Lesson 27 Warring Against the Flesh: Casting Down Imaginations
Question 7
The gospel powerfully replaces the impure images in our minds, leading us to satisfy ourselves in Jesus and find spiritual, mental and emotional refreshment and health.
And so, for a moment, see Jesus as they took Him to a fake trial (Luke 22:2), judged Him as innocent (Luke 23:14-15) yet condemned Him to death (Matthew 27:26). They beat Him (Luke 22:63), put a crown of thorns on His head (John 19:2), pulled out His beard (Isaiah 50:6), and striped His back with a lead whip (John 19:1). Then they took Him outside the city of Jerusalem (Hebrews 13:12). See Him carrying His cross up the hill called Calvary (“place of the skull”--John 19:17). Soldiers lay Him on top of the cross and pound nails into His hands and feet (Luke 23:33). Then He is raised up on that cross, lifted up between heaven and earth, between God and man (Isaiah 52:13). He is indeed coming between God and man, intercepting all of God’s arrows of wrath (Job 6:4), and taking them for you.
Like the uplifted pole in the wilderness (Numbers 21:4-9) the cross is uplifted that you might turn and look, and be healed from the snakebite of sin (John 3:14-16). So stay here for a minute, examining Jesus’ sufferings, His death in your place, the blood He shed to cover over your sin. Listen to His cries to the Father, not for Himself but for you: “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). Look at how the Roman soldier opens the heart of Jesus (John 19:34), and know that Jesus Himself chose to open His heart to you (John 10:18), to show you the full extent of His love (John 13:1), to forgive you completely (Ephesians 1:7), dying on the cross to purchase your full pardon (Romans 5:6-10) and secure your eternal life (John 3:16).
The cross is where you will find freedom, not only from actions of impurity, but from thoughts. If you learn to begin meditating on the cross, the Holy Spirit will start to cast down the previous impure thoughts, throw down the unclean images, purify your mind and wash your conscience (Titus 3:5).
Question 7. What did you learn, or what have you been reminded of in this lesson?
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