"Take the cross out of our preaching is like taking heat out of fire, melody out of music, numbers out of mathematics, fact out of history, mind out of metaphysics, and words out of vocabularies." (R.G.Lee) So what did Jesus achieve by dying on the Cross? Let me give you some ideas from the New Testament and see which one of them is important to you.

1. The Cross Destroys the Fear of Death .

In 2 Thessalonians 1 he gives us an example of how central and urgent prayer was to him. He begins and ends his remarks with an acknowledgement of our complete and utter dependence upon God for everything. The word he uses to describe this dependence is "grace". It means an unmerited gift, something that is given to us without our deserving it. Life itself is such a gift. So also is peace, forgiveness and salvation. The Gospel is the good news of God's grace to us in Jesus Christ.

She was a Samaritan woman. Jews like Jesus did not associate with Samaritans. They were regarded as religious heretics, and ethnic half-breeds, unfit to worship in the Temple at Jerusalem . They worshipped instead at their own temple on Mt. Gerizim . Yet Jesus asserted to her that although salvation was to come through the Jewish Messiah, his Heavenly Father would not discriminate between Jerusalem and Gerizim.

What is the difference between someone who is full of themselves, and someone who is full of love? When someone is full of themselves they are uncomfortable to be around. When someone is full of love they attract others. What transforms a person from being full of themselves into someone who is full of love? The disciples of Jesus found out on the day of Pentecost.