved. You know, the very reason that guy ran away are at least coming to the gospel is to, because he could not keep the law to begin with. And then they turn around and give the law to him. It's like telling a paralytic, you know, know, Hey, you need to get up and walk. Then you will walk. You know, it makes no sense. <laugh> so that's how we preach the gospel. You know, like you said, you know, preaching law as a gospel is a cruel thing. Speaker 1 00:15:03 So the law was nailed to the cross, basically crucified. But I think another thing that was crucified, Jesus has been crucified. The law has been crucified and the Bible also tells us that we have been crucified with Christ. Now it doesn't sound real, pretty AJ. So what does that really mean? Speaker 3 00:15:22 Yeah. So, uh, we see that in, uh, clearly Roman chapter six, um, you know, many of us are, um, uh, aware of the fact that, you know, Christ died for us. Uh, and you know, he brought our sin, he brought our sicknesses and it's an awesome thing, right? But the Bible also says, and many few of us are aware is that when Christ was crucified, we were crucified with him. What happened in the cross is, you know, as you know, we all know, and we talked about it, uh, uh, several times that Adam, when Adamson, right, the whole humanity fell and the whole humanity became corrupt and the Bible also refers to it as a flesh. The flesh is the natural man. The fallen man Bible refers to us as a flesh. And because we are fallen, there is nothing good in us. There's anything we do is not good. Speaker 3 00:16:15 According to, you know, uh, God's according to God's nature and character and his standards, whatever we do is not good. You know, we might be doing some things outwardly, but still, you know, it's not, uh, good enough Bible says in olive and, and fallen shot of the glory of God. And what Bible says is, you know, when Christ died, it's not just that he died for us and that's it. And you know, we just receive the forgiveness of sin and our essential nature and our essential being remains the same. That's not the case. If you look at Romans chapter six says, and in fact, you know, that is, uh, a misunderstanding that, uh, Paul is trying to clarify, you know, if nothing happened to us, all Jesus did was die on the cross outside of us. Right. And we had nothing to do and we legally just receive forgiveness of sins. Speaker 3 00:17:11 The implication of it is okay, whatever. Now our flesh, our national man cannot really do any good. So the implication is, okay, you go out and just keep on sinning and you'll keep on getting forgiveness. That's the implication. If we don't understand our co crucifixion with Christ, but Paul says that right to Paul clarifies that enrollment chapter six, what shall we say then are we to continue and sin that Grace May increase far from it? How shall we, who died to sin shall limit it? Or do you not know that all who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death. Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death. So that Christ as just as Christ was risen from the dead, through the glory of the father. So we too may walk in the newness of life. And it goes on to say that, you know, verse, uh, chapter six and verse six, knowing that our old man was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be done away with so that we should no longer be the slaves of sin for the one who has died is freed from sin. Speaker 3 00:18:22 So here, what we see is that what largest guys did on the crosses, he took all of humanity, the old man or the Adam, he took along with him to the cross and Adam died. And when Lord Jesus Christed rose from the dead, right in new creation in new humanity came into existence. So on the cross, right? I think sometimes we, uh, if we don't understand co crucifixion, we also kind of try to explain the cross, but it's not complete. You know, we say that, okay, God is loving, but God is judged. And therefore, instead of punishing us, he punish Jesus. But you know, the problem with that logic is if God is judged, why is he punishing an innocent man? Jesus is perfectly innocent. So it doesn't make sense. So what Jesus did in essence is when he went to the cross, he took our old creation. Speaker 3 00:19:18 You, he took me, he took everybody to the cross and in him, he brought our pain. But at the same time in him, we also died. In other words, he provided a death on the cross. Not only he died, he provided death to us. That's so, you know, we died to the law because we died with Christ. We also died to the law. You know, that is a beautiful thing about the cross. And if we understand that, right, you know, a lot of things make sense about the cross and, uh, some of the complicated or, uh, uh, complex scriptures, you know, we try to explain way, you know, they make more sense when we understand that not only Christ died for us, we also died with him. And even in Galatians, it says, right, you know, in Galatians chapter five. And, um, I think it says in, uh, uh, yeah, in verse 24, now those who belong to Christ Jesus crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Speaker 3 00:20:21 So, so that's what happened. Right. You know, I think, uh, we can talk about it more in some other, uh, podcast, but I think