Cross-Contamination (Part Two)

CROSS CONTAMINATION (part two)

Cross-contamination is the process by which bacteria or other microorganisms are unintentionally transferred from one substance or object to another, with harmful effect. This term has come up often since the pandemic started. Normally we would do our best to avoid cross-contamination, but when it pertains to the cross of Christ, we should encourage cross-contamination. Where typical cross-contamination is done unintentionally, we would intentionally cross-contaminate. As normal cross-contamination has harmful effects, spiritual cross-contamination has positive effects.

Last week we looked at two things that will help us to cross-contaminate. We first need to understand that contamination is a big problem. Spiritually speaking, we've all been contaminated. Rom. 3:23 says that we have all sinned. The sin virus has contaminated 100% of the population. And that causes us to be spiritually quarantined from God. And if we stay that way until we die we'll be quarantined from God forever.

So, there needed to be a remedy; that's why Jesus came. He died in my place because I couldn't cure myself. Jesus was the only sacrifice allowable by God because he is perfect. Through Jesus I can become clean and be welcomed into the presence of God. So when we understand the problem and the remedy, we'll be compelled to spread the gospel and cross-contaminate.

We have the power of the Holy Spirit enabling us to share the most important message anyone could ever hear. How they respond to it is up to them; we're just responsible to share it. It's humbling to know we've been given the privilege of carrying the most powerful message of all time. God has entrusted us to carry his precious cure for sin's penalty and control to the lost world. We have been given a divine purpose.

3) Understand the purpose.

It's not just a privilege to share the message of the cross, it's a responsibility. And it helps to know the great purpose it serves.

2nd Cor. 5:13-21, "If we are out of our mind it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you." For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

We're therefore Christ’s ambassadors as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."

Paul said Christ's love compelled him because he was convinced that Jesus died for all and that would compel all who would come to faith in Christ to die to self and live for Jesus. To be compelled in the Greek means to be urged on. Paul felt a sense of urgency to get the message out.

But his passion was misconstrued by some to mean he was out of his mind. But Paul answered that by explaining that his actions were a result of his desire for God. But his listeners would know that he was in his right mind. He presented himself clearly and wisely. His teachings might seem radical, but they were true and powerful.

Like I talked about last week when Paul said he wasn't ashamed of the gospel. There were some who thought Paul had lost his mind the way he carried on about Jesus and the way he was living-being sold-out for Jesus and the gospel.

People might think we're not in our right mind, either. If we have made a transformation and living a new life some people will wonder what's gotten into us and perhaps think that we've lost it. But it's quite the contrary-we've found it! We are now totally in our right mind because we are developing in us the mind of Christ.

Paul said we were given the message and the ministry of reconciliation. The message of reconciliation is the gospel. The message that we are separated from God because of our sins but because Jesus died and rose to life he is our substitute and through him we can be reconciled to God.