Power of the Cross Introduction

Introduction

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Intro (2X)

Dm C/E F F/A Bb
                                                                         

Verse 1

Dm C/E F F Gm F/A
Oh to   see the   dawn   of the   darkest   day
Bb F/A Gm F C
Christ on the   road to   Cal  -   va  -   ry
Dm C/E F F Gm F/A
Tried by   sinful   men   torn and   beaten   then
Bb F/A C
Nailed to a   cross of   wood

Chorus

Bb C F
This the   pow'r   of the c ross
Bb C F
Christ be came   sin for   us
Bb G/B C
Took the   blame   bore the   wrath
A/C# Dm C
We    s tand forgiven   at the cross

Intro (2X)

Dm C/E F F/A Bb
                                                                         

Verse 2

Dm C/E F F Gm F/A
Oh to   see the   pain   written   on Your   face
Bb F/A Gm F C
Bearing the   awesome   weight   of   sin
Dm C/E F F Gm F/A
Ev'ry   bitter   thought   ev'ry   evil    deed
Bb F/A C
Crowning Your   bloodstained   brow

Verse 3

Dm C/E F F Gm F/A
Now the   daylight   flees   now the   ground be neath
Bb F/A Gm F C
Quakes as its   Maker   bows   His   head
Dm C/E F F Gm F/A
Curtain   torn in   two   dead are   raised to   life
Bb F/A C
"Finished!" the   vict'ry   cry

Chorus

F/A Bb C F
Oh the   pow'r   of the c ross
F/A Bb C F
Christ be came   sin for   us
F/A Bb G/B C
Took the   blame   bore the   wrath
A/C# Dm
( We    s tand forgiven)

Bridge (4X)

(C) Dm (F/A) Bb
We   stand forgiven      we     stand forgiven
(C) Dm (F/A) Bb
We   stand forgiven   we     stand

Verse 4

Dm C/E F F Gm F/A
Oh to   see my   name   written   in the   wounds
Bb F/A Gm F C
For through Your   suffering   I       a m     free
Dm C/E F F Gm F/A
Death is   crushed to   death   life is   mine to   live
Bb F/A C
Won through Your   selfless   love

Chorus

Bb C F
This the   pow'r   of the c ross
Bb C F
Son of   God   slain for   us
Bb G/B C
What a   love   what a   cost
A/C# Dm C
We    s tand forgiven   at the cross

Outro (4X)

Dm C/E F F/A Bb
                                                                         

Devotional

Power of the Cross

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The Power of the Cross 

You, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross (Colossians 2:13–14).

Nothing could be weaker than hanging from the cross. His hands and feet sewn with nails to agony. His bare and broken body put on display for all to see. His lungs slowly, inescapably collapsing — one excruciating breath at a time. His enemies laugh, delighting in his dying. His friends all withdraw and hide. He died between two hostile offenders: affliction and humiliation.

The way the rulers and authorities tortured Jesus was meant to magnify and degrade his weakness. “The chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, ‘He saved others; he *cannot* save himself.’ . . . And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way” (Matthew 27:41–44). They could have killed him quietly, but they wanted the whole world to see what he could not do. They wanted everyone to see just how weak he really was.

What looked like weakness, however, could not have been any stronger. By attempting to prey on a seemingly defenseless man, his murderers only unleashed the full intensity and brilliance of divine power. In the weakest, most pitiful moment imaginable, Jesus defeated the two most intimidating enemies you have ever known: your sin and the armies of Satan against you.

Your Sin

The apostle Paul writes, “You, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh . . .” (Colossians 2:13). We won’t appreciate the power of Christ if we don’t recognize just how helpless we were (and are) without him. We were dead in our sin — not sick, not broken, not misguided, not flawed, but dead. From the day we were born, we laid in a grave of our own making, with hearts spiritually and emotionally incapable of loving Jesus. Sin swallowed every ounce of our hope, and yet we still loved our sin (John 3:19).

But God did not leave our lifeless souls in the grave. Paul continues, “You, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses” (Colossians 2:13). God sent his Son, who swallowed every ounce of our sin, bearing it on the cross, absorbing the wrath we deserved, and canceling a debt we could never pay. In the richness of his mercy, God loved us with a great love (Ephesians 2:4), even when we had mocked and rejected that love. 

Reflecting on this mercy, Paul prays that we might know “what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 1:19–20). If we really knew the kind of power God used to revive our once-dead hearts, we would not take our faith, or his power, for granted. We would never mistake the cross for weakness.

Satan’s Armies

But God not only defeated our sin at the cross. With those same nails, he won his ages-long war with evil, a war that began before the first child was born. “He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him” (Colossians 2:14–15). In Christ’s weakest moment, he disarmed some of the most powerful forces the world has ever known. He not only disarmed them, but he triumphed over them. And he not only triumphed over them, but he humiliated them.

We have no idea what power lies beneath the surface of what we can see — the rulers and authorities of darkness that prowl, and tempt, and deceive, and corrupt. The sin crouching at your door is only one small part of a hostile and global mutiny against the Maker of heaven and earth. Do you live with an awareness of the massive spiritual forces lining up, every single day, against your faith in Jesus? 

“We do not wrestle against flesh and blood,” Paul writes, “but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12). For now, we wrestle against forces much greater than ourselves. But we wrestle knowing that our Savior disarmed them with the nails in his hands and defeated them with his last breath. We fight knowing that “he who is in [us] is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4). 

Even while we wait for our King to return, and finish off evil once and for all, we know we have the final victory in Christ. His strength, in weakness, has borne everything that once condemned us. The power of his cross has crushed everything that might threaten us.