He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might
die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. 1
Peter 2:24
The Cross of Christ is the
revealed truth of God’s judgment on sin. Never associate the idea of martyrdom
with the Cross of Christ. It was the supreme triumph, and it shook the very
foundations of hell. There is nothing in time or eternity more absolutely certain
and irrefutable than what Jesus Christ accomplished on the Cross— He made it
possible for the entire human race to be brought back into a right-standing
relationship with God. He made redemption the foundation of human life; that
is, He made a way for every person to have fellowship with God.
The Cross was not something that happened to Jesus— He came
to die; the Cross was His purpose in coming. He is “the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world”
All
inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast--all whose names have not been
written in the book of life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the
creation of the world. Revelation 13:8
The incarnation of Christ would
have no meaning without the Cross. Beware of separating “God was manifested in the flesh…”
from “…He
made Him…to be sin for us…”
Beyond all question, the mystery of godliness is great: He appeared in a body, was vindicated
by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was
believed on in the world, was taken up in glory.
1 Timothy 3:16
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:21
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:21
The purpose of the incarnation
was redemption. God came in the flesh to take sin away, not to accomplish
something for Himself. The Cross is the central event in time and eternity, and
the answer to all the problems of both.
The Cross is not the cross of a man, but the Cross of God, and
it can never be fully comprehended through human experience. The Cross is God
exhibiting His nature. It is the gate through which any and every individual
can enter into oneness with God. But it is not a gate we pass right through; it
is one where we abide in the life that is found there.
The heart of salvation is the Cross of Christ. The reason
salvation is so easy to obtain is that it cost God so much. The Cross was the
place where God and sinful man merged with a tremendous collision and where the
way to life was opened. But all the cost and pain of the collision was absorbed
by the heart of God.
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