Tag: Cross

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Jesus Crucified (Luke 23:26–43)

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When you consider the future, do you think of good things? Do you think that there will be blessing? Or do you expect things to turn out badly, a curse? What about for your children?

The blessing and the curse. There are many reasons why we might expect a curse. After all, we all have to die. The time of death is often not very pleasant. If it extends itself out a long time, it can be worse. I was praying for someone’s mother last week who is having an awful time as she continues to decline in health. It’s the sort of thing I don’t really even want to share the details of. It just breaks my heart. It is things like that which make us think that future will bring a curse and not a blessing.

Last week, I talked about God’s purposes to do us good, to bless us. One person said that cancer and Ukraine make me wonder. This was person was right. It does make us wonder. It rightly makes us wonder if God’s purpose for us is good, if it is blessing.

Beyond this, we have to ask, what do we really deserve? Have we really treated people as the image of God? Have we given God the honor He deserves? Have we really loved Him? Have we made a good use of the things He has given us? The answer is often, “no.” The wages of sin is death. It is a curse. So, why would we expect blessing?

Well, our passage today gives us reason to expect that the future will bring blessing rather than a curse. This hope, ironically, is founded on the terrible punishment of crucifixion, an excruciatingly painful way to die. How in the world could the cross, the crucifixion, give us hope of blessing? That’s what I want you to see in this text.

The Way to the Crucifixion
The place where they would crucify Jesus is called “The Skull.” It’s interesting that I hear a lot of people around here saying “Calvary’s cross.” I’m not sure that really communicates to us what the Bible is talking about. The word Calvary comes from the Latin word calvaria. Calvaria means “skull.” So, it might be better for us to say, “Skull’s cross,” if we are going to say it. It’s called “skull” because it is a place of death. The skull is the symbol of death. It is the place of execution.

Now, Jesus was in Pilate’s court, but he had to walk to The Skull, to Calvary. Our text describes for us to the way to The Skull, the way to the crucifixion. It does this through three different foci on various people. These three foci are on Simon, the women of Jerusalem, and the two criminals.

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Who Is Like Yahweh? (Micah)

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Who Is Like Yahweh in Judgment?
If you are like the people of Israel, you might think often, why doesn’t God do something about the evil things that the nations do? After all, we have a great God who is almighty and can do anything. The Israelites would think, God overthrew Egypt to deliver us from slavery, why can’t He set things right?

Micah’s perspective is different and in line with the other prophets. He sees God standing over the nations, evaluating them, and ready to do something. “Hear, you peoples, all of you, listen, earth and all who live in it, that the Sovereign Lord may bear witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple” (Micah 1:2). God has a message bearing witness against all the impiety, injustice, and iniquity of the world. He is ready to act. “Look! The Lord is coming from his dwelling place; he comes down and treads on the heights of the earth. The mountains melt beneath him and the valleys split apart, like wax before the fire, like water rushing down a slope” (Micah 1:3–4).

That’s what God is doing. His judgments are in the earth. He is coming to judge the world. When I went to Egypt, everywhere I went I saw statues of the Ramses the Great. He did some impressive things. One of his statues is found in Memphis, Egypt. It is huge. The statue is lying down with the back to the ground, though at one time it stood upright. Today, however, it cannot stand upright because the feet are broken off. This was a visual reminder to me that the mighty fall. God judges the nations. They do not last. God’s judgments are in the earth.

The name Micah means, who is like Yah or Yahweh? As we read this first section of the book of Micah, we can feel the power of that name. Who is like Yahweh, awesome in power, above all the nations, and able to deal with all wrongs? No one can stop Him and demand of Him, “What have you done?” He is mightier than all. Who is like Yahweh?

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Better Than I Deserve

Steve Bain was a man who loved to study the Bible and know more about God. But he wasn’t always that way. He didn’t grow up studying the Bible, and, for much of his adult life, he didn’t have much interest in God.

So, what led him to change? His wife. She came to a crisis that led her to realize that the only thing that could give her meaning was a relationship with God. It was really God working with her that led him to Norcross Presbyterian Church. When he got there, he found that there was more to the Christian faith than he ever realized. He saw that it was really meaningful and helpful. At Norcross, he gave his life to Christ and became a follower of Jesus.

