What the Cross Realizes for God

We are so inclined to think of the cross in terms of ourselves but what did it realize for God? DeVern F. Fromke explains this in his book The Ultimate Intention:

"In the first eight chapters of Romans, two aspects of salvation are presented: justification by the Blood and deliverance through the Cross. This is a most important distinction; for alas, many believers have wandered in defeat for many years because they do not know or reckon on union with Christ on the Cross.

"While we must be careful to recognize that Christ's finished work at Calvary is one complete work from God's standpoint, yet it is finished in the individual believer only as he reckons on its efficacy and allows the truth to become operative in his life. Let us see how this works.

In Adam . . . In Christ

"God deals with the human race through two representative men--Adam and Christ. A simple illustration will demonstrate the principle involved. By planting one kernel of corn, harvesting every kernel, and replanting year after year without destroying or using any of the corn; it would be possible to produce so much corn within twenty years that there would be no room for human life on the earth. Every grain of corn would have its beginning in the first tiny kernel.

"This is what Paul speaks of in Romans 5:12-21 when he explains that we all had our beginning in the first Adam. Through him sin and death have come upon the human race. But through Christ comes the new creation wherein is righteousness--His righteousness.

"Another illustration of this truth is found in Hebrews where the writer shows how Levi was in Abraham's loins when he paid tithes to Melchisedec. As the father of a family, Abraham is seen to include the whole family in himself. In making his offering he included with himself all his seed [posterity].

"So it is that God sees two family trees: Adam's family and Christ's family. If our source of life is to change it becomes evident that above all, one thing must happen. We must change families. Since we are born into Adam's family, how can we get out? How can we become disentangled from the wretchedness of our inheritance through him? There is only one way to be freed. That is through death. By union with Christ (the last Adam) in His death, God sets us free from the tyrants who reign over Adam and his posterity.

"God not only speaks of the first and last Adam, but also of the first and second man. The realization that there would never be another Adam brought to me a wonderful unveiling of truth. When the Lord Jesus was crucified on the Cross, He was nailed there and laid in the tomb as the 'last Adam.' All that was in the first Adam was gathered up and done away in Him. In God's reckoning, Adam was left in the grave. We were included there.

"By Jesus' death the old race was completely wiped out. Do you see it? There will never be another Adam. As Christ, 'the last Adam,' moved into death, He carried the whole family into the grave and God pronounced: THE END! But in the 'second Man,' He brings forth the new race by the resurrection.

"'The first man is of the earth earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven . . . . And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly . . .' (1 Cor. 15:47-49). Now by one master stroke God has provided death to the old and the earthy; but He has provided life through the second Man, the Lord Jesus, who becomes the life-source of the new, heavenly creation. Through death, burial and resurrection we pass from the old family tree into a new family tree. We are no longer 'in Adam' but are now 'in Christ.'

"In this new position God considers us beyond the claims of old tyrants and under His new government. What God counts as true of our position, we must appropriate as true in our life and walk. What a day it is when we recognize all that He designed to accomplish through the Cross. In it God has liberated Adam's race from four reigning tyrants; death, sin, the law, and the flesh. Paul gives us this bird's-eye view in the middle chapters of Romans:

Chapter 5, freedom from sin's penalty--death.
Chapter 6, freedom from sin's tyranny--bondage.
Chapter 7, freedom from sin's strength--the law.
Chapter 8, freedom from sin's presence--when we receive the redemption of the body.

"Paul emphasizes that being moved positionally from Adam into Christ is more, much more than having a new family position. In Adam we receive all that was of Adam as the life-source [and behind him, Satan]. Now, in Christ, we are to receive everything that is of Christ--our new Life-source. God intends this new life to be more than a position or a crisis experience. It is to be a new way of living--a new purpose for existence . . . .

The Important Key

"Many times in the past fifteen years of ministering in Bible conferences, folk have confessed to me, 'We have tried to make the truth of identification with Christ in death and resurrection real in our lives. Yet in spite of all our knowing, reckoning and yielding, it hasn't seemed to bring reality. It has not brought the victory and blessing which we sought.'

"As I listen the problem becomes evident. Their very words reveal it. Without realizing the truth, these people are far more concerned for themselves than for Him. They are far more alive to what they want God to do for them, than what they might become unto Him. If they could, they would use God and the work of the Cross for their own ends. Here is the source of their trouble! The Cross is not the threshold to selfish attainment, but a terminal to selfishness. Many would use it for themselves, but God has designed that it should bring men wholly unto Himself.

". . . In God's planning then, the Cross and the crucified One have become the gateway to LIFE. Apart from this gateway there can be no movement on the highway of realizing God's purpose. While we are not unmindful of the pit from whence we have been digged, nor the Rock to which we have come, we do not linger in preoccupation with these. We move ever forward to realize the purpose for which we have been called to sonship. We shall always sing about the precious Blood, glory in the Cross, and exult in His life, but what previously have been crises will now become a walk forward and upward in fulfilling His ultimate intention. This is truly life--a new kind of life in a wholly different sphere. Death has yielded its throne to the higher law of love; the flesh has yielded its throne to the Spirit. All this is what the Cross has realized for God."