n today’s sermon, with text taken from Romans 6: 10-11, Pastor Victor makes it clear that Jesus Christ’s blood shed on the old rugged cross will never lose its power. In the scripture’s passage the apostle Paul reveals to the Christian church at Rome that Jesus died to sin by an extraordinarily painful execution. However, our resurrected Savior was alive to God. It is important for us to truly grasp what he was conveying in his letter because it is just as meaningful to us today.

Jesus died on the cross to wash away the sins of all humanity. We know that His death was for the forgiveness of our sins because Christ is without sin. It is of great comfort to know that His one death was enough. We do not have to physically die for our own salvation. The scripture also tells us that Jesus lives to God, and therefore an abundant life can be ours. There is nothing tying us to a wrongful past, and we are liberated to choose a new path and live to please the Lord.

Although there is an ongoing archeological debate, it does not matter if the crucifixion took place on a vertical and horizontal cross or an X-shaped configuration. The holy cross sets us free from our baggage and burden of guilt. Jesus died so that we could have a relationship and get right with our Father in Heaven. We who trust in Him are emphatically dead to sin and alive to God because of Christ Jesus. The blood that Jesus shed on that cross has power that is everlasting. He died one death to save us all, and now we are free to live a full life for God’s glory.

With the spring equinox fast approaching and Holy Week a mere five weeks away, Pastor Victor poses a question in his new sermon series, “What is at the Center of Christianity?” Perhaps there is no better place in the Bible to consider this query than in Apostle Paul’s letter to the church at Corinth. In the text, 1 Corinthians 1:18-25, it is apparent that the Christian story can be difficult to fully grasp because it is both problematic to the non-believer and filled with divine possibility for those who are saved.

The cross is nonsensically problematic to those without faith and simultaneously the holiest of symbols that believers look to as affirmation of humanity’s salvation. To the former it does not make sense that God in the flesh, our beloved Jesus Christ, born of a virgin, had to lose His life in such a gruesome, tortuous manner. From the perspective of those who are perishing the cross is indeed an unscalable stumbling block and they only see death. They have no sense of hope. However, from the entirely different angle or perspective of the latter, those whose minds are open with an optimistic nature and outlook, the cross represents humanity’s greatest hope and our salvation.

The cross truly presents a paradox in which the perishing perceive only impossibility and nonsense, while the faith-filled believe in our salvation because He died at Calvary on that old rugged cross. During this sacred season we often express our gratitude through a favorite gospel song. With hearts full of hope and love, we sing these words, “Jesus would not come down from the cross just to save Himself. He decided to die to save me.”

Thank God Jesus rose from that watery grave on the third day. Thank God Jesus decided that humanity was worthy of salvation. Thank God He sent His Son to serve as our steppingstone to life that is everlasting.