We continue our Lent series, In Light of the Cross, using the image of overlapping transparencies to show how the Old Testament stories progressively reveal the coming Messiah: a savior like Noah, a faith-filled righteous one like Abraham, a king from Judah in Jacob’s blessing, and a prophet-mediator-deliverer like Moses.

From Exodus 6, we highlight God’s promise to deliver, redeem, claim a people, and restore them, undoing the effects of the fall and ultimately fulfilled in Jesus’ death and resurrection.

We then reflect on the Mosaic Law (613 commands): the law is good as an expression of God’s righteousness and love, but human sin makes it accuse us and show our need for a Savior. Jesus alone fulfills it perfectly and applies his righteousness to those who trust him, so our focus isn’t burdened rule-keeping but faith in Christ that becomes embodied in a transformed life of love.

We end by reflecting on trust and praying the Lord’s Prayer.

00:00 Lenten Series Welcome

00:26 Overhead Transparency Illustration

01:19 Messiah Promise Unfolding

02:40 Exodus Redemption Preview

03:15 Pause and Center on Christ

03:51 Why the Law Matters

05:03 Law Is Good but We Fail

05:52 Jesus Fulfills the Law

08:05 Not Under Mosaic Covenant

09:38 Heart Posture and Sermon

10:32 Faith as the True Work

12:24 Living Faith in Practice

13:24 Reflection and Invitation

14:49 Closing with Lords Prayer

In episode 12 of In Light of The Cross, we move from Joseph at the end of Genesis into Exodus and Moses, reading the Old Testament through what Jesus accomplished at the cross.

We note Jacob’s prophecy in Genesis 49 that a forever-king will come from Judah, then trace Israel’s 400 years of slavery in Egypt and God raising up Moses as a prophet, deliverer, and mediator who points to Christ but is not the Messiah.

We highlight Exodus 6:6–8, where God promises to bring Israel out, free them, redeem them, take them as his people, and bring them into the land, showing salvation as freedom from oppressive powers and restoration to relationship with God.

We connect Egypt, Babylon, and Rome as symbols of forces opposing God, reflect on not “going back to Egypt,” and close with the Lord’s Prayer.

00:00 Welcome and Focus

00:51 Genesis 49 Promise

01:59 Moses as a Type

03:21 Egypt as Oppression

05:07 Moses Imperfect Mediator

05:57 Gods Covenant Response

08:18 Meaning of Salvation

11:30 Exodus Points to Jesus

12:19 Plagues Red Sea Faithfulness

14:03 Hearts Still in Egypt

15:26 Reflection and Lords Prayer

Through Suffering In this Lenten episode of In Light of the Cross, we continue tracing the biblical story to see how it points to Jesus, focusing today on Joseph as an imperfect type of Christ. We note how God flips the world’s expectations and we push back on readings that make the story about personal success or “following your dreams,” emphasizing instead that God is the hero: Joseph prospers because God is with him.

We walk through Joseph’s suffering—betrayed by his brothers, enslaved, falsely accused, imprisoned, then raised to serve Pharaoh—and how God uses it to save Egypt and Joseph’s own family, culminating in forgiveness and “you meant evil, but God meant it for good.” We reflect on restored relationships and on suffering as real evil that God can still use redemptively, and we close with the Lord’s Prayer.

00:00 Lenten Series Setup

00:51 Pause and Invite Spirit

01:21 Joseph in the Promise Line

03:11 Not Self Help God the Hero

05:15 Josephs Suffering and Rise

06:23 Gospel Threads Forgiveness

07:47 Restored Family and Hope

10:50 Application Restore and Endure

13:40 Closing Prayer Lords Prayer

Episode 10 of “In The Light of The Cross” reviews Abraham’s promise and faith, emphasizing that righteousness is trusting God and that this theme continues through Israel and informs how believers respond to the cross. The episode focuses on Isaac’s miraculous birth as a potential “child of the promise,” his role as a type of Christ, and the Mount Moriah sacrifice story, highlighting substitution when God provides a ram and pointing to God’s willingness to sacrifice his own Son. It notes Isaac’s human failures, including repeating Abraham’s deception about his wife, showing human brokenness alongside God’s grace. The discussion then turns to Jacob’s deception, family dysfunction, and God’s faithfulness despite Jacob’s scheming, concluding with reflection on persistent grace, confession, and praying the Lord’s Prayer.

00:00 Welcome and Format

00:55 Abraham Promise Recap

02:32 Faith as Righteousness

03:57 Isaac's Miraculous Birth

05:11 Binding of Isaac

07:42 Substitution and Symbols

08:06 Isaac Repeats Failure

09:44 Jacob the Deceiver

11:59 Reflection and Confession

13:54 Lord's Prayer Closing

Day 9: Abraham and the Scarlet Thread

In day nine of In Light of the Cross, we keep tracing the Old Testament’s “seemingly endless story” of human brokenness and God’s scarlet thread of grace, made clearest in Jesus’ death on the cross. After Babel, we meet Abram and wonder if he’s the one to crush the serpent, since God calls him to leave wealthy Ur and promises to make him a great nation and bless all peoples through him. But Abraham’s story is a mix of faith and failure—passing Sarah off as his sister and going along with Hagar—showing the heart of relationship with God is trust, not heroic works. We sit with Genesis 15:6 (belief credited as righteousness) and connect it to Paul and to trusting God’s promise in Jesus. We close by reflecting on where we’re resisting faithfulness and praying “your will be done” and “deliver us from the evil one.”

