Not The Cross, Not His Cross, BUT My Cross

 As I have read through the book of Hebrews, these thoughts swirl though my mind:

1. God’s people, the Hebrews, the children of Abraham and Israel, had to be made aware of the holiness of God. 
2. God drew up commandments for them to follow, detailing the behavior to which He expected them to align their lives. 
3. God presented to them the consequences of their unholy behavior, and spelled out how they could not approach Him without something to atone for their sinful behavior and actions. 
4. The last few phrases of Hebrews 9:14: give a picture of the seriousness of unholy behavior, or sin, and what needed to take place: “cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God” Acts that lead to death.
5. He gave them a series of tasks, which on completion, would provide them with temporary forgiveness. 
6. The writer of Hebrews spent the first 8 chapters of His book explaining how Jesus was a leader:
   
   1.  much superior to Moses,
      
   2. higher than angels, and
      
   3. even a higher king and high priest than any before or after Him. 
7. The writer of Hebrews comes to this conclusion, Hebrews 9:11-15:
   1. "But when Christ came as High Priest of the good things that are now already here, He went through the greater and more perfect tabernaclethat is not made with human hands, that is to say, is not a part of this creation.He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but He entered the Most Holy Place once for all by His own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the Blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death so that we may serve the living God!  For this reason, Christ is the Mediator of a New Covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance--now that He has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant. "  

The word ‘but’ is said to negate all that is said before it in a sentence or phrase. We have read many books on communications as a couple, and the one thread that goes through all of them is that we need not say ‘but’. ‘I love you, but.’ ‘You did a great job, but.’ All that is remembered is the phrase after the ‘but.
 
The writer of Hebrews is a master in the use of the word BUT.  He says that you did all these things God said to do in the past, but they weren’t eternal, they were temporary. Our guilt remained the same. We could do all kinds of tasks and jobs and lay our lives down, but our separation from God would still remain.
 
This also reminds me of 1 Corinthians 13:1-3, generally called the love chapter:
“If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.”
 
So we could look really good to each other, by doing all these things with love, but, it got us no closer to God.
 
Just as the writer of Isaiah said:
Isaiah 64:6: “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.”
 
Our “righteous acts” are like filthy rags. So, the more filthy rags we build up, the worse it is for us, not adding anything, but actually detracting from anything that would make us pleasing to God.
 
BUT, when Jesus came, He gave us, once and for all, the sacrifice and forgiveness we needed to come near to God and to be in His family. He opened the door of Paradise for us so we are now able to go to God in His Name, with His credentials.
 
A way that helps me continually remember this is a phrase I say to myself over and over:
 
It wasn’t HIS Cross
It wasn’t THE Cross
BUT, it was MY Cross
 
Jesus took MY punishment for MY sin, as He was sinless. He was the only One pure enough to take my punishment for me, and gain for me forgiveness, justification, and sanctification. He clothes me in His righteousness, so that when God looks at me, He sees Jesus’ righteousness.
 
He calls me Saint Barb. Most would balk at being called a saint. BUT, that is what God has done. He has set us apart as holy when we agree with Him about our sin, and about His way to get rid of our shortcomings and sin. Then we allow Him to go to work on us. This work He does in us is called Sanctification.
 
1 Corinthians 6 talks about all the things we have done to offend God, then verse 11 says: “And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
 
Home free. No charges against us. Our record expunged (one of my favorite words). We are clean and ready for use by God. He planned it and He did it all by Himself with no help from us.
 
Thank You Lord that You hung on MY cross and took MY punishment, so that I could be free. Free to love, free to be me, free to worship the One who sent You in my place. I am eternally grateful. No Buts about it.