After that, Steve wanted more and more. When he went to Perimeter Church in Atlanta, he enrolled in the multi-year course, Theological Foundations for Leaders. He told me many times how helpful this was in his life. He was always active in small groups. When I first came here, he was involved in a group that was studying Henry Blackaby’s book, Experiencing God. He kept going, though. He got involved with Bible Study Fellowship. I would often ask our elders at our meetings, what is God teaching you these days? Steve would give an insight from the book of Joshua or another book that he was studying. I always appreciated that about him.

One thing Steve understood, though, was that the foundation of the Christian faith was a simple message. You have it here in 1 Timothy 1:15. “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.” Now, I want you to see three things based on this passage: Steve’s Savior, Steve’s example, and Steve’s praise.

Steve’s Savior
All around the world, you will find a surprising symbol. A cross. It was an instrument of capital punishment and even torture in the Roman Empire. Yet millions upon millions look at it and see hope. Why? Because on that cross was the man whom Steve called Savior and Lord, Jesus.

Christianity begins with a message that God created the world good and created human beings for harmonious fellowship with Him and with one another. However, humans have gone their own way and become alienated from God, one another, creation, and even themselves. They have sought to make themselves the center of the universe rather than submitting to God.

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The Amazing Benefits of the Cross: Preservation (Heb. 9:11–15)

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How do we know that we will make it ultimately to heaven? There are many things that could turn us aside and lead us astray. There are many challenges that we will face. How do we know that our destiny is secure?

Let’s put this another way. One way that people have often shared the Gospel is by asking, “If you died tonight, do you know for certain that you would be in heaven?” That question is designed to show them they need to receive Jesus as their Savior to be assured of eternal life.

But here’s another question. If you die 10 years from now, can you be sure that you’ll be in heaven? How do you know you’ll still be trusting in the Lord? Maybe you’ve never thought about it, but, once you think about it deeply, it can be rather disconcerting.

The answer to that question is what we want to explore today. We will see today one more amazing benefit of the cross: preservation. It is the assurance that God will not only give us salvation but also assures us that He will keep us in it forever, through all the difficulties and challenges of this life. The blood of the cross testifies that we are secure.

The Background of the Sacrifice
In the context of the Bible, Jesus’ death on the cross is the fulfillment of the temple and the sacrificial system. Whenever you read the Old Testament and see the temple or sacrifices, it is pointing forward to Jesus and His atoning death on the cross. As John the Baptist said, “Behold! The lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” Or, as Paul said, “Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.”

When Israel left Egypt, God established a tent where He was to be worshipped that was called the “tabernacle.” Later, Solomon built a permanent dwelling called the temple. It was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, and then rebuilt when the Jews returned to their land following the edict of King Cyrus the Great of Persia.

The temple consisted of four rooms. The first was the Court of the Gentiles. This place was where the people of the nations could come and worship. They could not enter the temple proper. The next room, the Outer Court, was where the Jewish people could enter to worship God. In that room, there was the bronze altar for sacrifice and bronze basin for washing. The third room, The Holy Place, was a room only the priests could enter. In it, there was the altar of incense, the table with the bread of the presence, and the menorah, the seven-branched candlestick continually burning. Finally, there was the Holy of Holies. Only the high priest could enter it and only once a year to make sacrifices on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. This room contained the ark of the covenant, the great symbol and dwelling place of the presence of God in the Old Testament.

Now, to understand the temple, we should understand that the temple represents the universe, the cosmos. The Outer Court is the earth. The Holy Place represents the heavens. The Holy of Holies represents the throne room of God. It is above or beyond the heavens. We might think of the throne room of God as being in another dimension, using the terms of modern physics.

What the temple teaches us is to think of the world as the temple of God. We are here to see, enjoy, and worship God. However, our sin has brought division between us and God. The highest heaven is closed to us. We need it to be re-opened and heaven and earth united so that this world can be the holy temple to God that God intended it to be.

The work of the high priest pointed to a restoration of the world temple of God. The high priest entered the Holy of Holies once a year to make a sacrifice with the blood of another. This pointed to a restoration, but it had to be repeated, over and over again, every single year. What this means is that, “This is an illustration for the present time, indicating that the gifts and sacrifices being offered were not able to clear the conscience of the worshiper” (Heb. 9:9). We are looking for something better, and that is where Jesus and His cross come in.

The Fact of the Sacrifice
Jesus did not enter the Holy of Holies. He went into what it pointed to, the highest heavens, the throne room of God. “But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that are now already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands, that is to say, is not a part of this creation” (Heb. 9:11). He did not enter into a copy of the the throne room of God but the reality.

