Now talking about the cross, we do not mean the wood, nor a crucifix, which to most Catholics has become a fetish, an object of worship, or protection from evil spirits, which is idolatry. No real Christian must indulge into that kind of error! The wood on which Christ died is perished long ago, but what happened on it is important even now, for on it our Saviour died for our sins. The message of the Gospel is ever powerful, and without beginning at the Cross, spiritually, and an inward change brought about by the power of the shed blood of Jesus Christ, there is no forgiveness of sins, and no hope of salvation! Following such a conversion, redemption is secure to the repenting sinner and Christ becomes his Lord and Master forever! Therefore, as says a hymn written by Horatius Bonar: ‘The Cross it standeth fast! Halleluiah, Halleluiah! Defying every blast, Halleluiah, Halleluiah! The winds of hell have blown, the world its hate has shown, yet it is not overthrown, Halleluiah for the CROSS!’ The writer of this hymn is full of praise, it is right indeed to be so, all true Christians should praise God for the Cross. The Cross is where all ends, for there are many ends and beginnings in the life of a newly born-again Christians. It was the end of the human Christ, and when He died all men died. The curse that He bore for our sins, has fallen on all men in all generations. I quote again few verses from the Bible: ‘For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one (CHRIST) died for all, and therefore all died’. (1Corinthiens 5:14) It is a spiritual state. When God turned away from His Son, Jesus, as He was dying on the cross, He died! It is written: ‘Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, (us means all that have believed in Christ as Saviour) for it is written: Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree. Every man is cursed because all have disobeyed the Ten Commandments. For it is written if one has broken one commandment, if only once, He is guilty of the whole, and the curse for disobedience is death. Every sinner is a dead man walking we are all sinners from birth. I have written this verse before but in another context. When Christ died on the Cross He died for the sins of every man. But death to Him meant that He realised then, what a dreadful thing it is to be cut off from God, His Father, ‘He tasted death for every man… for he died for all’. But Jesus rose from the dead by the power of God, because being sinless, death could not hold Him, hence His perfection is now given to every man that puts His trust in Jesus, and accepts that he died in his place!

Death always means that one is cur off from life, rejected by God, cut off from Him who is the source of life! It is written: ‘The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And He is nor served by human hands, as if He needed anything, because He Himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man He made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and He determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.’ (Acts 17: 24-26) It is when one becomes a Christians that one changes in his outlook about himself and life in general. He is conscious at last that everything in his life makes sense. He begins his new life like a babe in Christ and has an awful lot to learn, but it is right from the start that he is conscious that he has begun another life, and that he follows a different master who will lead him on to realise the truth and reality that begun when he met Jesus at the cross, and heard Jesus say to him what He says to every new disciple: ‘Come and follow Me’.

How our father Adam and our mother Eve fell under the power of the devil is written Genesis chapter 3, we will not go into details as to what the forbidden fruit was, why should it be an apple? as it is implied by the majority of people, I really do not know? It certainly was not the sexual act as some blind men infer. Adam and Eve were husband and wife from the moment God created Eve from one of Adam’s ribs. They sinned because they disobeyed God, as the Bible shows: ‘All disobedience is sin’. It is generally accepted that man sins when he disobeys one of the ten commandments. But there are other commandments of which we are not so aware, as the following one written in the book of Acts Paul preaches to the Athenians and says: ‘In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now He commands all people everywhere to repent.’ (Acts 17: 32). Repentance is not being sorry for one’s sins, it is a miraculous feeling created by the Holy Spirit, when he touches man’s heart, convicts him that he is a sinner, and then He leads Him to accept Jesus Christ as Saviour, his sins are forgiven and begins to follow Him for the rest of His life. He is then a pilgrim, en route to his heavenly country!