It might sound like an odd statement, but that’s ok.  The scripture says we are a peculiar people.  I just cant get enough of the cross.  I mean its oozing with life.  I know the carnal mind has hijacked alot of verses and made them into something they’re not, but I take up my cross daily.  Daily I am reminded of my death unto death.  Daily I am reminded that the world cannot justify me with life.  Daily I am thinking little of my ability to gather life to myself, and thinking much of Gods ability to satisfy me with His life.  

Luk 23:46  And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.  

This isn’t just something that happened in Jesus.  It happened in Jesus so his Spirit could be poured out on us, and create us in his image.  God calls forth life in us by bringing about the same giving up of the ghost in our hearts that we see in Jesus on the cross. 

Jesus gave up the ghost … He layed down the life he had from the world. 

I want to look at this from the perspective of Jesus as the Son of man giving a testimony about the way to experience the power of the resurrection in our lives. 

The power to experience resurrection life is found in the preaching of the cross.  Paul says in 1st Cor 1 the cross is the power of God and the wisdom of God.  Paul says in Romans 12 we are transformed by presenting ourselves a living sacrifice.  He says we are transformed by partaking with Jesus in the death he died on the cross.  And again in Galatians Paul says its because he was crucified with Christ that the life of Christ animated his entire being as he walked in the world.  

When Paul talks about being crucified with Christ he isnt only talking of a mystical event that happened.   He’s also talking about partaking with Christ in the faith that was in his heart as he was being crucified.  That’s why he says the life I live now in the world I live by the faith of the Son of God.  

Yes the preaching of the cross is about a historical event that changed everything, but its also the preaching of the faith in Jesus’ heart on the cross.  Christ is the wisdom of God.  

The cross has largely been seen as the place of pain and torture and something to be avoided at all costs.  And because we have mostly seen the cross as a place of pain and torture we haven’t really been jumping out of our seats to be intimate with the cross.  Listen its a struggle to want to have intimacy with something you see as only being about pain and torture.  

Yes there was a death at the cross but what was that death all about.  Its true a death did occur at the cross because of the wages of sin, but what did Jesus die unto?  

What was in the mind of Jesus, as the son of man, about the cross.  Not as messiah, or as that eternal word, or as alpha and omega, although Jesus is all those things too, but as the son of man, born of a woman just like you and I?  

The faith in Jesus’ heart is what caused him to even go to the cross.  There was a faith in Jesus’ heart that resulted in him loving not his life in the world even unto the death of the cross.  

Jesus saw a death would occur at the cross.  He saw there would be some pain and suffering and discomfort in experiencing death in his flesh.  But, he saw in his death he would be dying unto sin.  He didnt see the death he would die at the cross as him putting off life or laying down life.  He saw the cross as him laying down the life that sin built in the earth.  

The apostle Paul says in Romans 6 Jesus died unto sin on the cross.  And since the wages of sin is death we can see that in Jesus dying unto sin on the cross he was putting off death.  He wasnt laying down life he was laying down the death that is in the world on account of sin.   He wasnt losing life on the cross he was losing death.  When Jesus thought of the cross he saw it as the putting off of the body of death.  He saw it as the putting off of the old man so he can put on house made by the Father’s hand. 

Jesus saw the best the world could give him was the death of the cross, and that is the life Jesus layed down.  He layed down the life that is perishing.  Jesus said in his heart the life in the world that is built upon touch not, taste not, handle not can never satisfy my flesh with long life.  It can only ever end with this dying body.  That is what Jesus was laying down at the cross. 

Jesus looked at the life he could gain from the world, and he saw it as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  He saw the gold he could purchase from the world and it looked good for food.  It looked like it could feed him with life.  It was pleasant to the touch.  It looked like it was something to grasp after.  It looked good to make one wise.  It sounded wise to think the power unto the abundant life was found in attaining to the good in the world, and in preserving your life in the world.

It’s not that Jesus didn’t want things to go well in the world he just saw that things going well in the world is not the power unto the abundant life.  He saw even the good that can happen for him in the world only contained a peace and love and joy that was corruptible.  He saw that setting his eye on the good that could happen for him in the world was to build his life upon wood, hay, and stubble.  

What about gethsemane?  I mean Jesus doesn’t seem so happy about the cross there?

