The Cross: God’s Love For Mankind

What is the cross? Why is the crucifixion of a Jew called Jesus of so much importance to us Christians, after all, He was not the first or the only one to be crucified. And why was there a need for a cross? And oh, did we really need a Saviour in the first place? To answer these questions let us first ask ourselves, did we need a Savior in the first place? The answer is yes we did need a Saviour. God is Holy while we on our own are not holy for the word in Romans 3:10-11 says, “As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.” All of us have a problem, a SIN problem, that separates us from a holy God. Now sin is not the act but it is our very nature assumed at the Garden of Eden when Adam rebelled against God’s command. To explain further, a mango tree is not a mango tree only after it produces mangoes but it is naturally a mango tree and can only produce mangoes therefore the sins we commit are the outward manifestation of our inherent sinful nature. We can try to sort out the sin problem on our own through obedience to the law, God’s holy, just and good law (given through Moses His servant) but because the law is spirit and we are carnal in nature, we keep on failing miserably. Why? Because the carnal mind cannot be subject to the spiritual law period (Romans 8:7, “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.”). Therefore God has made a way for us to be reconciled to Him (Ephesians 2:8, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.”). Now, let us say we do need a Saviour, then why did it have to be the Jew called Jesus? Because He meets two requirements: first He is the only begotten son of God (John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”) and secondly He is the promised seed to Adam (Genesis 3:15, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel."), then Abraham (Galatians 3: 16, “The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say "and to seeds," meaning many people, but "and to your seed," meaning one person, who is Christ.”) who was to bring redemption to the world. Crucifixion was chosen mode of capital punishment by the Romans for executing those considered traitors, murderers and hardcore criminals. It has been estimated that the Romans were crucifying at least 2,000 people per day during the days Jesus walked the earth. It was chosen because it was a slow and excruciating way to die. The person to be crucified would be stripped naked and scourged by the roman whip that included stripes of bone fragments and metal that tore at the flesh as the whip was being retrieved. It was a public spectacle with the person carrying their own cross to the site of crucifixion. Now to the Jews, the lifting up of Jesus would remind them of an event that happened during the time of Moses in the wilderness (Numbers 21: 5-9, “they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!" Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, "We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us." So Moses prayed for the people. The Lord said to Moses, "Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live." So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived.”) Jesus himself testified that he was to be like the snake in John 3:14-15, “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” The snake represented the sinful nature of man that was to be punished in his body by death for the requirement of the law to be met in those that were to live by faith in God’s finished work at the cross (Romans 8:3-4, “For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.”). Why did Jesus have to die? Hebrews 9: 22 says, “In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” The shedding of His blood was necessary to atone for our sins (Romans 5:9, “Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him!” and 1 John 2:2, “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.”). And why did He choose to die for us Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Love – His unconditional and unchanging love for mankind. Now what is this love 1 John 3: 16, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.” And how great is this love Romans 8: 38-39, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” At the Garden of Eden, the great Deceiver, Satan, tempted the first man to rebel against God and caused the man to lose his right standing with God. But the cross is God’s plan for redeeming man, justifying him and allowing him access to His presence, not because of what the man has done but as a gift from God. At the cross seed of man, is struck by the serpent at His heel but the seed of man bruises the head of the serpent. The power of Satan over man is defeated at the cross (Colossians 2:13-15, “When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having cancelled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”). Jesus came to destroy the work of the Devil, 1 John 3: 8, “…The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work.” Salvation of man is the handiwork of God so that no man can boast. It is His desire for all to access salvation (1Timothy 2:3-4, “This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”). Our God loves us with an immeasurable love whose extent cannot be known but the Devil would want us to believe that He is a vengeful God whose desire is to see mankind perish. (Ezekiel 33:11, “Say to them, 'As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, O house of Israel?'”). He is grieved in His heart when knowing the truth, we choose to turn away from Him and unto death. He is calling unto us with open arms calling us unto redemption and adoption (Romans 8:23, “Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.), only if we believe in Him who He sent. Therefore let us rejoice as we run into His loving arms crying out Abba… father unto eternal life.