The Cross and the Big Picture

Gal 2:17-21

For several weeks now, we have been talking about the cross and what it means to Christians. With today being His Kids day I was tempted to do something else, but it also Palm Sunday and so Christians are focused on the cross and the resurrection of Christ that will be celebrated on Easter Sunday.

I want us to look at one last aspect of the cross this week before Easter. I want us to understand the big picture of the cross. Sometimes we focus so narrowly on what happened at the cross that we don’t see what the cross is all about. Let me tell you a true story to illustrate my point.

If you go to Glendale, CA and visit the Forest Lawn Memorial Park, you will find a painting that is incredibly large. In fact it measures 195 feet long and 45 feet high! Throughout the painting you see several scenes surrounding the crucifixion of Jesus. In the background you see Jerusalem and closer up you see groups of people surround the three crosses. The painting was done by a Polish artist who made it on 6x6 squares of canvas. Mr Styka then sent it to America to sell. The only problem was that Mr. Styka died before he found a buyer and the painting sat in a customs warehouse for a couple of years. A Mr. Easton heard about the painting and was looking for something to put in the main entrance to his newly build Forrest Lawn Cemetery assembled for the first time as a whole painting. It’s ironic that the artist who did all this work never saw more than a 6x6 part of it at any given time. He never saw the whole picture!

How many Christians focus on small parts of Christianity and how to make that part of religion fit into their lives and never really see the whole picture? Most of us may even be asking, “what is the big picture?” The book of Galatians in the Bible gives us that big picture and today we’ll look at parts of it so understand what the sweeping vista of the cross is all about in our daily lives.

PRAYER

I. The Cross and Salvation

A. Grace and Peace

1. In most of his other letters, Paul gives a simple blessing, but here he jumps into the very heart of what the gospel is.

2. In one sentence he sums up the essence of the good news.

3. READ Gal 1:3-5

B. The cross saved us

1. The passage says that Jesus gave himself

2. How did he give himself? The cross

3. It goes on to say he gave himself to rescue us.

4. How did he rescue us? Yep, the cross.

5. Most here probably have seen the movie Black Hawk Down based on what happened in Somalia. A helicopter was shot down and soldiers were sent to rescue those that survived. As they circled the down helicopter it became apparent that they couldn’t simply land and pick up any survivors. 2 soldiers volunteered to go down to the crash site and try to keep the enemy at bay long enough to get help there. When they left the chopper, they knew it was a desperate rescue attempt that would probably cost them their lives. They did it anyway.

6. The cross was that same type of desperate rescue attempt.

7. But it wasn’t just to save us from an enemy, it was to save us from ourselves.

8. Jesus gave himself to rescue us. The cross saved us.

II. The Cross and Faith

A. The cross is also about faith.

1. One of our fun songs we like to sing is found in Gal 2:20

2. I’ve been crucified with Christ SING

3. Paul had been leading up to a choice man had to make between 2 roads that would lead to God.

4. One was the law and keeping exactly and never, ever breaking it, and the other was faith.

5. Faith is based on commitment, not perfection.

6. We can be totally committed to Christ. We can’t be totally perfect.

7. Paul realized that when he wrote Gal 2:15-16

8. The only hope we have to be justified with God is faith. Living the law in absolute perfection is simply impossible. No one other than Christ was perfect in the law. Not Abraham, not Jacob, Not David.

B. The meaning of verse 20

1. We can be confident in our salvation because of what Jesus did at the cross.

2. He took away the obligation of living the law perfectly and built a new standard in dealing with God.

3. We now live a life in faith built on Christ’s obedience, not based on our own absolute obedience.

4. We need to live a life of faith that dies to our own desires and lives for Jesus.

5. We need to be crucified with him so we can live with him.

C. Boasting in the cross

1. READ 6:14

2. Paul ends this letter with a reminder to Christians and non-Christians alike.

3. He reminds us that it isn’t what we did at the cross, but what Jesus did at the cross that has freed us from sin. We need to remember that we should hold on to the world, or let the world hold on to us.

4. We need to live holy lives.

D. Conclusion

1. A holy life, I don’t think I can live a holy life.

2. For the Christian, a holy life is one that is committed to following after Jesus and his will. When we sin his blood, his grace, covers over that sin and allow us to start fresh.

3. But what if you aren’t a Christian yet?

4. The cross is still the big picture.

5. It allowed Jesus to take our sins on his shoulders. All he asks is that we acknowledge his actions.

6. Baptism is a ceremony doing just that.

a) Just as Jesus died and was nailed to the cross, we pledge to die to the world and have our sins nailed to the cross.

b) Just as Jesus was buried, we are buried in the water of baptism.

c) Just as Jesus rose again, we rise again a new person. We are the same physical person, but a whole new spiritual person. One as pure as Jesus Christ himself, because when God looks at us he sees us through what happened at the cross.

7. See the big picture of the cross, see the hope it gives us, see the faith it gives us, and see the salvation it gives us.

8. It’s yours for the asking. Will you ask Jesus to save you this morning?