THE CROSS OF CHRIST

On this Sunday, 24^th January 2010, the Service was led by Alf Curtis.

Reading:  Ps.24   &    Luke 23: 26 – 49

  The beginning of the year is a good time to remember what is at the centre of our faith, Christian walk and experience – the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The  Eternal  Cross

 The Cross has been central to our faith from eternity to eternity. We read in Scripture that God planned the Cross from before the beginning of the world (1 Peter 1: 19, 20). First, there was the rebellion of Lucifer and his angels (Isaiah 14: 12 ff) then there was the fall of man (Genesis 3: 1 ff). God looked down the ages and saw that the Cross was needed.

  It was always God’s plan to raise from mankind a family for Himself, but sinful human beings cannot enter the presence of a Holy God. To enable God and man to be reconciled, the price to pardon sin had to be paid. God did this by sending His Son to die on the Cross in our place.  

  Both Revelation 13: 8 and 1 Peter 1: 20 show that God’s plan for the redemption of mankind was established before the foundation of the world, and Christ became as the slain Lamb of God from the moment that Adam and Eve sinned in Genesis 3. It was as if God had taken out a mortgage for sinful man that enabled Him to pardon the sins of all people incl. Abraham, Moses and David, who lived before Christ came into the world. When Jesus died on the Cross, that mortgage was fully paid…

---