Title: The Cross, Our Peace
Contents Ephesians 2:11-19 The Cross, Our Peace 081109
In the meantime, during the day of the week, I was expounding on the Gospel of John and talked about God's decisions and actions to save sinners. Through the eternal council, the Triune God told us that he had decided to sacrifice God the Son in his stead in order to save humans who were getting older, experienced, and getting more corrupt as the years passed. and prophesied, and when the time came, I told him that the Son himself came in a human body and died on the cross.
That is why, just as a person bitten by a snake looks at the bronze snake on a pole and lives, so when a person who is perishing from sin believes in Christ who died on the cross, to be saved is a grace that cannot be described in words that God has given us. I told you.
Therefore, the cross that Christ, the Son of God, became a human being and carried is the core of the gospel given to mankind, the most beautiful thing in this world, the title of the saints' hymns, and the driving force of our lives. The core of Christianity is the cross, and to say that a person believes in Jesus in other words can be said to believe in the cross.
As Bernard looked at the cross, he cried, “O Holy Lord, that bruised head,” and wrote a hymn to the cross. “The Cross and I” What does the cross have to do with me? Today, through Sacrament Sunday, I would like to inform you that the cross is our peace.
First, why was the cross necessary?
Mankind was at odds with God and became God's enemies. When human beings, who were created to be happy only when they receive God's love, turned their back on God's love and became enemies, the whole world became a relationship of enemies. The history of mankind is a history of discord and enmity. There has been no peace in the world since Adam sinned. I have become distant from God, from my husband and wife, and from my brothers. They became enemies with God, they became enemies with people, and eventually they became enemies with themselves.
Adam was driven out of Eden, and Cain went insane and beat his brother Abel to death. This is the beginning of human history. Turning away from God, hating people, fighting and killing them has become the history of mankind. The Jews also left God, and the Samaritans also left God.
And the Jews and Samaritans hated each other and cursed each other. Babylon, Assyria, Egypt, and Judea all turned away from God, and they hated each other, cursed each other, and killed each other. This is the history of mankind. Instead of reconciliation and peace, leaving, discord, and making enemies have become human history.
This history of separation, discord, and curses continues even today. Both the South and the North have turned away from God, and they hate each other and curse each other. Political ideology is nothing more than a false ornament to justify their hatred and enmity.
They hate each other because of their different political positions, but if it's really about ideology, why would they hate each other within the same party? If we hate each other because we have different fats, why do we hate each other? They say that it is not my family and I keep them away, but then, why do couples have to turn their backs on each other, and why do parents and children have to live in conflict? The cause of all these circumstances is that man has turned his back on God.
As a result of man's departure from God, not only discord and conflict between nations and nations, but also discord and conflict between husband and wife, discord and conflict between parents and children, and discord and conflict with oneself. Family disputes and divorces are becoming more common, and more and more people are suffering from schizophrenia and depression. This is the whole of human history. This is the unfortunate history of mankind.
Who is there to deny? Can anyone give me another reason? This is because we became enemies with God as a result of leaving God and serving things other than God, money, idols, and ourselves.
Second, the cross is a bridge between reconciliation and peace.
God was interested in how to reconcile human beings who were enemies with each other, and how to reconcile humans to each other. This is because the divided and enmity human beings were all children of God, created in the image of God.
So, God desperately called, “Come, come back,” and also invited them to receive forgiveness of sins and healing. But people did not return to God, and there was no reconciliation, no peace, no peace.
So, the last method God provided was to build a bridge of peace through the cross. Just as the magpies on the seventh day of the seventh day of the seventeenth day of the seventh day of the seventeenth day of the seventh month of the seventh month of the seventh day of the seventh month of the seventh month of the seventh day of the seventh day of the seventh month of the seventh day of the seventh month of the seventh day of the seventh day of the seventh month of the seventeenth day of the seventh day of the seventh day of the seventh day of the seventh day of the seventh day of the seventh day of the seventh day of the seventh month of the seventh day of the seventh day of the seventh day of the seventh day of the seventh day of the seventh being being being being being beinged, the magpie have set up the Ojakgyo Bridge so that the cow and the weaver can meet each other.
In Hebrews 10:20, Jesus said that he had prepared the way for humans to come to God, and said, "This is a new and living way that he opened for us through the veil, and the veil is his flesh." Jesus said, “The cross is a way for sinners to return to God because Jesus was nailed to the cross and died to make a way for humans to become enemies of God and return to God’s bosom, a place of peace and peace for the perishing humans. You explained that it was a new way to go.
