Key Passage
The soldiers nailed Jesus to a cross. Then the soldiers divided Jesus' clothes among themselves. They gambled with dice to decide which clothes each soldier would get.
— Mark 15:24 ERV (Read Full Text)
Key Thought
Just as the soldiers at the foot of this cross gambled for Jesus' clothes, people still gamble on the Cross of Christ today. Anytime people refuse to recognize who was crucified on that Cross, they gamble their future—their eternal future—assuming that Jesus was only just another man. The stakes of this gamble are incredibly high. Either Jesus offers eternal life with God or he is a delusional, self-appointed messiah. Skull Hill leaves no other places for us to place a wager. For those who believe in what Jesus did at this Cross and commit their lives to him, their faith promises them life. For those who do not believe, there is only a horribly risky gamble that this Jesus was just another man. We know from Mark 15:39 that at least one soldier acknowleged Jesus as God's Son. What have you decided about the identity of this man, Jesus, on this Cross?
Prayer
Father in heaven, I believe that Jesus died on the Cross to save me from my sins. I believe you raised Jesus from the dead. I have been baptized to share in his death and I have been raised to walk in a new life trusting in your saving power. I believe that Jesus' death and resurrection broke the power that Satan and his demons had over me through death. Please help me keep dead the old life I have left. Empower me by your Spirit so that I can be a living witness to the power of your Son's love and your grace. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
Related Scriptures
The teaching about the cross seems foolish to those people that are lost. But to us who are being saved it is the power of God. Like the Scriptures say, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise people. I will confuse the understanding of the intelligent people." Where is the wise person? Where is the educated person? Where is the philosopher of this time? God has made the wisdom of the world foolish. This is what God with his wisdom wanted: The world did not know God through the world's own wisdom. So God used the message that sounds foolish to save the people that believe it. The Jews ask for miracles as proofs. The Greeks want wisdom. But this is the message we tell everyone: Christ was killed on a cross. This message is a big problem to the Jews. And the non-Jews think it is foolish. But Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God to those people that God has called (chosen)—Jews and Greeks (non-Jews). Even the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom. Even the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.
— 1 Corinthians 1:18-25
In Christ you had a different kind of circumcision. That circumcision was not done by the hands of any person. I mean you were made free from the power of your sinful self. That is the kind of circumcision Christ does. When you were baptized, {your old self died and} you were buried with Christ. And in that baptism you were raised up with Christ because of your faith in God's power. God's power was shown when he raised Christ from death. You were spiritually dead because of your sins and because you were not free from the power of your sinful self. But God made you alive with Christ. And God forgave all our sins. We owed a debt because we broke God's laws. That debt listed all the rules we failed to follow. But God forgave us of that debt. God took away that debt and nailed it to the cross. God defeated the spiritual rulers and powers. With the cross God won the victory and defeated those rulers and powers. God showed the world that they were powerless.
— Colossians 2:11-15
I hope I will never boast about things like that. The cross (death) of our Lord Jesus Christ is my only reason for boasting. Through Jesus' death on the cross the world is dead to me; and I am dead to the world.
— Galatians 6:14
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