Keep Your Eyes on the Cross of Christ

Nick Bevilacqua
"Keeping one's heart and mind on the cross will keep one from trusting in one's works for Salvation, and will make one want to live for Christ our Savior.(Galatians 2: 20 & 21). (2 Corinthians 5: 14). (1 John 4: 19)."

Galatians 2:20-21
"20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose."

2 Corinthians 5:14
"14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died;"

1 John 4:19
"19 We love because he first loved us."

Don't Feed the Narcissist

Proverbs 26:3-5 "…3 A whip for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, and a rod for the backs of fools! 4 Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you yourself will be like him. 5 Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he become wise in his own eyes. How do we do both, "not answer a fool" and "answer according to their folly." The answer seems simple to me, we to resist answering a foolish person who just wants to fight as well as answering them "according to his folly" (meaning no answer at all). The fool does not deserve an answer. Every answer will feed the narcissists ego to keep demeaning and mocking as they argue to win. The narcissist never argues to come to an agreement, its always just to have power over others. When we refuse to engage in an argument with a narcissist they are starve of their food and will go away.

In the case of my narcissistic family they applied pressure to me to be a part of their system so that they could continue their covert and meaningless attacks. Its the old, "we want you to come to the party so you can see us ignoring and demeaning you."

The day the Lord showed me that I am not obligated to answer to others or play their games was the freest day of my life. I would encourage my brothers and sisters in Christ to be so full of Christ that you no longer NEED mean spirited family members to feel whole.

In Christ we are free, whole and completely fulfilled, able to discern right from wrong and move on to others outside of family who will love and value you.

We should never be unkind to narcissistic family members when they cross our path. We can be as friendly and kind as we are to other strangers on the street. However, and this is a big however, we can choose not to make these narcissistic control mongers a part of our everyday life. We can even choose to decline family invitations, holidays, weddings, funerals and other things that we wish to avoid.

There are no scriptures that tell us we must engage with these people, nor are there any scriptures that say we must stay in their lives. I see just the opposite in the Word.

2 Corinthians 6:16-18 "…16 What agreement can exist between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be My people.” 17 “Therefore come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.” 18 And: “I will be a Father to you, and you will be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”…"

Luke 14:25-27 "25 Large crowds were now traveling with Jesus, and He turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters— yes, even his own life— he cannot be My disciple. 27 And whoever does not carry his cross and follow Me cannot be My disciple.…"

When we see that family is hell bent on ignoring scripture, disrespecting Christ and us for our walk with Him, then we are to obey God and walk away. It is more likely that we can remain loving and distant than if we were to remain with them.

When we spend a lot of time with someone we take on their characteristics. If we want to follow Christ and walk uprightly, then we must avoid those who do not. There will be times when we have to be with them but that does not mean we must remain with them or attend everything they wish us to attend.

YES! The good news is that we get to choose our companions without guilt. If anyone is attempting to guilt you into remaining with extended family merely because they are family, then that person may have to walk on down the road too.

We have love, we want to love, but the narcissist attempts to turn us into something unloving by constantly challenging us to respond to their nonsense. There is no love in them, if we want to be loving we must be with loving people.

1 Corinthians 15:33-34 "33 Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good character.” 34 Sober up as you ought, and stop sinning; for some of you are ignorant of God. I say this to your shame.…

If you want to walk as Christ walked then surround yourself with those who have the same goal.

If You Want to Compare, Compare Yourselves with Christ, Then the Pride will Die

It is good to evaluate ourselves according to God's standard instead of comparing ourselves with others. When we are focused on Christ we have no reason to feel superior to anyone. There is arrogance that emanates from those who are given to comparing themselves with those around them.

2 Corinthians 10:12 "For we are not bold to class or compare ourselves with some of those who commend themselves; but when they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are without understanding."

All the Thief Did Was to Believe

The thief on the cross had no works, all he had was belief in Christ. All he asked was "remember me."

Luke 23:41-43 "…41 We are punished justly, for we are receiving what our actions deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom!” 43 And Jesus said to him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”…"

The Struggle is Continual

Day after day I meet people who believe they don't sin. Those who believe they will lose their salvation if they sin. Therefore they have to declare that they never sin to justify the belief that one can lose their salvation.

The questions that always come to mind is, "which sins are big enough to cost someone their salvation?" "How long do we have to be in a sin before our salvation is removed?"

God never tells us the size nor the length of sinning that loses one their salvation because our salvation is not based on whether or not we are sinners.

Our salvation is based completely on trusting the shed blood of Christ to cover our sinfulness.

Isaiah 646 "6 All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like a polluted garment; we all wither like a leaf, and our iniquities carry us away like the wind. "

No one can do enough good to gain salvation and no one can do enough good to keep it. There is no good in us that warrants anything but death. It is only Christ Who is good, only He Who can keep us saved.

Acts 20:28 "Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood."

Christ purchased us with His own blood! We cannot do anything to add to that or that is greater than that.

If someone is trusting in their own efforts to keep their salvation they are not trusting in Christ.

Hebrews 9:12
"12 Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us."

Ezekiel 16:8
"Then I passed by you and saw you, and behold, you were at the time for love; so I spread My skirt over you and covered your nakedness I also swore to you and entered into a covenant with you so that you became Mine," declares the Lord GOD."