Therefore, after Jesus took up the cross and died as a sacrifice for mankind's sins, any person could step on the bridge called the cross and come to God and achieve reconciliation with God.
Previously, Gentiles and Jews could not meet each other and could not achieve reconciliation. Even on the battlefield where they kill each other, the Red Cross with the red cross flag heals the wounded.
The cross certainly became a bridge to reconciliation. And I was able to achieve peace by meeting myself in front of the cross. This is the gist of today's text. The cross carried by Christ is a bridge of reconciliation and peace.
“You who were afar off are made near by the blood of Christ.” “He made the two one.” These words mean that Jews and Gentiles, who were enemies, were reconciled to each other by the blood of the cross. Ultimately, the cross became our peace.
Because of the cross that Jesus carried, peace was established between God and man, peace was made between man and man, and peace was also made with himself. "He is our peace."
The cross is made by the meeting of a vertical stick and a horizontal stick. The vertical tree became a tree of peace that reconciles God and humans, and the horizontal tree became a tree of peace that reconciles humans and humans. It means that he became reconciled with himself who was cursed.
“There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave or free, male or female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). This is possible only under the cross. They all come from different backgrounds, look different, and have different circumstances, but we are all one family and one body. This is the image of the church made by the cross.
We are children of a restored family who have God as their Father and are protected by the Mother-like Church.
Third, because the Lord was cast away and cursed in our place on the cross.
How can the cross be our reconciliation and peace? The cross was originally a symbol of enmity rather than a symbol of reconciliation, and a symbol of curse rather than a symbol of peace. In ancient society, the cross was a tool for putting people to death who should be forever abandoned by society. Even in the Bible, the cross was a symbol of breaking and curses. Deuteronomy 21:23 says, "Cursed of God is he who hangs on a tree."
The cross was a symbol of abandonment. In Psalm 22:1, David foretold the circumstances of Jesus' crucifixion and foretold that he would cry out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" In Matthew 27:47, Jesus actually cried out on the cross, "Eli, Eli, lama, sabachthani, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
In the same verse of Psalm 22, it is said, “Why are you far from helping me?” The cross was thus a symbol of shunning, and also a symbol of contempt and ridicule. In Psalm 22:6 it says, “I am a worm, not a man, but a slander of men and a ridicule of the people” (Psalm 22:6). The cross was a symbol of abandonment and curse.
Because God, our exalted Son, suffered the contempt, ridicule, cut-off, abandonment, and curse that human beings deserve on the cross, we can enjoy reconciliation and peace thanks to Him. Galatians 3:13 says, "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us."
The Lord's cutting off of the cross became the basis for our connection with God, and the curse He received on the cross became our peace. Because the great One was forsaken in our place, I became loved, and because the grateful Lord was cursed in our place, I was able to enjoy the peace of father-son relationship with God.
The Lord knew that the time for you to take up that cross and suffer our curses, abandonment, and sorrow was drawing near, and at the last dinner with the disciples, he broke a large loaf of bread, divided it little by little, and gave it to the disciples. They will be broken and torn like bread and they will die. He said that it is for you, and after giving the bread, he poured out wine and said that this is my blood that is shed for you, the blood of the covenant that guarantees that my sacrifice will be your salvation. He said, “From now on, every time you eat and drink this, you must remember me. After the Holy Communion, you went out to the Mount of Olives in the middle of the night to bear the cross for the purpose of your coming to this earth. Before dawn the next morning, you were arrested and taken up the cross. ended.
There is no other way for human beings to become enemies of God and live as enemies with all people and die under the curse of death. Instead of me, looking at the cross of Jesus, the Son of God whose body and soul was broken, and holding on to the torn body of the Lord there, I have nothing but to eat and drink, and confess the Lord as my Lord and my God.
This is the only way we can find freedom and peace through healing from our enmity, depression, and despair.
When we hold on to the cross, the sinner who will be cursed makes peace with God; when we hold on to the cross, the person who was far from their neighbor makes peace with their neighbor; and when they hold on to the cross, those who cursed themselves and despaired can find peace with themselves you will enjoy
Let's take a look at where you are now. Are you far from God? Aren't you far from each other between husband and wife, brothers, father and son, saints? Do you hate yourself and be pessimistic? The cross is our only peace.
I pray in the name of the Lord that by believing on the cross and believing in Jesus who died on the cross, you will receive salvation from God, make peace with your neighbors, and live a life of hope that affirms yourself.