Power to overcome

Have you ever wondered what happened to the promise in 2 Cor 5:17, of all things becoming new. "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" You probably expected a miraculous change overnight. If you can recall your first commute back home from the evening evangelistic crusade where you gave your heart to Christ, you might remember the feeling you had that all your old nature is gone. Then over the next couple of days, as some of those defects slowly began to show up again, you might have been surprised and shocked that they were still lurking below the surface. And over the ensuing days, you might have slowly given up and finally started to believe that nothing happened when you experienced new birth.

What is the reason for this common experience. In 1 Cor.1:22, Paul tells the Corinthian church that "Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom". We too like the Jews who repeatedly wanted God to prove himself with some miracle, probably expect God to work magic with our lives. In Mat 16:1, we find that "the Pharisees and Sadducees came to Jesus and tested him by asking him to show them a sign from heaven". We want him to transform us in an instant in a painless manner. When we don't see that happen, we get disappointed. Or like the Greeks who looked for wisdom to live the right way, who listened to the likes of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, look for some wonderful formula out of the bible, that will help us live victoriously without much labour and pain. Paul adds "...but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles (I Cor 2:23)". Paul says that we do not need a miracle or some new wisdom, but we need to learn of the crucified Christ. Why did he not qualify this Christ with some other adjective such as the 'coming King', or 'the son of God'; why talk about his cross?

What is the message of the Cross that Paul speaks of loftily, in many of his epistles. It is true that cross signifies agony and shame that Christ had to suffer, to pay for our sins. But there is something more to Cross than these. If we look at Christ hours before he hung on the cross we see him praying, "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done (Luk 22:42)." It is the submission of the human will to God's will that so roundly defines the cross. In Heb 5:8,9 we find "Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered, and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him". Learning obedience is the path to eternal salvation. He has shown us the path that we may follow, and has thereby become the source of eternal salvation. It is not by an overnight miracle or through some quick and easy formula, but through minute-by-minute submission of our will to God's will. Paul reiterates this to the Galatians "Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. (Gal 5:24)"

To them that obey him and learn to submit their wills to God, Christ gives strength and power to overcome. Paul therefore concludes in I Cor 1:24, "but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." In I Cor 2:2 he asserts, "I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified". This he says he did, so that our faith might rest on God's power, and he later goes on to add, "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him" (I Cor 2:9). We have the example of Christ and Paul, who were enabled by God's power when they submitted to the cross. Consider the following verses. "For to be sure, he was crucified in weakness, yet he lives by God's power. Likewise, we are weak in him, yet by God's power we will live with him to serve you (II Cor 13:4). "For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. (Rom 6:6-10)"


Let me now summarize in one verse. Gal 6:14,15 shows us this relationship between new creation and the cross. "May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world...what counts is a new creation." If we remain in Christ, we are a new creation, and we remain in Christ by continually submitting our wills to God's will. When we are wronged, do we repay the wrong or submit to Christ's command that tells us to repay the evil with good. When someone slaps us on the cheek, do we show the other cheek as Christ commanded or do we say it would be foolish to do so. To the greek, Cross is foolishness but to him who is called to follow Christ, it is the Wisdom of God.