00:00 Day Nine Setup

01:19 Pause And Invite

01:50 Abram Called Out

03:06 Faith And Failure

04:05 Trust Is The Point

05:25 Genesis 15 Promise

07:12 Blessing The Nations

07:57 Trust Through The Cross

09:16 Daily Trust Check 1

1:07 Yielding Prayer Close

Episode 8: The Stairway to Heaven

In episode eight of the In Light of the Cross Podcast, we trace what unfolds after Adam and Eve’s sin: Cain and Abel, Cain’s exile, and the escalation of violence and pride in Cain’s line culminating in Lamech, who boasts in vengeance and introduces polygamy. We contrast this with Seth’s line, highlighting Enoch, who “walked with God,” and follow the story into Noah, who finds favor amid overwhelming human wickedness yet still falls into sin after the flood, showing he isn’t the promised deliverer. We then look at the Tower of Babel as humanity’s attempt to secure God’s blessing on its own terms, and how God’s response sets up the call of Abraham and the promise that all nations will be blessed through him, ultimately pointing forward to Jesus. We close by reflecting on where we rely on our own power instead of trusting God and end with the Lord’s Prayer.

00:00 Welcome and Prayer

01:28 Cain and Abel

02:53 Lamech and Violence

05:10 Two Family Lines

06:16 Noah and the Flood

07:14 Noah Falls Short

08:49 Tower of Babel

10:22 Babel to Jesus

12:12 Call of Abraham

13:49 Reflection and Lord's Prayer

Adam, the Second Adam, and the Scarlet Thread of Grace

In this episode of In Light of the Cross, we keep exploring salvation by returning to Genesis 1–3 as an “overture” that sets a repeating biblical pattern: human failure intertwined with God’s grace and promise.

We revisit Adam and Eve’s sin as more than rule-breaking—it's rejecting God’s authority and grasping autonomy—and we see grace immediately in Genesis 3:15 through the promised “seed of the woman” who will crush the serpent. We also note how God replaces their fig-leaf coverings by clothing them with animal skins, pointing ahead to sacrifice and ultimately the cross. Then we connect this to Jesus as the “second Adam” in Romans 5:12–21: where Adam’s disobedience brings condemnation and death, Christ’s obedience brings justification, life, and a new humanity defined by his righteousness. We close by reflecting on how sin dehumanizes us and thanking God for the scarlet thread of grace, ending with the Lord’s Prayer.

00:00 Salvation Pattern Preview

01:11 Guided Pause and Presence

01:51 Adam and Eve Failure

02:51 First Gospel Promise

03:47 Garments of Grace

04:29 Jesus the Second Adam

06:18 Romans Five Reading

08:14 New Humanity in Christ

10:03 Pattern Through Scripture

11:10 Reflection and Application

12:40 The Lord's Prayer

Salvation in Light of the Cross: The Scarlet Thread

Through Scripture In this Lenten episode of In Light of the Cross, we reflect on last week’s four dimensions of sin: breaking God’s command, betraying relationship with God, siding with God’s enemy and becoming enslaved, and forfeiting the good life that leads to death.

From there, we frame the Bible not as a rulebook but as the unified story of how God answers sin and restores humanity to fellowship with him and to his likeness—fulfilled in Jesus’ cross and resurrection. We talk about how the cross becomes the lens that reinterprets the Old Testament like a late-movie reveal, and we summarize the Old Testament as humanity’s failure woven with a scarlet thread of grace pointing to Christ. We read lyrics from the Gettys’ “Scarlet Thread,” then end with gratitude and the Lord’s Prayer.

00:00 Lenten Focus on Salvation

01:15 Pause and Prepare

02:34 Four Dimensions of Sin

04:02 Salvation Restores Image

05:34 Cross as Bible Lens

08:15 Old Testament Scarlet Thread

09:57 Ephesians and God’s Plan

11:44 Scarlet Thread Song Lyrics

14:03 Gratitude and Application

14:59 Yielding in Lord’s Prayer

Day 5: We Can’t Fix Sin—Grace in Light of the Cross

We wrap up week one of In Light of the Cross by looking at sin as a problem we can’t fix ourselves and why we need God’s grace. After praying, we read Ephesians 2:1–10 and focus on Paul’s point that we were dead in sin and saved by grace through faith, not by works. We use a story from Master and Commander to show why “trying harder” can’t solve sin, and we connect this to Genesis 3:21 where God clothes Adam and Eve with skins, pointing ahead to sacrifice and ultimately Jesus. We talk about confession as a practice that deepens fellowship with God, not a work that earns salvation, and we end by thanking God for grace and praying the Lord’s Prayer.

00:00 Week Recap and Focus

00:58 Prayer and Scripture Reading

03:05 Grace Not Self Repair

05:08 Genesis Covering and Sacrifice

07:26 Why Works Cannot Pay

08:43 Confession and Ongoing Grace

11:08 Application Gratitude Practice 1

1:59 The Lord's Prayer Closing

Sin, Brokenness, and the Life Jesus Brings

In week one, day four of In Light of the Cross, we kept exploring sin through the lens of the cross, focusing on how sin doesn’t just break God’s commands—it also forfeits the life God designed for us. Using Genesis 3, we talked about death as being cut off from the source of life, and read John 10:10 to see that Jesus came to give life to the full and undo the thief’s work. We unpacked four dimensions of brokenness caused by sin: our relationship with God, with others, with ourselves (shame), and with creation (the curse), tying this to creation’s groaning in Romans 8. We ended by reflecting on where we’ve experienced and contributed to this brokenness, then prayed the Lord’s Prayer together.

00:00 Week Four Welcome

01:02 Sin Forfeits Life 02:14

Life to the Full 02:52

Sin as Deadly Error

03:52 Fourfold Brokenness

07:38 Cosmic Reconciliation

08:19 Creation Groans

11:06 Reflect and Pray

12:10 The Lord's Prayer