one thing I want to quickly address is, uh, okay, the old man died. You know, why are we still singing? Right. You know, we can talk about that. But the thing is, you know, we still have the old bodies, you know, when we were born again, what happened was, you know, we were born again on the inside. We receive new spirits, but our bodies are still the same. You know, we, we have the old memories, old habits, old tendencies. So we have the ability to act as though we are not born again. But that doesn't mean, you know, we are not a new creation. We can probably talk about it more. But I think, uh, the main truth that I wanted to, uh, bring out is that we died with the largest crushed on the cross. Speaker 1 00:21:08 Is it fair to say that it, it was our spirit man, more I'm using quote, air quotes. You can't see that, but it, our spirit man is what died on the cross to be replaced with the holy spirit, cuz our mind our will, our intellect, that all remains the same. So, but something has changed. That must be our spirit man, so to speak. Or am I misstating that? Well, Speaker 3 00:21:31 I think, uh, not only spirit man, but all our being like, uh, um, he is crucified, you know, we have a spirit, soul and body. So definitely the body was crucified, right? The punishment was actually was in the body. So some of the things we can never explain, I think we have to accept by faith. The Bible says the old man, the natural man was crucified. So we did not go to the cross, but Jesus provided the body in Hebrews. It says, thou, have you have prepared a body for me? Right. So that body that, uh, God prepared for us is actually, you know, in him, you know, we are also crucified with him. I do not fully understand because the Bible says, you know, we were dead in our, uh, sin and trespass, so our spirits were already dead. So what was crucified is all of our, whatever we used to be, an Adam was crucified. And I do not fully understand that, but I take it by faith. But I do not know if he can just say this, the spirit was crucified because the spirit was already dead. So it should be more than our spirits. Speaker 2 00:22:41 That that's a good point, AJ, because, you know, we spend a lot of time in scripture and praying and contemplating, but scripture over and over again says that the gospel is a mystery. Yeah. And you know, our desires for the spirit of wisdom and revelation to reveal those mysteries. But obviously there are some things that, uh, we're never gonna understand completely until we're face to face with the Lord or maybe it'll be five or 10 years. You might have the answer by then object. Yeah. So everybody makes sure you stay tuned. <laugh> Speaker 3 00:23:18 <laugh> well, yeah, I think, uh, when I was, um, I think one of the preachers, you know, in a church, he said, you know, we will never understand what happened on the cross. We know the effects of it and we, some of it we take by faith, but I do not believe, you know, in our human, uh, frame of reference, we cannot fully explain, explain, you know, the divine act of the cross. So some of it, we simply take by faith. It says everything that I used to be was crucified. And we believe that by faith. And in fact it also includes our body, but in stuff our body, Jesus Christ provided his body. So that's why, you know, the Bible says, even our bodies are sanctified by the gospel. Speaker 2 00:24:00 Here's here's like another great scripture that I think goes along really well with what you were just talking about. Uh, Jay, this is Hebrews two nine. It says, but we do see Jesus who is 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. Yeah. So because of God's unmarried unearned, undeserved favor and love Christ tasted death for us. Yeah. That's just another way of saying we were crucified with him. He tasted it for us. Yeah. And that kind of brings us into our last point here, uh, for today. And that is that so far, we've talked about things being crucified on the cross. We've talked about Christ being crucified, the law being crucified. And, um, the weapons of the devil were really crucified along with that. Speaker 2 00:25:05 Talked about us being crucified. All those things died at the cross, but death also died at the cross. I kind of like to call it, it was the death of death. Awesome. Now we all know that, Hey, we're still gonna die on this world. Right. But for the believer, it has taken death is now something completely different than it was before that cross so much so that it led the apostle Paul to be able to say that to live was lost and to die is gain. That's something that's beyond. That's one of those other mystery kind of things. And I just pray that in this life I will reach the maturity and faith that the apostle Paul had to where I actually see death as gain, you know, the ultimate gain. Um, so the death of death and, and what did Jesus say about himself? Speaker 2 00:26:00 He said that he is the way the truth and the life, even though he died on the cross, it was the ultimate act that opened up life. Just an explosion of life. I wanna read, uh, first Corinthians, 1553, Paul tells us, he says that for the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true. Death has been swallowed up in victory where O death is your victory, where O