The Ezekiel passage is a picture of what God does when He saves a born again believer. He no longer sees our sinfulness but He sees Christ in us. We have been made into a new creation Spiritually, but we are trapped in this sinful body which will be our struggle until God takes us home.

If there does not seem to be a struggle going on in someone then there is probably not salvation. Those who do not struggle are comfortable with their sinfulness. Those who are born again see everyday the struggle they have against the flesh that dwells in them.

Romans 7:14-25
14 For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin.
15 For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.
16 But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good.
17 So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.
18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. 19 For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.
20 But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.
21 I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good.
22 For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man,
23 but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members.
24 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?
25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin."

I worry about those who think they do not struggle with sin. It must be that they are denying their pride, their denial of what goes on in their minds from day to day.

We cannot be born again and absent of the struggle from the hatred of sin that dwells in us.

If someone is not struggling against the sinful nature within them, they might not be saved. Only those who know that Christ is their righteousness and that they have nothing good in themselves will struggle with their sin nature.

When the focus of the believer is more on whether or not they are doing all the right things they will not be focused on the things Christ needs to do in them. He is not the focus, their one righteousness based on deeds is their focus.

“Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh” (Galatians 5:16–17).

Church Pretenders

1 John 2:19
"19 They went out from us, but they did not belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But their departure made it clear that none of them belonged to us. 20 You, however, have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.…"

Just because someone attends church or has attended church for years does not mean they were ever born again.

There are so many who have joined a cultural Christianity in which they follow the rules to fit in. Often rejecting most of God's principles, the ones that are culturally acceptable to ignore.

Most of these cultural Christians do not know their bible, they don't read it, they act embarrassed when the name of Christ comes up but they would identify as Christian.

We do not come to Christ on our own terms, deciding to be a Christian does not save anyone.

Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved is a decision including the realization that no one can be good enough to earn heaven. Christ paid the penalty of sin, it is His shed blood that covers the sin of the believer. It is His sacrifice that paid it all on that cross. However, there is a condition for the unbeliever, He must trust (believe in Him) Christ to be saved.

Those who have a cultural Christianity to fit into family and to feel safe will not be saved. Their motive is fleshly without a desire to know God or obey Christ.

When we become born again Christ comes to live in us, we love His ways, we fail, confess and go on a little more cleansed.

There are so many who fit into the category of pretenders. They want the safety of the religious system. It gives them a sense of having someone to turn to when things get rough. They want to use God but they don't even really like Him, there is no love for Him and no desire to seek Him unless they are in trouble and want to be bailed out.

These cultural Christians are not born again, they live to self without Christ. Their purpose is safety, personal gratification, friends and self exaltation for any good deeds they do. These deeds are done in the flesh to impress others.

When the name of Christ or His principles are mentioned they become agitated and even angry. Their response to teaching in the word is one of angst toward the one who dared to bring up God's Word. Embarrassment wells up in them when Christ or the Bible is mentioned.

Here is the fate of those who had fleshly good deeds, spiritually and emotionally rejected Christ but pretended to belong to Him:

Matthew 7:21-23
21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.
22 Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’"
Those who are saved are those whose sins are covered in the blood of Christ. Those who are not saved are those who have rejected Him through self will and aggrandizement.

He Alone is Holy

There have been those who accuse me of preaching another gospel by asserting that born again believers do sin.

Why would God discipline those He loves if they never sinned after salvation?

Hebrews 12:5-7 "…5And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not take lightly the discipline of the Lord, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you. 6For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastises everyone He receives as a son.” 7Endure suffering as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?…"

Why did Jesus Christ shed every drop of blood on the cross?

It was to pay for our sinfulness.

Romans 3:24-25
"24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:"
25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;"

The "passover" is a picture of Christ's shed blood over the sins of those who are born again.

When God instructed the Israelites to kill a perfect lamb and spread its blood over the door posts He was not doing away with their sin, He was passing over them as justified because of their trust in Him. When they obeyed God and spread the blood, the Holy Spirit passed over them sparing them the first born sons.

They were still under the law at that time, everything they did was a picture of future events that would actually cover the sin of those who trust in Christ. The obedience to the law brought blessing but it never actually took away their sin.

It was only Christ's blood that covers the sin of mankind and only if they believe on Him.

When THE Perfect Lamb of God was sacrificed, that is Jesus Christ, there was no longer a need for the picture, the picture had been fulfilled. Now we trust in Christ Who has come, on the cross He said "it is finished", no longer any need for animal sacrifices that didn't save, now we have the actual sacrifice that does save. No man can add any works to that to make it better or complete.

John 3:16
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."

John 3:16-17
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him."

Hebrews 9:12
"He entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption."

Galatians 2:20
"I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."

Those who bring a false gospel of works to add to what Christ did, often accuse us of preaching a false gospel. There are far more of these people than we realize. The world loves to feel they have participated in their own salvation, but in Christ there is nothing we can do that would measure up to Christ's death and shed blood on the cross. The idea that we could add to it is preposterous.

Isaiah 46:6 " 6All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like a polluted garment; we all wither like a leaf, and our iniquities carry us away like the wind."

My suggestion to those who think they are earning their way to heaven by being good enough, stop paying so much attention to your good deeds and begin focusing on Christ.

When we focus on Christ we have no reason to feel good about ourselves. He alone is Holy!!!!