Bible Study from Calvary Chapel Newberg
with Tom Fuller
Why The Cross?
Hebrews 12:2
Today we celebrate the most important event in human history. That\'s a pretty bold statement. Some people might argue that the most important event in human history so far was man landing on the moon, or the discovery of fire, or when in 1879 Lee Richmond pitched the first perfect game in Major League Baseball history.
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For those who understand human history from God\'s point of view, the Resurrection is the most significant because it provided proof that fellowship with our Creator-broken in the Garden of Eden by our rebellion and repeated countless times as humans again and again failed to reflect the character of God-that that broken fellowship was now restored.
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Lots of people celebrate Easter. It\'s been \"adopted\" as a special day, even by our secular society-not so much to commemorate the Resurrection but to get together as families, hunt for Easter eggs and eat candy. While there\'s nothing wrong with that, it\'s kind of two-off from the real reason we gather. One step closer is the Resurrection-that\'s why we call it Resurrection Sunday. But you can\'t get to Easter Sunday without going through Good Friday. You can\'t get to the Resurrection without going through the cross.
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Today I want to talk about the cross-not the gruesome details of the crucifixion itself-but to ask the question \"Why did God choose a wooden cross to kill His Son and why is that significant to our celebration of Resurrection Sunday?\"
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The wooden cross was prefigured by Abraham and Isaac in Genesis 22. It was first used in Persia to impale criminals. We see this in Esther. But why not use stoning, the preferred method of execution or burning with fire? We\'re going to look at six aspects of the cross to see if one sheds light on God\'s chosen means of killing Jesus.
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Was the Cross Political?
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Jesus railed against the current system of domination and so the leaders of that system had him killed to preserve their dominance. In the Roman world, crucifixion was reserved only for the vilest criminals; never for a citizen (who were beheaded). So crucifixion was the optimal way to attach to Jesus the label that would discredit Him and keep Him from being held as a martyr. But that\'s not the whole answer of why the cross.
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Was the Cross Sacrificial?
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The cross provided one sacrifice for all sin for all time
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Heb 10:11-14 And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. 14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
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The cross did not cleanse us from sin; it was merely the thing that held Jesus until His shed blood could perform that sacrifice by shedding His blood. So God could have used other methods of allowing Jesus to be the sacrifice.
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Was the Cross Atoning?
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It means God is with us, and no longer a God far away.
It also shows us that there is nothing left that separates us from God
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Ephesians 2:13-17 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For? he himself is our peace,? who has made us both one and has broken down? in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments and? ordinances, that he might create in himself one? new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might? reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.
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The Atonement literally means \"At One Ment\" but again, there was nothing special about a cross to make us one with God once again, but we are getting closer.
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Was the Cross Personal?
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The cross is a path to transformation
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Galatians 2:20-21 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
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But that transformation, as wonderful as it is, still doesn\'t get at why a wooden cross itself was significant as the means or execution.
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Was the Cross Legal?
There is the legal significance. Jesus dying on a tree was \"cursed\" according to The Law of Moses.
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Deuteronomy 21:22-23 \"And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, 23? his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God.? You shall not defile your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance.
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Referenced in Galatians 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us-for it is written,\"Cursed is everyone who is hanged? on a tree\"- 14 so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might? come to the Gentiles, so that? we might receive? the promised Spirit through faith.
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So now we get closer to the reason for the cross itself.
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Was the Cross Shameful?
Crucifixion was created by the Persians in the 6th century B.C. (Darius the 1st crucified 3,000 rebels in 519 B.C.) and used by Seleucids, the Carthaginians and the Romans until Constantine outlawed it in 337 A.D.? The slow, painful death is described as excruciating, which comes from the word \"crucifying\". It is the most degrading and agonizing form of execution ever devised. The victims would die of exposure, suffocation, thirst, or from bleeding to death. There is historical evidence of crucifixion in Roman times. The bones of a man were discovered that show distinct signs of having been crucified.
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Crucifixion was a means of execution but also humiliation because the condemned were completely vulnerable and exposed.
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For the Jews and ancient Near East people, only those worthy of death were hung on a tree. This was done after a person was dead by stoning or some other method to make them an example of shame and dishonor. This allowed people to vent their disgust and anger towards the person and their actions. Examples are Genesis 40 (chief baker), Joshua 8:29 (King Ai) and Joshua 10:26-27 (5 Kings of Southern Confederacy).
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Not only did Jesus bear the penalty for our sin, but he also bore the shame of our sin (the curse).
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The Jewish leaders wanted Jesus killed and shamed for blaspheme. It was this very kind of willful disobedience to God that Jesus actually went to the cross for.
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We deserve not only of the penalty for our sin (the \"wages\") but also the shame for having disobeyed God. God made Jesus at fault for our sins.
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Heb 12:2 Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising? the shame, and? is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
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Jesus despised (Greek: \"to think against\") the \"shame\" that we caused, but that shame was changed to honor as He took His place at the \"right hand of God.\" And we are now seated in that place of honor with Him!
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What does it mean to us?
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The most crucial moment on the cross was when Jesus cried out \"My God My God, why have you forsaken Me?\" (Mark 15:34 quoting Psalm 22:1). At that moment Jesus experienced something He had never known-the absence of fellowship with God. Jesus\' relationship with the Father had remained intact from birth because Jesus never sinned. But in that moment when the Father laid our evil on Him, that bond was severed, even if for but a moment.
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We live in that reality constantly. The breaking of that relationship, and the constant inability for us to be good, brings a huge sense of guilt and shame that we spend a lifetime trying to suppress.
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Our brains are pre-wired to justify our actions, but our conscience comes pre-wired to know right from wrong. That sets up a dissonance of guilt vs. false justification that messes with our souls.
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Adam and Eve\'s brains tried to justify their actions in the Garden of Eden. But their guilt and shame led them to cover themselves and hide from God.
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But now that Jesus has borne the shame of our disobedience and triumphed over it, the Father calls out \"Oly Oly Oxen Free!\" You can come out of hiding, you can uncover yourself before God because Jesus bore your shame.
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Ephesians 2:13-17 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
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