When He went, He brought a sacrifice but not the sacrifice of another. “He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption” (Heb. 9:12). Take note: this sacrifice, unlike the sacrifices of the Old Testament, obtains eternal redemption. The word redemption means payment. It is a full and complete payment that lasts forever. We will return to this point later.

The author of Hebrews contrasts Christ’s sacrifice on the cross to the animal sacrifices of the Old Testament. These sacrifices did serve a purpose. They needed to make them outwardly clean in order to participate in the temple worship. “The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean” (Heb. 9:13). They had some effect but could not cleanse the conscience.

The author then uses this efficacy of the animal sacrifices to then make a comparison. “How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!” (Heb. 9:14). It is important to note the wording here. Christ was an unblemished sacrifice. He was a human being who did not sin. But He was more than a man. If he was a mere man, His death would not be sufficient to pay for the sins of the world. He would have to suffer for one person and suffer forever. That would not make a full or eternal redemption. However, He was the Son of God. He offered Himself through “the eternal Spirit.” It was His divine nature that gave the sacrifice infinite efficacy and value so that He could pay for the human race and do it in three days, rising again, showing that His sacrifice was fully accepted! We cannot not praise this sacrifice in any higher words! It is the sacrifice of God for men, but He could not make the sacrifice unless He was a man. That’s why it’s so important to understand the two natures in one person.

The Results of the Sacrifice
What does this sacrifice do? It cleanses the conscience. It gives a real answer to the conscience. The conscious accuses us of sin and is also corrupted because of sin. Thus, it needs a full cleansing. The blood of Christ cleanses us from the guilt and corruption of sin. That’s justification and sanctification! It says that the accusations no longer have effect and that we are now empowered to live a new life.

What is the result? “[S]o that we may serve the living God!” (Heb. 9:14). This word “serve” probably refers to the worship in the temple. The priests serve in His holy temple. We join that service. As it says in Heb. 12:28–29, “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our ‘God is a consuming fire.'” We become worshippers in God’s true temple. This is true in our Sunday worship as we approach the true Mount Zion each week in church, and it is true throughout the week as we present our bodies as living sacrifices to the Lord. The world is the temple of the Lord, and we are called to observe His works and sing His praise. This is our calling each day, each week, and for the rest of our lives.

The author of Hebrews makes another point, though. This sacrifice restores us forever. “For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant” (Heb. 9:15). Once we are called, Christ, through His terrible death on the cross, guarantees that those who are called receive the eternal inheritance. In other words, Christ’s death preserves us. Christ’s death keeps us. Christ’s death insures that we will make it to the end. This is part of His covenant or testament, the gift He bequeaths to us because of His death on the cross. This is one of the amazing benefits of the cross, we are His forever. If we are Christ’s, we can be sure that we will not only be His today but His forever.

Now, there are a couple of questions that arise in relationship to this teaching. First, isn’t it required for us to persevere? In other words, it’s not as if someone could once believe in Christ and then turn their back on Him and be saved, is it?

This is accurate. We must persevere. We must hold on to what we have been taught. We must not give up our hope. But here is what happens. Christ guarantees that we will persevere. He preserves us so that we persevere. Citing Jeremiah 31, the author of Hebrews says that in contrast to the unfaithfulness of Israel in the wilderness, God will make sure that we are faithful, “This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people” (Heb. 8:10). This promise the author of Hebrews applies to us, the true people of God, the true Israel of God. Christ’s death insures that all those who belong to this people will make it to the end and remain faithful.

The second question is, what about the warnings of falling away? Well, it is certainly true that people can fall away from the visible church after experiencing some of its blessings, but they were never true believers who had obtained the eternal inheritance. Hebrews has some of the most severe warnings in Scripture against falling away, yet it also says things like, “Even though we speak like this, dear friends, we are convinced of better things in your case—the things that have to do with salvation” (Heb. 6:9). And, “But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved” (Heb. 10:39). Those who have true faith and are called and heirs will not be lost but kept unto the end.

Conclusion
There are so many angles from which we can examine the cross. It is the center of human history and a source of endless wonder, a wonder that even the angels desire to look into.

In this series, we have seen that Christ’s terrible and agonizing death on the cross gets us amazing benefits. He pays everything, and we get everything. We are justified. This means we are declared righteous because of Jesus’ righteousness. We stand perfect and innocent before the throne of God, fully forgiven of all our sins. We are adopted. We not only are criminals who are pardoned, we become princes and princesses in God’s kingdom, exalted to the highest position. We are sanctified. We are delivered from the power of sin and made more and more able to live unto God and die to the ways of sin.