death is your sting. The sting of death is sin. And the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God. He gives us the victory through our Lord. Jesus Christ. How awesome is of a scripture is that, and it really touches on pretty much everything we've already talked about, uh, that the law was the power of sin. Speaker 2 00:27:06 So when that law was crucified and nailed to the cross, sin lost its power. When sin lost its power, death lost its sting. It's no longer something that, that is a loss. That is a sting, cuz he he's asking rhetorically and a little bit trash talking death, Hey, where's your victory? Where's your sting? You know, I'm reminded, we watched the NBA. A lot of guys get in each other's faces, taunting each other. It's like the apostle Pauls taunting death and saying, Hey, you don't scare me anymore. Speaking of scare anymore. Here's here's another great one that I wanna read you. Uh, this is Hebrews two 14 says since the children have flesh and blood, that's referring to us. He too shared in their humanity. So that by his death, he might break the power of him who holds the power of death. That is the devil and free. Those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. That's another scripture just brings that all together. Speaker 1 00:28:12 We've talked about the, that we no longer fear death because of our being saved our salvation. And now it's, I think this clarifies a little bit why, and it's, it's all about the, like Paul said, like you just reiterated mark that it's uh, death is a victory now. It's not, it's not an unknown. It's not a favorable thing. It's it's not oblivion. Speaker 2 00:28:35 Yeah. The cross it's the most effectual thing. I think that substance of anything that's ever been on this planet, the power it makes splitting the atom look like a firecracker. Speaker 3 00:28:50 Yeah. Like mark, you said, like you said an awesome thing. You know, the death itself died on the cross, you know, just, uh, think about it. How amazing that is because death died and it has no power over us. Jesus was raised from the dead because the work was finished and righteousness was accomplished. Bible says, you know, he, he knew no sin became sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. And where did Jesus become sin? He did not become sin while he was walking on this earth. And he did not become sin after he rose from the dead. He became sin for us on the cross. When he became sin for us on the cross, we became the righteousness of God in him on the cross. And because we became righteousness, God was able to raise us from the dead because the wages of sin is death, right? Speaker 3 00:29:46 So if we were still sinners, God could not raise us. But at the cross, God consumed our sin, our Lord, Jesus Christ. And then he finished sin and he took the wages of sin, which is death. And they finished death and he put an to death and they put an end to sin. And now because of that, God raised Jesus from the death. And his resurrection is how our resurrection, because he took our death upon himself. And therefore, you know, his resurrection becomes our resurrection to begin with. He did not go to cross for himself. He went for us and he died. He finished death. He finished sin on the cross and we were made righteousness of God at the cross. And now God is able to raise us and into this awesome eternal life. And now whoever believes, right, the only thing we have is a resurrection life. Speaker 3 00:30:42 And uh, our part is to understand the power of resurrection. Paul prays about it in efficient chapter one, right? Yep. That I will know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering. So when we talk about fellowship of his sufferings, you know, we are not necessarily talking about okay, suffering as a Christian, but also taking part in the suffering. He suffered for us. When we understand, you know, we suffered and died with him, we are able to, you know, take part in the resurrection life and live by the power of his resurrection. And of course, you know, we have some persecution and all the things in this earth we go on, but we are able to overcome by the power of resurrection that lives in us. Speaker 2 00:31:24 You know, AJ, I had that exact same scripture, Ephesians one loaded up in my brain when you just <laugh> brought it. And I wanna, I would like to, uh, share it as well in the NIV translation. It's just an awesome Paul, a prayer that Paul praises that God would give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation. And one of the things he asked for us to have that is so that we understand the incomparable power for us who believe, which is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead. Bam is all I can say to that. You feel sometimes when scripture's that powerful, it's gotta be the feeling of like Michael Jordan going up and just slamming the ball down on the rim. It's like an ultimate slam dunk, you know? <laugh> yeah. It's just so good. Thank you. Thank you, Lord. Resurrection power is ours. Speaker 3 00:32:22 And just wanted to point out, you know, when you read that scripture, the operative word there for us is those who believe that's it. Yeah. We have access to this power of resurrection simply by believing again, you know, people