From the Cross to Pentecost

From The Cross To The Pentecost



Chapter 1

ACCESS DENIED

I hear people ask the question over and over today: “What is the relevancy of the Cross of Jesus Christ? What does it matter to me that Christ died on a Cross over two thousand years ago? How does His Cross add any value to my life and to who I am and to who I want to be? What difference does it make whether Jesus rose from the dead? Even if He did, I’m going to go to work tomorrow just as I always have. It’s not going to make any difference to me or to my family, or to my attitudes or my daily life. So why should I care about the so-called Good News ”

Perhaps it’s a question you’ve asked yourself or someone else and never received an answer to that you considered to be satisfactory. If that’s the case, I want to answer your question once and for all, but not in the way you might be expecting. I could tell you that the Cross of Christ is the hinge of all the world’s history, and that it is without a shadow of a doubt the most crucial historical event that is the foundation for your relationship with God. We’ve created a holiday to acknowledge and celebrate the resurrection of Jesus and I believe the foundation for this holiday to be true. But to start there is to try to present the solution before you understand the problem. If all you’ve heard is a list of what someone thought were solutions, it is very anticlimactic for me or anyone else to point first to the power of the Cross and the resurrection of Jesus until you are aware of the universal human dilemma - the degradation and the depravity of the human soul, which includes mine and yours and everyone else’s - the answer is irrelevant.

Nobody searches for an answer if they don’t have a question. No one seeks a solution if they’re not convinced they have a problem. I know that was true in my life. Until I came to see what the true nature of my heart was like, the Cross just didn’t make a lot of sense. But in the process of discovering who I really was, of seeing the real me, I found my soul crying out for answers.

So before I focus on the consequences of the Cross, I will shine a light on the dilemma that brought us to the point where we need the Cross in the first place.

Understand Who God Is

Comprehending why and how the Cross of Christ makes a difference in our lives starts with an understanding of who God is.

One of the first things we need to understand is that our God is eternal, He is an everlasting and dateless God - One who is without a beginning or an end of days. King David said, “From everlasting to everlasting, thou art God” (Psalm 90:2). He rules in eternity, which is timelessÑthere are no days, no weeks, no hours, no seconds. God simply exists in eternity.

Note

Whenever God forms a thing, He will fill it.

Before God made man, the Bible says He formed the earth, and then through a divine process He began to fill the earth with good things.

FROM THE CROSS TO THE PENTECOST, by T.D. Jakes

© 2010 TDJ Enterprises