As we are approaching the Easter season, it is a good time to address the topic of the cross of Jesus Christ. It has been said before (by me and others) that the cross is an ignored subject in far too many pulpits today. This is probably due to several reasons, not the least of which is the confrontational and convicting nature of the message of the cross. Maybe another reason is that when we seriously consider the cross, we will hear the words of Jesus echoing in our ears, “take up your cross and follow Me.” Lest we ask saints to become fully committed to following Jesus, while denying themselves, we tend to soft pedal the message and attempt to make it tolerable.
The apostle Paul did not take this approach when he penned his letter to those of the church of Galatia. I’m sure as he began his letter to them, he had them at “O foolish Galatians!” He reminded them “before whose eyes (theirs) Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified.” It would have been as if someone had placed a notice or advertisement of the cross of Christ in a public place for all to see. Therefore, he asks how they were dissuaded from living by the Spirit of God to a self-driven and self-powered life.
The cross of Jesus is the central message to all of Christianity. Without the cross and what it provides, there is no Christianity. Without the cross we cannot declare, with the apostle, “I am crucified with Christ.” This is why Paul wrote to the church at Corinth (chapter 1) that he preached Christ and Him crucified. This message was to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Gentiles it was sheer foolishness. It is imperative that we have an accurate view of the cross by which we live our daily lives with the help of the Holy Spirit. Let’s look at some reasons it is so important to live in plain view of the cross.
We are reminded we needed someone to help us out of our predicament. Certainly, we (the human race) was in a real predicament for which we had no out or solution. Jesus would not have gone to the cross, except for our need. The disobedience of Adam in the Garden of Eden caused humanity to become infected with the disease of sin. Having been expelled from the Garden and away from the tree of life, the human race was destined for death and destruction. As early as their encounter with the serpent, God spoke of One who would come that would crush the head of the serpent and redeem mankind. The only path out of our predicament was for someone to come and take our place in the penalty and judgment for our sin. God provided the perfect sacrifice by coming Himself in the person of the Son. When we view the cross, we see Him hanging there having assumed our place. In 1968, Gordon Jensen wrote a song entitled “I Should Have Been Crucified.” The chorus contains these words.
“And I should have been crucified,
I should have suffered and died.
I should have hung on the cross in disgrace,
But Jesus, God’s Son, took my place.”
Therefore, when we look upon the cross, we don’t see the one(s) hanging there who deserved the punishment, but rather we see the innocent One there who chose to obey the Father and become our Passover Lamb. Look upon the cross.
When we live our lives in plain view of the cross, we are reminded of the love of God on our behalf. It was God’s love that motivated Him to send His only begotten Son, to make a way that none should perish, but receive everlasting life. It was love that found within Himself (the one who is described as “God is love”) that caused the plan to be implemented that would look like this.
“And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.”
This plan of God was a visible and practical demonstration of God’s love that He exercised towards mankind. Paul points out that His demonstration of love toward us was while we were still sinners and without any evidence of reciprocating that love. And lest we think that God saw something in us that deserved His supreme act of love, I remind us of the words of W.E. Vine in his commentary on love/agape.
“(God’s love) was not drawn out by any excellency in its objects. It was an exercise of the Divine will in deliberate choice, made without assignable cause except that which lies in the nature of God Himself.”
Thank God for His love that made a way when there seemed to be no way. When we look upon the cross, We view the fulfillment of the shadow practiced under the Old Covenant. Upon the fall of man in the Garden, God instituted ceremonial acts of worship and sacrifice that pointed to the fulfillment of these acts one day. The writer of Hebrews referred to them as a shadow of things to come. Every time a sacrifice was made on an altar under the Old Covenant, there was a prophetic element that spoke of a day when the sacrifice would no longer be a shadow. When we view the cross and see our Savior hanging there, we see the Eternal Passover Lamb being sacrificed for the sin of the human race. The difference is that this was no shadow, but the real thing that had been foreshadowed for thousands of years. This sacrificial Lamb would need to be sacrificed only once. Again, the writer of Hebrews:
“But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God.” Hebrews 10:12
No longer is there a need to continually sacrifice animals on our behalf, because the ultimate “once for all” sacrifice has been made and the shadows have been fulfilled.
A plain view of the cross reminds us that any attempt to create our own righteousness based on our works, seeks to invalidate and render the cross of Christ as vanity. It is inherent in human nature to always try to make ourselves look good. It is also human nature to want to be good enough or do enough good works to justify our position with God. This is what Paul was addressing with the Galatian church when he asked the question, “After starting your Christian lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?” There is just something about us that makes us think we need to “pull ourselves up by our bootstraps” and therefore remain independent of any help from anyone else. But when it comes to the sin nature, there is no amount of works or goodness on our part that can attain to the level of righteousness necessary to satisfy a holy God. Let’s not thumb our noses at the work of Christ by trying to substitute what He accomplished with our own good deeds. As Paul wrote to the Romans “there is none righteous, no, not one.” And let’s not forget Isaiah 64:6.
“We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags.”
It was the sacrifice Jesus made on the cruel cross that made a way for us to receive His righteousness in exchange for our garments of sin we inherited at birth. You ARE the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ if you are born from above by the work of the Holy Spirit.
A plain view of the cross reminds us of the fact that we were under a curse – the inability to live by the law, and yet we were faced with the righteous requirements of the Law, therefore drawing the just punishment of sin. The apostle Paul quotes Deuteronomy 27 in verse 10 of Galatians chapter 3 to point out the fact that anyone who cannot fulfill the words written in the Book of the Law was under a curse. There was no amount of effort at righteousness and good intentions that would enable us to fulfill the words of God’s statutes on our own.
So, when we look upon the cross, we also see Christ became a curse for us. He took upon Himself the curse that was upon the human race, with its destiny judgment and punishment, when He willingly went to the execution reserved for vilest of criminals.
“Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us…”
Paul continues to illuminate what Deuteronomy 21 tells us, that anyone who hangs on a tree is cursed. We are told that the writ of conviction that stood against us in the cosmic courts of heaven was nailed to the cross along with Jesus. This was because due to His death, our record of debt was satisfied and we were no longer guilty. Our sin, both past and future, was forgiven and nailed to the cross of Jesus, upon which we gaze with wonder, gratitude, and worship.
This work of Christ was accomplished, we are told, so that the blessing of Abraham would be available by faith to the Gentiles and anyone outside the promise of God. The blessing of the Lord as described in verse 14 of Galatians 3 is “that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.”
It is through the work of the indwelt Spirit that we are enabled to fulfill the righteousness required by the law of God. What the law as a set of statutes and rules could not accomplish, the Father did achieve by sending His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh because of the sin of mankind. We can rejoice in these words.
“That the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”
The promise of Ezekiel 36:26 is pronounced and fulfilled because of the work of the cross and when we see it in our mind’s eye, let’s praise God for when He promised,
“I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes.”
Instead of an outward set of regulations that we had no ability to fulfill, we now have an inwards force in the person of the Holy Spirit who is our “Helper” and works in us to will and to do for His good pleasure.
Let us always live our lives in plain view of the cross and remember what it is that we see when we look upon the cross. Let the words of John Newton bring you to a place of gratitude, humility, and holiness.
I Saw One Hanging on a Tree
by John Newton
1779
I saw One hanging on a tree,
In agony and blood,
Who fixed His languid eyes on me,
As near His cross I stood.
Refrain
O, can it be, upon a tree,
The Savior died for me?
My soul is thrilled, my heart is filled,
To think He died for me!
Sure, never to my latest breath,
Can I forget that look;
It seemed to charge me with His death,
Though not a word He spoke.
My conscience felt and owned the guilt,
And plunged me in despair,
I saw my sins His blood had spilt,
And helped to nail Him there.
A second look He gave, which said,
“I freely all forgive;
This blood is for thy ransom paid;
I die that thou mayest live.”
