The cross of Christ is not a mere symbol or a tragic episode—it is the decisive, sovereign act of God that both ends the old order and inaugurates the new. To reduce Christ’s death to a mere payment or a moral example is to gut the gospel of its power and to rob believers of their inheritance. The Scriptures present Christ’s death as a multi-faceted work: it terminates everything that stood against us and simultaneously creates everything necessary for our life before God.
The Terminating Power of Christ’s Death
First, Christ’s death is God’s final word against sin, evil, and separation. In John’s Gospel, three distinct presentations reveal the scope of this termination:
- The Lamb of God (John 1:29): Christ does not merely cover sin—He takes it away. Sin is not managed; it is removed from God’s sight.
- The Bronze Serpent (John 3:14; Romans 8:3-5): Christ is lifted up, and in His flesh, sin is condemned and its power broken. The poison is neutralized; the curse is ended.
- The Grain of Wheat (John 12:24): By dying, Christ releases divine life, making possible the multiplication of sons and the birth of His bride, the Church.
But the termination does not stop at sin. Christ’s death destroys Satan and the bondage of death (Hebrews 2:14), strips principalities and powers (Colossians 2:15), crucifies the old man (Romans 6:6; Galatians 2:20), circumcises the flesh (Colossians 2:11), and severs our ties to the world and to sin itself (Galatians 6:14; Romans 6:2). Even our debt to the flesh is cancelled (Romans 8:12), and the ordinances—those religious and cultural barriers that divide—are slain (Ephesians 2:14-15; Colossians 2:14).
This is not a partial victory. It is a total termination of everything that kept us in bondage and separated from God. To deny or minimize this is to undermine the very foundation of justification and to forfeit the liberty Christ purchased.
The Creative Act: New Life and Access
Yet the cross is not only destructive; it is profoundly creative. In His death, Christ creates the new man (Ephesians 2:14-15; Colossians 3:10), opening Himself to release divine life (John 12:24). The tearing of the veil (Matthew 27:50-51; Hebrews 10:18-20) is not mere symbolism—it is the granting of direct, unmediated access to God. No priest, no ritual, no human effort stands between the believer and the Father. In His death, Christ presents us without spot to God (Colossians 1:22), blameless and holy, not by our striving but by His finished work.
This is the ground of our sonship and our inheritance. If you accept any teaching that leaves sin, the flesh, or the old man still in power, you have abandoned the new creation and returned to the old. If you imagine there is still a veil, you have denied the access Christ has purchased. What is lost is not a secondary blessing, but the very heart of the gospel: justification, sanctification, and the right to call God “Father.”
The Spirit Applies the Finished Work
This is not a distant historical event. The Spirit, the “eternal Spirit” (Hebrews 9:14), brings the reality of Christ’s death into our present experience. Just as the Old Testament anointing oil was a compound of many spices, so the Spirit carries the full power of the cross into our lives. The “killing element” of the cross is not self-imposed asceticism; it is the Spirit mortifying the flesh (Romans 8:10; Galatians 5:24), causing us to carry the dying of Jesus in our bodies (2 Corinthians 4:10-11).
This is not a call to self-effort or to law-keeping. It is a summons to faith in the finished work. The Spirit sanctifies, mortifies, and empowers—not as a reward for our striving, but as the application of what Christ has already accomplished. To look anywhere else is to fall from grace and to forfeit the liberty of the sons of God.
What Is at Stake
If you accept any doctrine that leaves the old man alive, sin in power, or the veil intact, you have surrendered justification, forfeited your inheritance, and denied the finished work of Christ. The cross is not partial; it is total. The Spirit does not supplement your efforts; He applies Christ’s death and resurrection as your only ground of standing before God.
You are not called to patch up the old creation or to negotiate with the flesh. You are called to believe that Christ has finished the work. As you look to Him, the Spirit makes this reality yours—terminating the old, creating the new, and granting you access to God as a beloved son. Anything less is not the gospel.
Let no one rob you of what Christ has accomplished. Stand in the finished work, and refuse every teaching that would put you back under bondage. The cross has spoken: sin is finished, the old is gone, and new life has come.
