By Martha Bush

Resurrection Sunday is coming!  Let's begin the celebration by focusing on The Reasons for the Cross, so that we can make them applicable in our lives.  (Isaiah 53:5.)

• He was wounded for our transgressions,
• He was bruised for our iniquities,
• the chastisement of our peace was upon Him,
• and by His stripes we were healed. 

This scripture clearly shows there are Four Reasons for the Cross. Let’s briefly examine each one, starting with Transgressions and Iniquities.

Transgressions

Transgressions can be defined as our sins that SEPARATED us from God when Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit. When Jesus shed His blood on The Cross, man was forgiven (released) from the penalty of sin and brought back into fellowship with God.

There are steps mankind must take in order to personally be brought into fellowship with Jesus. I feel compelled to talk about those steps. You see, even though I was brought up in church, I didn’t know what the steps were that would lead me into fellowship with Jesus. Years into my adult life, I asked a pastor’s wife, “How do you get saved?” She responded, “It’s so simple,” and proceeded to give me the steps. 

One of the most pleasurable moments I ever had of paying this forward was when I was teaching in our local jail. When I finished the lesson, I gave the steps on ‘how to get saved.’  Immediately, a woman spoke up and said, “I told my friend just before we walked in here that if I ever heard someone tell me how to get saved, I am going to do it right then."  

I told those two stories to say, “Don’t take for granted everyone knows how to get saved, even if  they are church-goers. Be ready to share the plan of salvation when someone shows an interest. 

As my pastor’s wife said, “It’s so simple.”

1. A---All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23)
2. B     Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. (Acts 16:31)
3. C---Confess with your sins, and He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)

After praying with them, say: And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, he hears us. (Romans 5:14)

The angels rejoice with us when one lost soul comes into The Kingdom.

Iniquities

Iniquities are also sins, but they come about in a different way.  One Bible dictionary defines iniquities as bent, bowed down, twisted, perverted, doing something that becomes a normal way of life.

How do iniquities come into our life? 

The most common way is called generational sins. These are sins that have been passed down to us from our ancestors. Quite often, generational sins are the ones we struggle with the most because we have seen them reoccur so much in our families that we believe it is the “norm.” Think about your own family. Have you seen a reoccurrence of such things as: addictions, verbal, physical, sexual abuse, adultery, divorce? 

Ex. 34:6-7 says: “The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth,  keeping mercy for  thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation." 

The key word is visiting. Now, get this: This visit is not God's idea; the visitation takes place because nobody has taken the effort to close the door on their visit. So, how do we close the door?

1. Realize Jesus Was Bruised For Our Iniquities: Jesus knew these iniquities would become a part of our life growing up. He looked ahead in time, and saw our family lineage. Therefore, He was bruised for those bruises we would receive from the iniquities in our family.

2. Look Back at Previous Generations: Taking a look back is not to blame, but to recognize what the positive and negative influences were in our family to see how to go forward.

3.  Forgive Ancestors for the Bruises: Colossians 3:13 says: Forgive one another, even as Christ forgave you. What Christ have done for you, pass it on!   

4. Make a Decision to be a Vessel of Change for Future Generations: If we are willing to be the link through whom God works, our life could affect every generation in our family line until Christ returns. I can’t think of anyone to whom I’d want my life to be a blessing more than my children’s children and their children’s children. Ten generations later our names might be forgotten, but one day in heaven, I believe they’ll get to meet the link that changed the direction of the chain.

*****  

The song below makes The Cross so personal: When He was on The Cross, I WAS ON HIS MIND.

Share your salvation story or stopping the visitation of iniquities.