THE CROSS OF CHRIST - GOD'S PLAN OF REDEMPTION

            THE CROSS OF CHRIST - GOD'S PLAN OF REDEMPTION

 "For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God." 1 Corinthians 1:18

 The Cross of Christ is not just a religious symbol; it is the method by which our Lord Jesus Christ was put to death. Crucifixion was the Roman way of executing criminals and political enemies. Christians use it as a symbol and reminder of what He went through for us and identifying Who we trust: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16. But what is the significance of the cross for us today? 

 WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE CROSS TO US TODAY?

 There are two crosses the Bible speaks of that are critical to us: the Cross of Christ, and Our Cross. The Cross of Christ is the focal point of our salvation. Through Jesus' suffering and death on the cross, He has purchased our salvation, which includes: the forgiveness of sins, our righteousness before God, and the countless benefits included in our reconciliation to God. Nothing can be added to it, and nothing can be taken from it.

 Our Cross is how Jesus told us to follow Him: "And He said to them all, 'If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.'" Luke 9:23. In Jesus' day, such a statement would have been terrifying, because it was a living reality to people under the hand of the Roman Empire. Taking up a cross was a terrible death sentence. To us today, that means that we die to our will and our ways in exchange for obedience to Christ and whatever that encompasses. The cross implies suffering and death, and in the public eye as well, but in Christ Jesus, the promise of the resurrection and eternal life!

WHAT IS THE UNDERLYING SIGNIFICANCE OF THE CROSS OF CHRIST?

 Jesus' last statement on the cross before He died was, "It is finished." What was He referring to? To know this, we must understand God's plan of redemption. Redemption means to win or buy back what was lost.

  A SNAPSHOT OF GOD'S REDEMPTION PLAN FOR MANKIND  Genesis 1-3

  God created man (both male and female) in His image and likeness to be with Him in a holy, loving fellowship throughout eternity. But as recorded, when Adam and Eve were seduced by the serpent to eat of the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the relationship between our Creator and us was severed. Once bound to sin, that fallen nature and the penalty of death, as the parents of the human race, were passed on to all. "...for in the day that you eat thereof, you shall surely die," even though they lived physically for hundreds of years after the fall. Adam died at 930  years old after the fall. The Scriptures declare that outside of Christ we are all"...dead in trespasses and sin, cut off from the presence of God.  Please understand that death for mankind was a gift of grace for us. God, our Loving Heavenly Father, could not want us to live as irredeemable sinners who would be bound to live in sin forever, "And the Lord God said, 'Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever.' therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken" Genesis 3:22-23. That would have been a hopeless, horrible hell. Ah, but He had set a plan in motion for our redemption! Furthermore, in the story of Adam and Eve, the enemy of the human race was also introduced: that serpent, the devil, a fallen angel and our true enemy, who thereby gained a deadly foothold in mankind. But God was going to deal with that at the same time. "And the Lord God said to the serpent, '...And I will put enmity between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise Him on the heel.'" Genesis 3:   14-15

GOD'S REDEMPTION OBJECTIVES

 From the fall of man into sin, God had a plan of redemption:                                       - to buy us back from the slavery and penalty of sin ("...For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.")

         - to restore the relationship that was lost by sin ("And you, that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now has He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in His sight." )

         - to restore us to the promise of eternal life ("Jesus said unto her, 'I am the Resurrection and the Life: he that believes in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.'")

        - and break the power of the devil's influence over us ("...for this purpose was the Son of God manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.")

NEXT, THE INTRODUCTION OF THE LAW AND THE SACRIFICES

 We will jump ahead a little and go from Abraham, the father of faith, who succeeded where Adam and Eve failed (he obeyed God's instructions), to Moses, through whom God introduced His laws and covenant sacrifices. In God's plan of redemption for mankind, He needed to establish and settle certain things for us so that we could have a clearer picture of our situation and what He requires of us. First, He established His laws, the Ten Commandments, along with all their associated laws, so that we may know His will, what is right and wrong, good and evil = sin, to show us where we have fallen short of His glory," and the penalty, (the wages of sin is death...for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.") Along with the Law, He also introduced sacrifices. The sacrifices were complicated and extensive. The primary goal of sacrifices was to make atonement or payment for sins. They were detailed and complex, but in the end those symbolic sacrifices could never really cleanse us of our sins Hebrews 10:4. One thing we learned from these sacrifices is that, "...without the shedding of blood, there is no remission/release of guilt/ forgiveness." Hebrews 9:22

 On our part, attempting to keep the Law, we also learn that we are under a CURSE, because we have to fulfill everything in the Law- "Cursed be he that does not confirm/support/uphold all the words of this law to do them..." Deuteronomy 27:26. He adds a further aspect about a death penalty for breaking the Law: the curse of hanging, "And if a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his corpse shall not hang all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him on the same day....for he that is hanged is cursed of God." Deuteronomy  21:22-23

   Notwithstanding, God revealed something so special in the Exodus of the Children of Israel from the bondage of Egypt. The night that the Lord was to pass through the land of Egypt, the Lord had the Children of Israel slaughter a perfect lamb, one without blemish, and then paint its blood on the doorposts and lintel of their houses. When the Lord would see the blood of the lamb on the doorposts and lintel, he would pass over the inhabitants of that home and not touch them. Hence, the PASSOVER LAMB.

