September 24 - The Wonderful Cross

 The Wonderful Cross

“God made Him [that is, Christ] God made Him who knew no sin, to become sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Corinthians 5:21

The Cross is the most important subject in all of the Bible. All of the Old Testament points the readers ahead to the Cross. When we speak of the Cross we do not make reference to the wooden instrument, rather the symbol. Reference to the Cross is speaking about the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. When Paul wrote of the Cross in this verse he was referring to the death and shedding of the blood of Jesus Christ. There is no saving ability in the wooden instrument on which Jesus died on. The Cross, itself, was not preserved.

All of the New Testament reminds the believers what happened on the Cross. The Cross is our life line. It is the reason for all of our preaching. It will keep us focused on the true message of this church. Paul said in 1Corinthians 1:18, “For the preaching of the Cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.” (KJV)  Accept it and it vindicate us.  Reject it and it indicts us.

Paul Culbertson wrote how Christ comes to our neighbors as He did to Jerusalem and our response speaks so much about our hearts:

When Jesus came to Golgotha,
They hanged Him on a tree;
They drove great nails through hands and feet
And made a Calvary;
They crowned Him with a crown of thorns,
Red were His wounds and deep;
For those were crude and cruel days,
And human flesh was cheap.
When Jesus came to Birmingham.
They simply passed Him by;
They never hurt a hair of Him,
They only let Him die;
For men had grown more tender,
And they would not give Him pain,
They only just passed down the street,
and left Him in the rain.

What did happen on the Cross? Why was the Cross necessary? And what difference does the Cross make to you? The answers to all of those questions can be found in three “V’s. The three “V’s” of Calvary.

1)   The Cross Was Voluntary

Jesus Christ suffered and died on the Cross voluntarily. No one compelled Him. No one pushed Him. He was not constrained or compelled to go and die on the Cross of Calvary by anyone but Himself. He went and died there voluntarily—of His own accord.

2)  The Cross was Vicarious

Webster’s defines the word vicarious as: serving instead of someone or something else, or performed or suffered by one person as a substitute for another or to the benefit or advantage of another.

So Christ died on the Cross both instead of us, and on our behalf, or for our benefit. Jesus Himself said, “The Son of man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.” Jesus Christ was my substitute on the Cross. And He was your substitute on the Cross. His work of redemption there was a work for us.

Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “God made Him [that is, Christ] God made Him who knew no sin, to become sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God.”

3)  The Cross Was Victorious

It is our victory. Victory over what?  Sin, death and hell. “Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ,” Paul writes in I Cor. 15:57. He has made us alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us.

Someone once said, “An artist can paint the physical hands and feet of our Lord, but he cannot paint the healing power of those hands and the godly walk of those feet. He can paint the outward suffering, but not the inward cause; the cursed tree, but not the curse of the law; the bearing of the Cross, but not the bearing of the sins of His people; the cup of vinegar, but not the cup of wrath--the derision of His enemies and the forsaking of the Father.”

God took the most horrible execution of death and turned it into the most beautiful example of love.  It is wonderful.  It is wondrous.  It is God’s greatest gift of love.

Terry Risser

Reflections:

1) How was the Cross viewed before Jesus was hung on it?  How was it viewed         after He arose?

2) Find a way to thank Him for it today.

Consider reading the Word today:

Copyright 2014- Terry Risser