Today, we learn one more amazing benefit. Once we have all these things, Christ’s death preserves us in them. He who began a good work will carry it on unto completion. We don’t have to let the threat of persecution or sword or temptation or the devil make us fear that we won’t make it. Through the covenant established by the death of our mediator, we who are called will certainly and infallibly attain the eternal inheritance. That is an amazing benefit indeed. Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!

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The Amazing Benefits of the Cross: Sanctification (Romans 6:1-14)

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Do you ever find yourself doing things you don’t really want to do? Do you know what is right and find yourself unable to do it? Do you ever get stuck in some bad pattern or relationship? This is human life. It is not good but also not uncommon.

Sometimes these bad things get so ingrained in us that we do terrible things. They drive us to do things that leave us scarred for life. At other times, the patterns get so deep that we can’t seem to get out. This is the destructive force of addictions.

What are we to do? The cross is the answer. Today, we look at the benefit of the cross we call “sanctification.” The word “sanctification” comes from the Latin “sanctus.” From that word, we get our words “saint” or “sanctuary.” It means holy. This refers to God’s perfect and transcendent purity and beauty. He shines over the universe like the sun in the sky in absolute glory.

The cross provides a power that enables us to put the old ways in the past and restore our true humanity. It is a power that enables us to live a new life that is good, pure, holy, and right. Sanctification is about transformation, life change, as people often call it. This is what is described in this passage, Romans 6:1–14, so let’s consider it together.

The Context of Transformation
This passage begins with a question. “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?” (Rom. 6:1). Now, why would Paul say this? It’s what he has said in Romans 5 that might lead someone to ask this. He says, the sin of human beings gave God the occasion to do something greater even than creating. It gave Him the opportunity to redeem humans back from sin and death. Here’s what he says in Romans 5:20–21: “But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” So, why not go on sinning, then, so that we might get even more grace?

Look at this another way, and you will see the common question people have about the cross and its benefits. We looked at two of the amazing benefits of the cross. The first was justification. This means we get declared righteous freely because Christ’s righteousness is counted as ours. We stand before God perfect and complete in Christ’s righteousness, fully forgiven of all our sins. The second amazing benefit is adoption. This means that we are adopted into His family and become sons and daughters of God through the merit of the agonizing death of Christ on the cross. He pays everything, and we get everything. These are the amazing benefits of the cross.

In light of that, someone might ask, since we are completely forgiven and accepted in spite of what we have done, are doing, or will do as a free gift of grace, then why worry about how we live? Why worry about being transformed?

Well, there are a lot of reasons why we should live the right way besides being justified by our works. It’s good to live the right way because it is the right way to live. It benefits us, blesses others, testifies to Christ, and glorifies God. It puts us in harmony with the universe. So, there’s a lot of reasons.

But here is the reason that Paul gives. Shall we go on sinning? “By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” (Rom. 6:2).

In order to understand this, let’s think about our situation without the cross. Without the cross, we have the law. The law is holy, just, and good, but we are not. We have sinned. We continue to sin. We sink deeper and deeper into sin. The only thing we can expect is wrath and judgment. Without the cross, the destiny of the human race would be what the prophet Zephaniah describes: “In the fire of his jealousy the whole earth will be consumed,
for he will make a sudden end of all who live on the earth” (v. 18). It would be a hopeless situation. We would simply be stuck under the law, under sin, and under wrath.

But we do have the cross! Christ came into the world, was born under the law, took our sin upon Himself, and died the accursed death on the cross.

But that is not the end! After three days, He rose again from the dead. His resurrection meant that He had defeated death, cancelled our debt to the law, and overcame the power of sin. It was a new beginning for the human race.

The Power for Transformation
Now, this power for transformation becomes ours when we are united to Jesus Christ by faith. Here’s what Paul says, “Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” (Rom. 6:3). When we came to faith in Jesus, we were baptized into Christ. It is the outward sign and confirmation of our union with Him. This means that we are united to Him in His death to sin.

Of course, we not only die to sin, but we rise to a new life: “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life” (Rom. 6:4). What this means is that Christ’s death and resurrection are at work in us to enable us to die to sin and live a new life. He says, “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his” (Rom. 6:5). This refers to resurrection from the dead ways of sin and the resurrection of our body at the end of time. The point here is that the same power that was at work in Christ to overcome sin is now working in us because we are united to Him.

