Victory in the Cross

Hi, guys!

Today's post is a different one than my usual outfit posts, if Christianity is no interest of you, then feel free to move on :) But if you're a Christian or even a Catholic, then please do read along.

Good Friday and Passover always make me feel reflective and definitely feeling grateful for His death on the cross to ensure salvation for all human kind. But what comes in your mind when you think of the cross?

Before I was a newborn Christian, my thoughts would immediately go to sin, and Jesus' sufferings to atone for our sins. And obviously those are not bad thoughts, in fact those are correct; it is certainly the truth that Jesus died so we all can spend eternity with Him in heaven. But there is another purpose to the cross than just paying for our sin. 

Jesus' death on the cross; it also ensures victorious life for us.

Me, being a fragile human being, have felt defeated, beat up, broken down, overcome with pain and grief. I never really share those feelings online but all of those comes in with the territory of being human. And I'm sure all of you have felt that way too; feeling lost. But feeling defeated is not the same as being defeated. Looking back at my own life, sometimes our feelings were so overwhelming that it clouded our judgment. Most of the time, those feelings were not an accurate description of my situation. 

It might look like Jesus was defeated when He died on the cross. It might seem that evil won over goodness on the cross, but it was not the accurate description of the situation. His death was actually the place where goodness conquered evil. 

In Colossians 2 : 13 - 15 - When you are dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins. Having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; He has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

In above passage, Paul stated that there are two aspects of salvation.

First, he said that God's act of forgiveness on the cross is just like when our debts were cancelled. Jesus death released us from moral and spiritual bankruptcy by paying our debt on the cross, it's said the He nailed it all on the cross. 

Second, Paul said that Jesus had striped his opponent of their weapons and made a public spectacle of them. In ancient military, the act of publicly stripping weapons of their opponents is to demonstrate total victory and unconditional surrender of the enemy. 

So despite the resurrection of Jesus is the most celebrated of all, it is merely a proof of our salvation. Our salvation; our victory, happens when Jesus died on the cross and defeated evil. 

Jesus secured our victory; but are we walking in the victory Jesus gained for us on the cross?

Personally, I want to say yes. I wish I could say yes. But the truth is, I often find myself living in a defeated state. I know that in God I have victory over sin, but I still struggle with it on a daily basis. I know Jesus defeated the enemy, but I sometimes act in a way that would suggest that the evil still has authority and power in my life.  This is not okay! And we need to keep reminding ourselves to start walking in the victory of the cross.

Remember, every day and in every circumstance, we have victory in Jesus' name.

And that is all about today' post. I hope you and your family will have a victorious peaceful long weekend.