An Apostle with the Church of Pentecost, Mike Etrue, has highlighted the importance of the cross of Christ in the life of the believer, explaining that is where victory in life begins.
The Kaneshie Area head of Ghana’s largest Pentecostal movement said this as part of his Easter message Thursday which focussed on Christ’s crucifixion as the hidden wisdom of God.
Apostle Mike Etrue explained death on the cross was reserved for the guiltiest of criminals, slaves of dishonourable class and notorious robbers.
For the Greeks, to die on the cross is a public confirmation of the one’s lowly status in society as a slave, he said, hence the difficulty of the Greeks in accepting that Jesus, the Son of God, died on it to save everyone else. This message, Paul said, is foolishness to the Greeks.
For the Jews, the crucifixion of Christ was described by Apostle Paul as a stumbling block.
This is because those who blasphemed were to be killed by stoning, casting off from a cliff or hanging on a tree. A person who claims to be God or Son of God is a sin of blasphemy, he explained.
The Jews believed that when one sympathizes with a man on the cross, it will invite God's wrath upon them.
No one was to boast of a death on the cross and because of this ingrained belief about someone who died on the cross, the Jews persecuted the early Christians for spreading heresy and abominable doctrine that Jesus Christ who died on the Cross was God's Son, making him God.
But the reality, he explained, is that the death of Christ on the cross unfolded the fulfilment of God's perfect redemptive plan predicted in Genesis 3:15;
'And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy heed, and thou shalt bruise his heel”
The death of Jesus Christ on the cross set into motion the process of redemption for Adam's offspring, Apostle Mike Etrue told the congregation
He said it was begun by the justification of the sinner - the sinner is justified on account of Christ. He longer stands before God a condemned sinner prepared for the lake of fire, He is now justified as God's righteousness [2Corinthians 5:21].
It was on the cross that the devil was cast out of heaven as recorded in John 12:31 and Rev. 12:7-11, he referred.
It is also by the cross that all the world would come to Christ, and nothing else as stated in John 12:32, the church leader said.
He concluded that every victory we seek in this life and the next began on the cross, where Christ was crucified.
If God's great plan for all of eternity could come to pass through what the religious people saw to be shameful and despicable, and the intellectual world saw to be foolishness, then indeed, the foolishness and despicable things of God is the Wisdom and honourable in the sight of God.
Healings, breakthroughs, blessings, money, power and every good thing we desire emanates ram the cross, he said and stressed the message of the cross is indeed the power of God unto salvation from closed doors, poverty, bondage, demonic possession and afflictions.
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