Understanding the Cross (Protestant/Evangelical Devotional)

What really happened on the cross? Was the death of Jesus a human tragedy whereby a good man was brutally and unfairly slain? Was His death an example of faith, obedience, and self-sacrifice? Was it a ransom paid to the Devil? A victory over the Devil? A manifestation of moral influence?

Was the cross an atonement? Did it involve expiation and propitiation for sin? Was it a supernatural act done to satisfy the wrath and justice of God? Each of these individually and several in combination have been set forth as the real meaning of Christ’s death.

How we understand the cross of Jesus in large part is determined by our view of the Bible. If we view the Bible as a primitive, pre-scientific expression of human religion, we will be inclined toward a purely natural view of the death of Jesus. It will represent at best an example of a heroic human act of self-sacrifice. Jesus is the existential hero of self-giving.

If we take the popular so-called neoorthodox view of Scripture, we will take a different approach to the cross. The neoorthodox view of the Bible denies that the Bible gives us propositional revelation. Rather, the Bible is seen as a witness to revelation that takes place in events.

To divide event revelation from propositional revelation is to leave us with a story without an interpretation. The Bible teaches that there was a crucial event, the event of the cross. Jesus of Nazareth was crucified. The significance of that death was not agreed upon by those who were a party to it or spectators of it. For the Sanhedrin, it was an act of expediency. It was necessary for Jesus to die, lest the Jews experience the wrath of the Romans. Likewise from Pilate’s vantage point, it was a matter of expediency for him to satisfy the demand of a raging mob. The thief on the cross saw it as an expression of injustice.

Coram Deo How do you view the death of Jesus on the cross? What do you believe really happened at the cross? How does it affect you?

Colossians 1:19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

Colossians 2:13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

1 Corinthians 1:17 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

As much as I love the insight that great Catholic thinkers have provided me . . . . . .

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I apologize for my inability to be eloquent in what I am preparing to say. I am simply answering the question proposed above in my own way and from my own understanding of being a reader of The Bible for many decades. I have nothing against the brilliant Catholic theologians and professors from hundreds of years ago but I give their ideas no more weight than the scriptures themselves and my own interpretation of them. The scriptures speak for themselves although the best we can glean from them depends on how well the Greek and Hebrew were translated into our own language. There is much that must be understood of tradition and customs of the writers to really have good insight into the scriptures.

I demand of nobody to adhere to my beliefs, they are mine and yours are yours. Mine are valid to me.

The question I suppose is what is the purpose of The Savior, The literal Son of God being crucified on a cross. At the time the most horrible means of capital punishment yet devised. That punishment normally took at least a few days of the most excruciating pain imaginable.

The crucifixion did not take place in a vacuum. It was the culmination of a plan set forth before the world was. It was foretold in a number of scriptural references.

While in the Garden of Eden Adam and Eve lived in a carefree wonderful world, in that world they conversed with God, they received instructions from Him. One instruction was to not eat of the tree of knowledge. Once they disobeyed this commandment they had to pay for their disobedience. The punishment laid out by God before the sin was death and banishment from the garden which would mean separation from God.

We are all descended from Adam and Eve so we suffer the same punishment. Mortality cannot beget immortality.

Along comes a great man after the flood whom the Lord loves and makes a covenant with, Abraham. Adam was taught to make sacrifices of his first born of sheep and cattle to God which continued until the 12 sons of Jacob, this tradition continued thru the exodus thru to the first temple and again in the second temple, Why?

God provided a way for Adam and his heritage to return to God’s presence and it was not by offering a sacrifice of animals it was by paying for the sin with death and separation. When you are guilty of these sins you cannot avoid punishment. Christ was not guilty yet He paid by dying and separation from God.

Christ loves us so when we stand before the judgment seat of God and the books are opened and our sins are reviewed we will be found guilty and liable for paying the price. That is when Christ who loves us will step between us and God The Father and explain that He has already paid the price for this person, since He was not guilty of the sin He will allow that what He paid will go into my account. In the Garden He took upon Himself all the sorrows and sins of the entire world, that is why he sweat blood.

He has paid for my many sins and all I need do is beg Him to apply His punishment to my sin. Pain, death and sorrow are all part of the punishment He had to suffer to take my punishment.

Christ demands a price from us, that is our obedience and that we follow Him. That we become Like Him, that we Love Him. That we forsake our sins and that we forsake evil. We call this repentance, if we can’t do this then we will not be partakers of the Grace He offers.

He didn’t have to die. He was by virtue of His Father an immortal. He gave up His life. He allowed Himself to die, He gave His Spirit to His Father only a few hours after being hung on the cross. The soldiers were commanded to break the legs of the men on the crosses so that they would not be able to breath for long and die so that the punishment would not last into Passover but Christ inexplicably was already dead.

The law of sacrifice was completed. The purpose of sacrifice for millennia was simply to remind us of what would happen on the day Jesus Christ was sacrificed for the sins of mankind.

There is nothing mysterious about it, it was known from the foundations of the world that it would happen, it was foretold by prophets and the event was witnessed by many and written about by a few of his followers and is perhaps the second most significant event in the history of man, the first being what happened Easter morning.

Realize that a God came to earth as a mortal, suffered, bled and died when He didn’t have to except that He loved us enough to do so.

As Christ was made alive on Easter Morning so will all of us be made alive again to stand before our maker and be judged. While none of us will be worthy of the love The Savior offered to us I pray that all will learn what happened and take advantage of what is being offered by doing the best we can to follow Him, Love Him and by obeying Him.

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