Fight the good fight!

I Corinthians 1:17-18 KJV
17 For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.
18 For the preaching of the Cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.

What does the Cross mean to you? Was it something you just used to get saved? Or is that where your faith needs to be continually for sanctification? How do we perform those good works such as feeding the poor, tithing, loving our brethren? How are we led by the Spirit? Do we just somehow on our own do it and hope it becomes a habit? Well folks that is where many in the body of Christ are today! Saved yet having no clue of how to live for God! If that weren’t the case then this Purpose Drivel and this “Emergent Church” nonsense wouldn’t be making its way into the body of Christ today!
When our Lord Jesus died on the Cross, it was a completely, utterly, totally finished work! EVERYTHING was solved therein. Our sins were absolved! And this is mans problem-our sin nature. All the other stuff anger, homosexuality, alcoholism, etc are just symptoms of our fallen state. Satan will use these symptoms of our sin nature to deceive us into creating a law for ourselves so that we won’t look to the Cross, but ourselves to solve the problem. He knows that as long as we just scratch the surface and never get to the root of the issue (sin) we will constantly fail and He will have the victory instead of Jesus! But Jesus already attained that victory at Calvary which is something that always needs to be at the forefront of the mind of every believer.
When we came to the Cross to be saved or born again, we exhibited faith in something that already happened and that we had not seen. As soon as that faith in what Jesus did at the Cross for us was exhibited, The Holy Spirit came to dwell within us. So does that mean now we are okay to just live our lives outside the parameters of Christ’s finished work? Heavens no! This, my friends is when the hard work begins!
Romans 8:1-4
1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
The only law we are under is the law of the Spirit. And that is to have continual faith in Christ and the victory He accomplished at the Cross. That is righteousness that God recognizes and that is what gives the Holy Spirit the latitude to work in our lives to bring about tithing, feeding the poor, loving our brethren, etc enabling us to give only God the glory while He allows us to grow in grace. Any and every action taken by man outside of faith in the finished work of Christ results in self-righteousness producing fruits of pride, vanity, boasting, etc.
Faith in Christ allows the Spirit to use us to produce works, while acting like Christ is just what it is: acting. All we need is to fight the good fight of faith. I believe God will finish the rest as long as we remain an empty vessel ready to be filled daily with the Holy Spirit upon faith in Jesus Christ and His finished work.