“Know Yourself Through the Cross”  

Pastor David Moore  

Old Testament reading: Psalm 70 

Hasten, O God, to save me; come quickly, Lord, to help me.  

May those who want to take my life be put to shame and confusion; may all who desire my ruin be turned back in disgrace. May those who say to me, “Aha! Aha!” turn back because of their shame. But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who long for your saving help always say,  “The Lord is great!”  

But as for me, I am poor and needy; come quickly to me, O God. You are my help and my deliverer; Lord, do not delay.  

Theme: how the Cross reshapes our self-image, our self-understanding, and our self-appreciation which changes and shapes us emotionally.  

New Testament reading: Romans 8:1-17 

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so He condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.  

Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled but the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.  

You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in  you.  And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you.  

Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it.  For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons and daughters of God.  For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption as sons and daughters.  And by Him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 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.  

Two ways to understand the cross:  

1. We are far more broken and sinful than we imagine.  

2. We are far more loved than we can imagine. 

“I don’t know. All I know is when we call it just wrongdoing, when we call it maladaptation, when we just call it hostility, when we just call it self-esteem, you’re not really able to account for how sin indelibly and deeply affects us.” Hobart Mowrer  

When we lose moral truths, we lose our purpose, and when we lose our purpose, we lose our identity and then we are worse off than when we started. And I’ll add,  a few years later he (Hobart Mowrer) killed himself.  So sociologically and psychologically, denying the existence of sin does not work. It leads to chaos. ~D. Moore  

Romans 8:2-3: “For through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit (power or force) has set me free from the law of sin and death, for what the law (code of conduct) was powerless to do because of the sinful nature, God did when He sent His Son to be a sin offering for us.”  

There is hope. The hope is that because there is sin, it supplies the possibility for the obligation for an intervention. ~D. Moore  

Joshua 24:15: If serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve… As for me and my household we will serve the Lord.  

Jesus on the Cross is about God giving us a new heart to fix our human brokenness. We are adopted into a new family and the Spirit of God grows into our lives and begins to reshape us, freeing us from  the law of sin and death. Continue to allow God to shape and change you. ~D. Moore  

Have a blessed week!