You’ve looked at your body thousands of times over the years, but how often do you take a long look at your soul? How would one even do such a thing?
When your eyes look in a mirror, you see a reflection of your physical appearance. And when your spirit is presented with the message of the cross, your response to the gospel reflects the state of your soul.
Here’s how it works.
“The preaching of the cross is folly to the perishing, but to us who are saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18).
The apostle who wrote these words spoke with experience having lived on both sides of the fence. Saul of Tarsus hated Christians and despised the message of the cross. After his conversion, however, Saul was named Paul and became an apostle who faithfully served Jesus. Faith in Christ led Paul to write, “May I glory only in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Galatians 6:14).
When your spirit is dead, the message of the cross seems meaningless to you and means nothing to you. When your spirit is alive, you look to the cross with deep appreciation as your lifeline to forgiveness and eternal salvation in Heaven.
A person is saved, redeemed, justified, born again, and forgiven through faith in Christ, and the message of the cross instantly becomes “the power of God” in your life the moment you are converted.
Do not seek the truth by examining your feelings; rather look at the cross and believe the good news.
Jerry Bridges said, “If we want proof of God’s love for us, then we must first look at the cross where God offered his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. Calvary is the only objective, absolute and irrefutable proof of God’s love for us.
Do you love the cross as the ultimate demonstration of how much God loves you, or is the cross of Christ not even on your radar? Do you worship your Savior who endured excruciating agony to pay for your sins, or is the cross nothing more than a religious symbol to you that has little or no meaning?
Martin Luther said, “Isn’t it wonderful news to believe that salvation lies outside of us?
If you want to be saved and forgiven of your sins, don’t look within yourself; look outside of you to the cross where Jesus paid the full price for your sins.
- “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was in store for him endured the cross” (Hebrews 12:2).
- Billy Graham said, “God proved his love on the cross. When Christ was hanged, bled and died, it was God saying to the world, “I love you”.
- “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more will we be saved from the wrath of God by him! (Romans 5:8,9).
- Either your body has become a temple of the Holy Spirit the moment you trusted Jesus to forgive your sins, or you remain lost in your sins and are in desperate need of spiritual conversion. Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).
- Are you born again at the cross? Do you view Christ’s crucifixion with apathy, or do you look to the cross for forgiveness of your sins and a fantastic future in heaven? (Revelation 2:7).
- Until you embrace the cross as payment for your sins, your soul will remain lost and separated from God. And as long as you keep trying to earn your way to heaven by your deeds, you’ll never get there. “All who rely on the keeping of the Law are under a curse” (Galatians 3:10).
A common trait of those who head in the wrong direction is that they seem oblivious to the horror that awaits them when they die (Matthew 13:37-43). That is unless they “repent and believe the good news” (Mark 1:15) as Jesus said in His first sermon.
And the best-known statement Jesus ever made is the good news of the gospel presented in John 3:16: “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish not, but may he have eternal life. life.”
Phillips Brooks said: ‘Love was compressed for all of history into that lonely figure on the cross, who said he could summon angels at any time on a rescue mission, but chose to not to – because of us. At Calvary, God accepted His own unbreakable terms of justice.
In order to look into your soul today, you will have to look back 2,000 years to the cross where Jesus of Nazareth was crucified. Do you believe that Jesus is your Savior who shed his blood to save you from sin and death?
And if not, will you place your faith in Jesus? Will you come to Christ today and believe Him who was sacrificed for your sins? God calls people to faith in the cross and to faith in his Son. “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart” (Hebrews 3:7).
“God is pleased by the folly of what has been preached to save those who believe” (1 Corinthians 1:21). “Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unjust, to bring you to God” (1 Peter 3:18).
When you look in the mirror, remember that the most important part of you is invisible. Your soul is immortal. It’s the real you.
So what do you see when you look into your soul at the cross?
Dan Delzell is the pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church in Papillion, Nebraska.