Luk 22:41  And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast, and kneeled down, and prayed,
Luk 22:42  Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.
Luk 22:43  And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.
Luk 22:44  And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

What was it that was sweating blood?  It was Jesus’ flesh that was  sweating blood.  Jesus’ flesh didnt want to shed its blood.  Jesus’ flesh didnt want to taste death.  It wanted to be preserved.  The flesh doesnt want to die it wants to live.  The flesh when faced with the death of this world wants to preserve itself.  But, Jesus did not walk according to the flesh.  

We read these verses as if Jesus and the Father are somehow not one spirit, and in one accord.  As if somehow Jesus and the Father are not desiring the same thing.  Jesus says in John 10 no one takes his life he lays it down willingly of his own accord.  The carnal mind was pressing in on Jesus here.  The carnal mind wanted Jesus to preserve his own life.  The carnal mind doesn’t see the laying down of the life from the world as partaking of life.  The carnal mind only sees it as partaking of death.  It doesn’t see it as the putting off of death and the putting on of an incorruptible life.  It sees it as just dying to all that is good.  Jesus was giving utterance to the carnal mind for our benefit .  I mean Jesus was there by himself, none of the disciples could have heard him say this.  Yet Luke records it?  It had to be because of the Holy Spirit, and it has to be for our benefit.  

We only look at the Father’s will from the perspective of the death of the cross.  But, the Father’s will was also for Jesus’ flesh to be preserved.  The Father wanted Jesus to put off corruptible flesh and put on incorruptible flesh.  The Father wanted Jesus to be intimate with the resurrection and to be glorified with His immortality.  He wanted Jesus to put off the old man and put on the new man.  It grieved Gods heart for man’s bodies to be but dust.  

There’s a grace that was at work in Jesus, there’s a strength that caused him to endure ….

Hebrews 12:2 says Jesus’ heart disesteemed the death of the cross because of the glory that was set before him.  The power; the grace; the strength behind Jesus giving up the ghost was that he saw the death of the cross as the laying hold of the Fathers life.  He saw it as the place where intimacy with the power of God’s life occurs.  He saw the cross as the place of intimacy with the power of the resurrection.  

The glory that was set before jesus was glorified immortal flesh.  The glory is the very life of God.  Jesus saw the only thing that could satisfy his flesh was for his body to be clothed in the glory of God’s immortality.  He saw the cross as the place of intimacy with the eternity that was in his heart.  He saw the cross as the place where he would put off the old man and be able to put on the new man. 

Jesus says in Joh 12:25  They that love their life shall lose it; and they that hate their life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.  Jesus saw the cross as the power unto keeping his life eternal.  

Now listen dont hear what I’m saying through the carnal mind.  I’m not saying life is found in you going off and finding a way to die physically.  I’m talking about what happened to Jesus happening in our hearts through the spirit of faith.  

God calls us out of the grave by pouring out the spirit of his Son into our hearts.  He pours out the spirit of his son to bring about the death and resurrection Jesus partook of in our hearts.  He wants to circumcise our hearts from the life in the world that is dying.  He wants to cause us to lay down the death thats in the world.  Gods Will is for us to lay down the life that is subject to corruption.

God poured out the Spirit of faith that was in Jesus; the spirit of Jesus giving up the ghost was poured out on all flesh so that spirit could dwell in us and bring something about in us where we do not see the laying down of the life we have from the world as being unto death but instead we see it as unto life.  The Spirit was poured out on all flesh so the same mind that was in Christ Jesus on the cross could dwell in us, and we would see it isnt life we are laying down its death, and we would be strengthened to give up the ghost. 

We all have our gethsemane moment, where we can feel as if we are sweating blood, desiring for our lives to be preserved in the world.  Thinking the life we have from the world is good for food, and something to be grasped after, and wise to try and preserve it.  

God calls forth His life in us by pouring out the Spirit of the Son, and that Spirit, His Spirit brings about in our hearts an intimacy with Jesus in the death he died on the cross.  God brings something forth in us where we love not our lives in this world.  He brings something forth in us where we do not see the cross as the laying down of life but instead we see it as the the laying down of the life that is dying.  This world is dying and the life that is in this world is dying.  Partaking in the cross is to lay down the life that is dying so the life that can never die can pick you up, and you walk in this world animated by that life.