Lesson 7: The Cross Cleanses Us
Question 5
Looking at the Cross
Do you see what Jesus is doing on that cross, friend?
He is removing your every stain, washing you clean of your sin, straightening you out, He is making you pure, He is taking your sin away and making you holy.
And this cleansing is what we need to experience by faith! This is what will not only wash us clean but will also change our hearts. This picture, what we have seen today, is the power of God to change us at the core of who we are (1 Corinthians 1:18), changing our very desires and loves and passions.
And this is what will make us desire to put to death our lusts, crucifying them on Calvary’s tree, running them through with a sword and throwing them away on the sin heap of the cross. Let the love of Jesus burn so strongly in you that you become violent to your lusts and radical in your battle plans against it.
Friend, stay here at the cross and just look! Wash here in the cleansing fountain, let Jesus’ blood forgive and cleanse you. Receive Jesus’ forgiveness of your every stumble, your every fall, your every sin that has harmed others. It harmed Jesus more than anyone, but He has forgiven you completely and died to wash you clean, make you pure, iron out the wrinkles and give you a new life.
You are a visual person, no doubt. That’s what has attracted us to pornography and the beauty of impurity. Now, why not change that visual image to be that of the cross? See it with the eye of faith! Savor it! Wash in it! For it is a cleansing fountain for you!
And you know what’s going to happen? The longer you stay here and examine the cross the angrier you’re going to get at your sin, and the more holy power you will experience to hunt it down and drive a stake through its heart. The cross makes us want to be warring against our flesh!
I'm referring to killing sin here, not any human being. This should go without saying and yet it bears repeating that we are never to do any violence whatsoever to any other human being.
Finally, remember the practical application of Ephesians 5:26-27, which is addressed to husbands. If you’re a husband reading this, your role is to love your wife so much that you will die to self-gratification, die to all pornography, die to sexual impurity, and give yourself to your wife in love. You are to wash her in the Word until she experiences the power of the cross, too. We’ll talk more about this in the upcoming days.
This is the first and most important principle of freedom: Washing at the cross. Do you see the importance of it?
Question 5. What did you learn in this lesson and how will you apply it in your life?
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