Jesus: In the Word and on the Cross

"I don't want Jesus on the Cross. I don't want the Jesus in the Bible. I just want Him."

Such talk was all too common from someone I knew in AA.

Such thinking, such talk is just plain foolish.

Without the Crucified, Christ can be nothing and do nothing for us.

Without the Word of God, we cannot know Him more, we cannot see Him, and we cannot understand all that He is for us.

AA tends to make people religious fanatics who trust their feelings, their experience, their understanding of matters.

Yet all of this focus on our origins, our thoughts, or anything within us cannot help us.

We need to live on the living revelation of Christ Jesus in the Word, for in the Word He revealed Himself to His disciples:

"26Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? 27And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself." (Luke 24: 26-27)

He expounded on Himself, which includes His suffering.

If He did not suffer, then we would still suffer. He was condemned so that we would be blessed.

It's just that simple, and we cannot receive this blessed assurance as long as we are convinced that we do not have to read the Word of God or recognize His Finished Work at the Cross.

AA attempts to annul both, and such heinous folly must be avoided for any who want to reign in life (Romans 5: 17).