What Jesus Accomplished Outside of the Cross

So often we talk about what Jesus accomplished at the cross, but what about what Jesus accomplished outside of the cross? 

For some time I've been preaching that the "finished work of Jesus," is much more than what Jesus did. When we speak of "the cross," we're talking about much more than Jesus dying on the cross for our sins. Yes, Jesus is the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8). But salvation was accomplished because of who Jesus is, as much as it was accomplished by what Jesus did. In other words, we can't separate Jesus' work from Jesus' person. Salvation is a person named Jesus. The incarnation, and atonement go together. We don't have salvation without the incarnation, and the atonement. As I've said so many times, and I will continue to emphasize, that salvation was accomplished in Jesus life, death, resurrection, ascension, and sending of the Spirit. 

God became man so that he could live out the God-life of other-centered-love, as us, and share with us the abundant life (John 10:10; 17:3). God became man so that he could die our death. God became man so that he could be raised to new life, as us (Col. 3:3-4). God became man so that he could offer himself anew to God, as us. God became man so that he could forever be at rest in the heavenly realm, as us (Eph. 2:5-6). God sent the Holy Spirit so that we would be awakened to the reality that has been pioneered in Christ Jesus.

So the Reality of salvation is  found in Jesus' person and work. Salvation is realized in Jesus' person and work. The cross symbolizes who God is, as well as what he has accomplished in the person of Jesus.  

Experiencing God

Experiencing God is experiencing Reality. For God is the ultimate Reality. The true God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God is love, and has always lived the life of love. It would be silly to say that God is love, and then believe that God would live some other way. If God is love, he can never be hateful. He can never live in opposition to who he is. He would be a hypocrite if he did that. 

The only true God is revealed in Jesus (Col. 1:15). There is no other God but the God revealed in Jesus Christ. Any thought that we have of God that doesn't look like Jesus, we need to discard (John 10:30; John 14:9). God the Father, and God the Holy Spirit, look like Jesus. This is Reality!

What God has accomplished in Jesus Christ, he has accomplished for all. When God became man in Jesus, he brought human beings back to their rightful place. Human beings are created in the image and likeness of God (Gen. 1:26-27). We are God-like because we are God's divine children (Ps. 82:6; John 10:34; Acts 17:28-29). 

Jesus said, "The Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives but to save them" (¹Luke 9:56). He said, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work" (John 4:34). Jesus came and did the Father's will. He said, I have finished the work that you have given me to do (John 17:4). The Father's will is to save all men. In Jesus' person, and work, Jesus did the Father's will in saving all men. When we experience God, we experience God's love for humanity. When we experience God, we experience love, joy peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Gal. 5:22-23). When we experience hatred, strife, anger, and envy, we are not experiencing God, we are experiencing the desires of the old, crucified nature (Gal. 5:19-21). 

So how do we experience God? First, we change our mind about God. We get to know the true God revealed in Jesus, and abandon the false god(s) that do not look like Jesus. Then, we change our mind about ourselves, and about other human beings. We know, and believe that God loves us, and has saved us. We know, and believe that we are divine children of God created in God's image, and likeness. We live in the Reality of the true God, and in the Reality of our true, authentic, self. Then we will experience God. We will experience love, joy, peace, and all the fruit of the Spirit. We will no longer experience anger, hatred, bitterness, and resentment toward others. If these thoughts, and feelings become present again, we simply remind ourselves that we are divine children of God, and that we look like God. We remind ourselves that we live, move and exist in God (Acts 17:28-29). We remind ourselves that we died with Christ Jesus, and that we were made new creations in him (Gal. 2:20; Col. 3:3-4). It's not somehow that we must get ourselves into God, or that we must somehow strive to get God to come into us. The gospel is the good news that in Jesus, God has found his way into us, and that he has brought us into himself. 


¹All scripture references are from the New American Standard Bible (NASB).