In a way, His crucifixion is our crucifixion. We die to the old self and to the old world. “For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been set free from sin” (Rom. 6:6–7). The basic problem of this world is that we live as if we are the center of the universe rather than God. That’s the problem behind all the problems. It is a fundamental pride that exalts ourselves beyond measure. When we come to Christ, that old self that places “I” at the center is shattered, and we have a new life that is in and through Christ.

Paul underlines this point in Romans 6:8–10, “Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.” Christ died to sin. It can never claim mastery over Him again. There will never need to be another crucifixion of Christ. He has died to the world of sin and risen to new life, and so have we. We have now risen to a new life in Him.

That’s why our church’s confession, the Westminster Confession of Faith says that this transformation occurs “through the virtue (or the power) of Christ’s death and resurrection.”

Now, the question that comes up is, if this is all the case, then why do Christians still sin? Paul clearly recognizes that they do sin. Let us make a distinction here between the power of sin and the presence of sin. The power or dominion of sin is broken, but the presence of sin is not eradicated.

What this means is that there is no sin that we should look at and say, I cannot overcome this. We have the power of Christ in us. It does not need to rule in us. The power of Christ is available to overcome it. It will not have dominion over you because you are not under law but under grace!

Let me illustrate how this works out. I remember so clearly one day back in Spearfish, SD where I was struggling with bitterness against a particular group of people. I was on the south side of the church moving the hose to water the grass in that dry environment. I prayed to the Lord and asked Him to help me with that bitterness. All of a sudden, I was transformed. The bitterness was completely gone. I have never struggled with it again. It was instantaneous. It was the power of Christ.

Sometimes the Lord, though, works through a longer process. One Pastor described to me his experience of going on Facebook for the first time. He began to reconnect with his friends and interact with them cordially. They were amazed. They all said, “When we knew you many year ago, you were such a jerk!” He was then amazed. He realized that Christ had been transforming him, but the work was so gradual and so long that he didn’t really see how the power of Christ had transformed him until he got that feedback. So, Christ is at work in us, transforming us in a variety of ways. The amazing benefit of the cross is that it has broken the power of sin so that we can live a new life.

At the same time, there will never be a point where we can say that we are absolutely free from sin and have arrived. There will always be reason to say what Paul says in Romans 7, “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Praise be to God through Jesus Christ!” There will never be a time in this life where we do not have to battle against sin. And that leads us to our final point.

Cooperating in Our Transformation
Our Shorter Catechism calls justification and adoption an act of God’s grace. This means it is an act that God does at once. It is simply a gift, and we receive that act by faith. We get adopted and justified when we believe in Christ. Our Catechism calls sanctification a work not an act. This benefit of the cross is different. Sanctification is a work that takes place over time.

Sanctification is also different in that we cooperate in this work. We join what God is doing in transforming our lives. We have a role to play under God. We lean into His work in our lives. Listen to how Paul describes this in our passage. “In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 6:11). We are to change our mindset in how we view sin. We are also to battle against it: “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires” (Rom. 6:12). You are not “to offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness” (Rom. 6:13). We offer ourselves to God, we fight against sin, and we change our mindset to take in what Christ has for us.

How do we do all this? How do we join what God is doing in our lives? We pray and ask Him to change us. We read His Word and partake of the sacraments and let them change the way we think about things, like Paul does in this passage. Note that he refers to our baptism and says that it should change the way we think about things. We fight against the old habits. We seek to establish new ones.

And note, in the cooperation we do with our transformation, we are not and should not be alone. We engage the help of other people. We cooperate together in fighting against sin by being accountable to each other; by encouraging each other; by rebuking each other, when necessary; and by praying for each other. We have a part to play, a part completely dependent on Christ, but a real part, in the work of our transformation. This is true in our lives and in the lives of others.

So, in our battle against sin, we should not despair. We have the power of Christ; we have tools for transformation, the means of grace; and we have the church of God to help us.

Conclusion
The amazing benefit of the cross is because Christ died this terrible death by crucifixion on the cross, the power of sin is broken, and we rise to a new life. The cross tells us that the old habits and the old ways of life do not have to define us. We have died to them and can move forward to live a godly and productive life. There is power for transformation in the cross. That is an amazing benefit indeed. Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift.