Was the Cross a Cosmic Overreaction?
Last night our pastor asked the question, “What do people think about the Cross?” What do people think about the Cross? What do you think about the Cross? What do I?
Perhaps for some, it’s just a religious symbol. Something we don’t think much about. If asked, we might give a religious-sounding answer without really understanding what it means.
At least for some, it is offensive. I remember sending a Max Lucado book to a relative one Christmas. It was one of those pretty gift books that explained the importance of Christmas in light of Easter and the Cross. She was offended and told me in no uncertain terms that she didn’t want to read about that stuff.
Was it offensive because it was convicting?
For some, at least in the first century, it was a symbol of defeat and shame. Deuteronomy 21 says:
22 “If a man has committed a sin deserving of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, 23 his body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall surely bury him that day, so that you do not defile the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance; for he who is hanged is accursed of God.
“Accursed of God,” strong language. And without the Resurrection, the Cross would have meant defeat.
For many, the Cross might be what someone called a cosmic overreaction. If we fail to see the magnitude of our sin, if we think we’re not really that bad, if we think our good deeds will outweigh our bad and we’ll all just slide into heaven, then the Cross is meaningless. A cosmic overreaction after all.
Yet, the Cross is precisely why Christ came. Beginning in Genesis 3.15, all of the Old Testament pointed to it.
And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her Seed;
He shall bruise your head,
And you shall bruise His heel (Gen. 3.15).Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him;
He has put Him to grief.
When You make His soul an offering for sin,
He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days,
And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand (Is. 53.10).
He, repeatedly, told His followers of His impending death.
32 Now they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was going before them; and they were amazed. And as they followed they were afraid. Then He took the twelve aside again and began to tell them the things that would happen to Him: 33 “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death and deliver Him to the Gentiles; 34 and they will mock Him, and scourge Him, and spit on Him, and kill Him. And the third day He will rise again” (Mk. 10).
Yet, no one took His life. He laid it down.
By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren (1 Jn. 3.16).
Why? Look at that opening phrase again, “By this we know love …”
He laid down His life out of His love for all those who would see their need for a Savior (Rom. 3.23, 6.23) and put their faith in His substitutionary death.
“Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (Jn. 1.29)!
Our sin deserved death. Yet, He died in our place.
6 For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. 10 For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life (Rom. 5).
His death satisfied God’s wrath against us as guilty sinners and in the process, He did much more. He justified us, saved us, reconciled us to God, and redeemed us from the curse of the law, a law we could never keep.
Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree” (Gal. 3.13).
He set us free from slavery to sin.
Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin (Rom. 6.6).
And adopted us into His family (Rom. 8.15).
Yet, it didn’t stop there. Because three days later, He rose from the grave so we could not only spend eternity with Him but live the God-kind of life now.
1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? 3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life (Rom. 6).
In fact, Romans 8 tells us that the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives in us (Rom. 8.10-11).
So, what should we think about the Cross?
Hopefully, we realize that what the Roman government saw as a symbol of their power …
What the religious authorities saw as the end of their problems …
What the Jews regarded as a curse …
What Judas saw as a terrible mistake …
What the disciples saw as the end …
What Mary must have seen as her worst nightmare …
What Satan saw as a victory …
God saw as the greatest act of love, a gift offered freely to all who would believe and call on His name in repentance and humility.
If you have never accepted that free gift, never put your faith and trust in what He did on the Cross, I hope you will ask God to show you the truth. Talk to Him honestly about your sin. Admit the things you have done and ask for His forgiveness. Then accept His forgiveness and help to live the kind of life He has called you to live.
Then find a good church and attend this Sunday, even tonight (Good Friday), if possible. Talk to someone there about the commitment you made. Ask someone to help you get connected and grow. Don’t let anything or anyone stop you. Eternity, heaven or hell, hangs in the balance.
Blessings,
Donna
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Blessings,
Donna
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