try to introduce a law, Hey, in order to get access to this power, you need to do this, this, this, and this, you know, put some 10 conditions. Speaker 2 00:32:44 So you're saying that I don't need to stop dancing or playing cards or, um, if I don't give a certain percentage, is that what you're trying to say here? Speaker 3 00:32:56 <laugh> well, yeah, all that is there, but I think there are no conditions here. And of course, you know, when we have the power of resurrection, we really don't need to do all those things. But the thing is, you know, simply by believing we have access to this power. Speaker 2 00:33:11 So I'd like, I would like to finish, uh, up with second Corinthians chapter five, uh, which is one of my favorite, uh, scriptures here. Uh, it says for, we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, obviously referring to our bodies. We have a building from God and eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile, we groan longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling for while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened because we do not wish to be UN unclothed, but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling. So that what is mortal may swallowed up by life. Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God who has given us the spirit as a deposit guaranteeing what is to come a couple things really jump out at me. I just love that saying describing death, this new definition of death that the cross has brought us is it's, it's more like life than it is death. Speaker 2 00:34:22 It's like being swallowed up by life. And I don't know if I've shared this before. Whenever I hear that swallowed up by life. It reminds me of those old ice tea commercials, where the guys standing next to a pool and it's gotta be a hundred degrees out with the sun baking on. 'em just sweating and miserable. And he takes that drink of the ice tea and just falls back into the cool waters swallowed up to me. That's like, that's, what's waiting for us all. When we take our last breath where cuz this world let's face it. It's got its hard things and difficulties and suffering. But the difference from where we are now to where we're going, this is gonna seem more like death. And that's gonna be more like life. Even though now we consider this to be life and that to be death. And then when I really love what the apostle Paul says here is now the one who is fashioned us for this very purpose is God. The whole reason God created us wasn't to die. It was for life and, and in Christ brought us that life. And then it says, he's given us his spirit as a deposit, Gar it's guaranteed that life, the death of death and that explosion of life being swallowed up by life. That's a guarantee you could take that to the bank as they say. Speaker 3 00:35:48 Yep. Speaker 1 00:35:49 Amen. Amen. Well guys, we are running down a little bit here. So as is our usual, I want to give you each chance to do your own summary in your own way. So AJ, why don't you kick that off tonight? Speaker 3 00:36:01 Yeah. Well Tim, so I today, I don't know if I have, uh, a summary, but uh, all I want to say is, you know how we thank the Lord for the cross? Uh, one thing I would say is when lodge said, you know, it is finished, everything is finished at the cross. You know, that's how we call it as a finished work of Lord Jesus Christ. But most of us, you know, try to add to the finish work. You can never complete a work that is finished. So I would say, you know, we including us, instead of trying to add more to the cross, simply understand what was accomplished at the cross and start resting in the finish work of the Lord and receiving, you know, we talked about the benefits of the cross, but by simply believing we can walk in all these benefits and live the abundant life that our Lord is Christ tied to give us. Speaker 2 00:36:57 Yeah, that's awesome. I'll just finish Tim by just quoting Paul. After he got in death's face and taunted him and trash talked him and said, Hey death, where's your victory. Where's your sting after contemplating the cross. Uh, Paul said, but thanks be to God. He gives us the victory through our Lord. Jesus Christ. Speaker 3 00:37:20 Amen. Speaker 1 00:37:21 Amen. You know what I'll say? This three things had to die. Jesus had to die to become sin for us so that we could be forgiven for everything that we had done. The law had to die because then we could no longer be held accountable to a law that didn't exist. And then of course death had to die so that we could have eternal life. Those th those three things as a minimum, had to die at the cross for us to walk in the newness of life and in the, in the newness of our relationship with Jesus Christ. Well, we'd like to thank you everybody for listening again today. We hope you've enjoyed today's episode and we look forward to talking to you again. The next time we would like to thank you for listening to the unveiling. We hope you have enjoyed it enough to consider subscribing and sharing with others. We welcome your questions, comments, and feedback. You can reach us via email at the unveiled gospel, yahoo.com or find our Facebook page at the unveiling podcast for AJ, mark and myself. God bless. And we will talk with you next time.