On the Cross

Today Christians commemorate the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Jesus was nailed to the cross at 9:00a.m., after an arduous trial, horrendous scourging, and foot-numbing-load-bearing trek to Golgotha – He took all our falling down even before He was hung upon that tree. 

By 12noon, the time when the heat of the day is most intense, complete and utter darkness fell upon the whole earth for 3 hours, and, at the end of the darkness, Jesus, looking up, cried out “It is finished!” – the Lamb was dead. 

Jesus hung there nailed through hands and feet for 6 excruciating hours.

Too many of us do not really understand the work that was finished on the cross. Jesus died on the Jewish Feast of Passover. He was the Passover Lamb, and what He finished on the cross enables our spiritual Passover from darkness into light. 

On the cross, God took everything back to Adam to effect the Passover of every single human being, just as He did in the time of Joshua, when the whole nation was given the opportunity to pass over as the flow of the Dead Sea was completely cut off.

“Then the waters which came down from above stood and rose up in a heap far off, at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan; and those flowing down toward the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt [Dead] Sea, were wholly cut off. And the people passed over opposite Jericho.” – Joshua 3:16 (AMPC)

Jesus’ crucifixion stopped the flow of death; He removed the barrier of death. Everything happened on the cross for a spiritual reason. Jesus suffered the physical so that we can enjoy the benefits of the spiritual. There’s knowlegde beyond what you can see.

On the cross, Jesus was fulfilling our death sentence. As you know, a sentence comes after judgment – Jesus was judged in place of you and me and every guilty sentence was laid upon Him so that we could be acquitted. He was the innocent paying for the crimes of the guilty.

“When He was hung on the cross, He took upon Himself the curse for our wrongdoing. For it is written in the Scriptures, "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree." – Galatians 3:13 (NLT)

Jesus became sin, He took all our diseases, all our pain, all our anguish – He became a curse for us so that we may become right with God. On the cross, even as Jesus took on all of our sinfulness, we remained the object of His love and care. God poured our sin-dead lives into His beloved Son and made us alive in Christ. He nailed our guilty verdict to the cross. The One who brought grace was nailed in grace so that we might experience the mercy of God, the antidote to the curse.

On the cross, Jesus showed the full extent of His love for us. His death provided salvation for “whosoever will”. It was the completion of His assignment on earth, and the glorification of His Father in Heaven. Isn’t it time that we truly honour what Jesus did for us on the cross?

Amen†

On the Cross

Shelley Johnson April 14, 2017