The Cross, Part 4

The Cross Ushers In Grace

By Tammy Lacock

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” (John 12:24)

This week, Warren Litzman opens by diving into gospel of John chapter 12 to help us understand that John’s gospel is a bridge from the kingdom gospel preached by Christ and His disciples to Paul’s gospel of grace, a new gospel given to Paul by Christ, Himself.

In John 12:24, Christ foretells His coming death on the cross. His death and burial must happen for His resurrection and new life. In fact, only by His death on the cross, can he now be the very life of every believer and bear fruit through us. This is grace. No longer are we saved by anything we do or don’t do (kingdom gospel). We are saved by God’s grace through His Son. When Christ died, we died too. Our old lives were buried, and we arose to a brand-new life in Christ. By the cross, our old Satan sin-natures were literally uprooted and replaced with the Incorruptible seed, Christ. Here and now, we have His eternal life in us. This is grace.

The Cross made it possible for God to pour out His grace upon us. Warren says, “Grace is God putting Christ in us knowing we may never give Christ our life.” Grace doesn’t require us to understand our new life in Christ. However, the Apostle Paul tells us that God’s grace doesn’t stop at the Cross. If we are to ever truly be complete in Christ, we must break through the hull of our old mindsets and “let the mind of Christ be in [us]” (Philippians 2:5). By getting to know the Christ that now lives in us by God’s grace, we can finally learn to rest in Him while He lives through us. This is why Christ is our Savior. Only by resting in Him can we truly live who God created us to be and experience the fullness of His grace.