The Gifts Of The Cross

1. The gift of forgiveness

- unilateral forgiveness for everything that was being done to Him. (the lashes, curses, unrighteousness)
- continuously forgave them for what they were doing.
- when God said "I forgive you", have we forgiven ourselves? This point was beautifully illustrated by Ps. Rueben with a story entitled "Grandma's duck"

Grandma has two lovely grandchildren who named Tom and Sally. One day when Tom is happily playing with the sling that his Grandma gives him, he accidentally killed his grandma's duck with the sling and stone. Tom quietly buried the corpse without knowing Sally, his sister saw the whole incident in her eyes.

When it is time to do the dishes, Sally would threaten Tom to do the job by his own or she would tell grandma the duck incident. This goes on for 3 days until Tom could not hold it anymore and he told his grandma the incident. Upon hearing her duck was killed, she smiled and said, " I know, Tom. I was looking at you through the window." Tom was like, " you know ? Why didn't you say anything throughout the 3 days ? Grandma says, " I already forgave you when I saw you burying the duck, I was just curious how long you would let your sister holds you with that guilt"

Similarly, have we forgiven ourselves when our loving father has already forgiven us way ahead?

2. The gift of life

- we're now His companions
- we can freely walk and fellowship with Him.
- The relationship, fellowship and intimacy that once was practiced in the garden of Eden was restored.

3. The gift of compassion

- Jesus did not focus on His pain when He was on the cross.
- He was aware of the cry of His mother and disciple at the feet of the cross.
- We get to consume in the things that happen IN OUR LIVES that we loose the compassion for things AROUND us.

4. The gift of empathy

- sin brings darkness and darkness brings separation
- God is not offended when we ask him why when we don't understand
- He sympathizes with us because he has experienced everything that we go through in our lives, He understands our suffering, pain and inequity.

Hebrews 4:15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.


5. The gift of truth
- knowing that we can believe in every single word in the scripture
- Jesus wants us to believe in the promises of God and not the deception of the devil.

6. The gift of Pardon
- Knowing the difference between pardon and parole.
Pardon - forgive
Parole - the temporary or permanent release of a prisoner before the expiry of a sentence, on the promise of good behaviour
- we are PARDONED and not on parole
- The Job is done, we are free from guilt, sin and condemnation forever !

7. The gift of peace
- The greatest enemy to man is death for it is unavoidable and incurable.
- no matter what happens in our lives, we should have the peace that we can NEVER be taken away from the will of our father and our lives are safe in His hands.
- the cross is now empty, so as the tomb. Hallelujah !
- the cross is the power of God to those who will believe.