The Power of the Cross - demolishing the hindrances to intimacy

Note the focus of the following scriptures.

John the Baptist exhorts us twice to “behold the Lamb of God,” the one whom God would sacrifice for our sin (John 1:29,36).

To “behold” means “to look earnestly, intently.” The writer to the Hebrews exhorts us to fix our eyes on Jesus…who endured the cross (Hebrews 12:2). In other words, let the eyes of your heart stay there. Take it in. 

Paul said to the Corinthian church: “I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1Corinthians 2:2).

What Jesus accomplished on the cross is so profound, we will never in this life plumb its depths. However, there is an aspect I want to draw your attention to that can be very helpful when it comes to overcoming lies.

Jesus, speaking of His crucifixion, said: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up” (John 3:14). In Numbers 21 we find “the people spoke against God”…. and the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people so that many people of Israel died” (5,6). The people repented and the Lord said to Moses to make a serpent and put it on a standard…and everyone who is bitten, “when he looks at it, he shall live” (8).

In other words, when anyone looked at the bronze serpent on the pole they were delivered from the serpent’s poison. Here is a clear illustration of the power of the cross of our Lord Jesus – if we really see it!

The enemy’s poison, his lies, the ‘fiery darts’ (Ephesians 6:16), are targeted to undermine our intimacy with God. Essentially, these lies always call into question the character of God, or our identity in Christ. If we believe these lies and take in his poison, our intimacy with God will be compromised, if not destroyed.

We cannot enjoy intimacy with the Father if we doubt His love for us or our value to him. That’s one reason why the Father made the cross so pivotal in the great story of redemption, knowing how the enemy was going to assault us.

To demolish the first lie, that God doesn’t really care about us, the cross of Christ is the clearest demonstration imaginable of the depth of the Father’s love for us and the strength of his passion to bring us to himself – that he would sacrifice his only son, his dearest companion, so that we would have a way to receive cleansing and forgiveness and come confidently into fellowship with him.

Secondly, any doubts we have of our value to God is forever removed when we take to heart the fact that he could have paid no higher price for us!

Fixing the gaze of our hearts on Jesus who willingly laid down his life for us – to meditate on the incredible truth of the Father’s love and of his desire for us so vividly displayed in the cross – delivers us from the poisonous lies of the enemy, scattering confusion, demolishing fear, and lifting heaviness so we can enjoy the intimacy which the Father so dearly paid for.

What better focus for listening and journaling than the cross!  Let us invite God to delve beneath our superficial understanding and penetrate our hearts with the truth of all he accomplished for us on the cross that dynamically sets us free. 

Ask Jesus: 


What question do you want me to ask you about the cross?

What truth about you or myself do I need to know here?

Then, as he shares his heart with you –

Journal it. Declare it. Rejoice in it. Digest it. Receive it!