Let's sum this up: - God's laws show us what HE calls sin ("by the law is the                                        knowledge of sin.")

                                - God's laws show we are sinners ("...I had no know sin,                                         but by the law.")

                                - God's laws show that sin must be paid for in blood                                              ("...without the shedding of blood, there is no remission.")

                                - Even Ritual blood sacrifices cannot actually remove sin                                      ("...for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of                                              goats should take away sins.")

                                - Attempting to keep the Law brings us under a curse                                             ("For as many as are of the works of the law are under                                           the curse...")

                                - The WORLD needed a Passover Lamb ("...for all have                                             sinned and come short of the glory of God.")

  So to sum this up so far, from the perspective of anyone outside of God's salvation, to be reconciled to God our Creator, we:                                                 - cannot work to pay off our sin,                                                                                 - cannot be righteous by His standards by our works,                                             - blood has to be shed to make payment for our sins,                                           - animal blood sacrifices are unable to make just payment.                                   - We needed God to save us!!!  

 HOW DOES THE CROSS FIT INTO GOD'S PLAN OF REDEMPTION?

 When John the Baptist saw Jesus, he exclaimed, "Behold the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world!" John 1:29 God's Passover Lamb

 OK, right away, that is declaring that Jesus the Messiah was God's Passover Lamb, unblemish/sinless and holy, which meant He was to die sacrificially, and His life's blood that He would shed as the Passover Lamb would deliver us from the wrath of God. But how does the Roman form of execution get involved in Jesus' death for the fulfillment of the Mosaic Law and Jewish prophecy, especially because most of us are not Jews? Jesus was condemned by the Jewish religious leaders. He was accused of being a blasphemer for claiming to be the Son of God (which He is). Under Jewish law, He was to be stoned to death, but because they were under Roman Law at that time, to be executed, He would have to have been executed the Roman way, which was crucifixion(John 18:31-32, 19:7). This is so critical! According to the justice and ordinances of God's Mosaic Law, stoning to death (which was the way people who blasphemed were to be put to death) could not have suited the demands of God's sacrificial laws. Blood had to be sacrificially shed, and the entire Law had to be satisfied in order for us to be guiltless and accepted by God, including the curse of the Law, and the Roman Cross fulfilled it completely! The Savior of the World had to therefore be hung as a criminal and enemy which is what we are outside of Christ (Romans 5:10, Colossians 1:21), "...because cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree," thus also freeing us from the curse of the law, Galatians 3:13. His blood was shed by the ruthless, bloody Roman scourging, the crown of thorns, the nails in His hands and feet, and finally the spear in His side from which flowed blood and water, to ensure His death, "...and when I see the blood, I will pass over you." Exodus 13:13, "Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him." Romans 5:9.  "Surely He has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." Isaiah 53:   4-6. OH, but that is not all! He had to be nailed on the tree, not just to fulfill the prophecies of Psalm 22:11-21,  BUT, "...blotting out the handwriting ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, NAILING IT TO THE CROSS." The Law, though it is the truth and the parameters of obedience to God, had to not only be fulfilled and satisfied, but also had to be done away with as far as being demanded for our righteousness and our salvation, because none of us were able to keep it. It was nailed to the cross with Jesus, Who fulfilled it perfectly and completely!!! And through the final nail of the cross of Christ, "Having spoiled/disarmed the principalities and powers, He made a show of them OPENLY, triumphing over them in it (the cross)." Colossians 2:14,15. As a man, in the place of man, and for man's guilt, Jesus fulfilled all that was against us and thus rendered Satan's hold on mankind powerless and completely defeated, in an open public display!!! Before I forget, the Passover Lamb could not have any of his bones broken (Exodus 12:46), which Jesus would have inevitably had, had He been stoned to death. Because Jesus was already dead by nightfall, the soldiers did not have to break His legs as they did to the two criminals. For the sake of honoring the Jewish Passover, they did not leave a hung person on the cross because the Jewish Law (Deuteronomy 21:22-23) required them to be taken down and buried.         On and through the cross, He took care of everything. His blood washes away our sins and thus removes our guilt before God and the curse of the Law. Through it He also broke the power of death and the grave, the penalties of sin. The Law was also completely fulfilled and satisfied, and is no longer the standard for our righteousness. And finally, at the cross, He broke the powers of darkness over us. Furthermore, through it He imparts to us His righteousness for our justification and salvation, gives us the hope of our resurrection and eternal life along with all the unfathomable benefits of the grace of God. One last point, because it was not carried out under Jewish law, even though it fulfilled the Mosaic Laws and prophesies completely, but was carried out under secular jurisdiction, thus all the world is included! How glorious and wonderful is our GOD!!! Let us give Him endless praise and thanks!

 So now we can say as the apostle Paul said,  "May I never boast except in the cross or our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." Galatians 6:14

"For the wages of sin is DEATH, but the gift of GOD is Eternal Life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Romans 6:23

"IT IS FINISHED"