As C.S. Lewis so aptly put it, "The central Christian belief is that Christ's death has somehow put us right with God and given us a fresh start." The death of Jesus Christ is at the heart of true Christianity; and so the one universal symbol of Christianity is ... the cross.

The cross: it was an instrument of cruel and unusual punishment --- the Roman way of disposing with the criminal trash of the empire. Roman citizens could not be crucified. Crucifixion was reserved for the dregs of society and the worst of convicts --- gypsy thieves, runaway slaves, revolutionary terrorists. And Jesus was considered as one of them, just as the prophet Isaiah had spoken of the Suffering Messiah: "He was despised and rejected by men ... " (Isaiah 53).

Mark tells us that Pilate, seeking to please the crowd, first ordered that Jesus be flogged, whipped. New Testament scholar William Hendricksen gives us some idea of what took place:

But those Roman soldiers had no idea of what was taking place as they flogged and flayed Jesus; but something which transcended that horrible moment in time, something which transcended and reached-out and over the limits of history and geography, was taking place. Yes, there

 was more to Christ's suffering than what met the eye that day. The eternal counsel of God, the mystery of the gospel, was being fulfilled, for as Isaiah the prophet, had spoken, "He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed" [Isaiah 53:5]. What was taking place in that moment was Christ's suffering for your salvation, His being wounded for your eternal healing.

Then there was the crown of thorns. These were thorns like spikes, thorns that would not bend, thorns that would not break, when crammed down onto and into His forehead. Something which transcended that moment in time was taking place. Think of it, see it --- a crown of thorns: not a crown of gold, not a crown of glory, but a crown of thorns: the crown of the curse!

This was Adam's crown --- the crown of the curse, the curse of thorns which fell upon creation when the first Adam sinned against God! But Jesus --- the second Adam, the righteous Adam, the sinless Adam --- took the place of the first Adam. Adam's sin is our sin; Adam's curse is our curse; Adam's crown is our crown! But Jesus took the curse off of our heads and put it upon His own. He wore our crown of the curse to redeem us from the curse of sin and death, so that we might wear the crown of His righteousness, the crown of life eternal. Yes, what happened that day happened for you!

They threw a purple robe around Him, a mockery of the royal robe a king should wear. "Hail, King of the Jews!" they jeered with cruel derision. They crowned Him as a king, they cloaked Him as a king, they hailed Him as a king --- not as a king of power and glory, but as a king of suffering and shame. Then, Jesus --- beaten, battered, bruised, and bleeding --- was led out of Jerusalem to be crucified. He was led out, in the words of Isaiah, "...as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth" [Isa.53:7].

There, outside the city walls, they crucified Him, and two others with Him, with Jesus in-between them. Can you see those three crosses on the hill? He was in the center, as though He were their leader, the worst of all, as prophesied by Isaiah, "He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many" [Isa.53:12]. Jesus was crucified between two despicable criminals so that we might trust and believe that He has come all the way down, down to the very depths of human sinfulness, and has taken our place on the cross. His death on the cross is fully sufficient, infinitely sufficient, to atone for the crime of our sins. There is no sin so great that it cannot be forgiven and cleansed through the blood of Jesus Christ. There is no sinner too low for Jesus Christ. To the thief on the cross who looked to Jesus for mercy, Jesus said, "This day you shall be with me in Paradise" [Luke 23:43].

There, at the foot of the cross, the soldiers took Jesus' clothing and cast lots for it, dividing it among themselves. On this point, John Calvin comments:

Christ was stripped of His garments that He might clothe us with righteousness; His naked body was exposed to the insults of men, that we may appear in glory before the judgment seat of God.

"Christ was stripped of His garments that He might clothe us with righteousness." See the nakedness of your Savior! Do you see the nakedness of Adam? Do you remember that after Adam's sin, his nakedness was revealed and exposed, the nakedness of shame and guilt and vulnerability before God, and the nakedness of alienation from God? Adam's sin is our sin, and Adam's nakedness is our nakedness. Jesus Christ, stripped of His glory and hanging in nakedness, accursed and exposed to the righteous wrath of the Almighty, took Adam's place and yours and mine on the cross, so that our nakedness might be clothed with the royal robe of His righteousness.

Something which transcended the limits of human history and which overruled the wickedness of human sin was taking place. What happened on the cross of Christ happened for you.

At the ninth hour, three o'clock, Jesus cried out with the cry of Psalm 22:1, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" This is the cry of hell itself. Jesus' physical torments on the cross were terrible indeed, but not nearly so terrible as the spiritual torment of being forsaken by His Father. Yet this is what Jesus suffered for our salvation: the hell of forsakenness by God. He suffered rejection by the Father. He was cut-off and cast-off; and that is hell.

"He descended into hell," we say in the Apostles' Creed: the hell of being cast-off and cast away from the Father's love. And in the hell of being forsaken by God the Father, Jesus Christ experienced the hell of all the pain and agony and suffering and injustice which sin has brought into this world. There is no pain, no torment, no anguish, no sorrow which He has not borne in the depths of His soul. "Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows," said the prophet Isaiah. And indeed He has because He has suffered the wrath of God against every sin ever committed in the history of the human race, and He has descended into the hell of condemnation which we deserve, where there is nothing but grief and sorrow and forsakenness. And, therefore, as John Calvin has commented, "because He was forsaken for a time, you (who trust in Christ) will not be forsaken, forever." And so the Scripture says, "There is, therefore, now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1); for Christ Himself on the cross suffered our condemnation for us. What happened on the cross of Christ happened for you.

Finally, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and breathed His last. This was not a moment of defeat, but the moment of victory. Yes, on the cross, something which transcended that horrible moment in time, something which transcended and reached out and over the limits of history and geography, was taking place. The death of Jesus Christ was the death of death for all who trust in Him. He died your death to destroy your death.

Think about what happened on the cross. Can God die? Can the immortal, eternal God die? No, God can't die! But if God became a man, could that man die a human death? Dear friends, do you see what God has done for you? The immortal, eternal God who cannot die became a man who could and would and did die a human death. And that means that, in Jesus Christ, the immortal, eternal God who cannot die has experienced human death and has conquered it. In Jesus Christ, the immortal eternal God who cannot die has entered into the full reality of human life and human death, and has drawn human death into the depths of His own eternal being and Has overcome it by the power of His eternal life. He has turned death upside down and inside out! He has been there and done that, and has undone it, for you! He has invaded death's domain and defeated it to set us free. And that is the reason that Jesus could say, "Whoever lives and believes in me shall never die!" [John 11:26]. Again, I quote Calvin:

It's true. What happened on the cross of Christ happened for you. The cross of Christ is at the heart of true Christianity; and, therefore, the cross of Christ is in the heart of the true Christian. You must not be complacent about the cross of Jesus Christ, because when Jesus was crucified, He was crucified because of you and instead of you and for you.

This is the gospel: the good news of the cross of Christ. And what happened on that cross on the hill called "the Skull" happened for you. Don't be satisfied with the notion, the general, abstract idea that Jesus died for everybody in general and you just happen to be one of those nameless, faceless persons among the multitude of people for whom He died. No! That's not faith. Don’t say, "Jesus died for everybody in general so therefore He died for me." No! That's not personal, saving faith. Do you think that it was someone else's sins who sent Jesus to the cross and to the hell of forsakenness by the Father? Was it just the general sin of humanity in general that He bore in His body on the cross? No! No! It was your sins for which He suffered, your iniquities He bore. You cannot be complacent about the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, because the crucifixion of Jesus Christ happened for you. And Jesus Christ went to the Cross as though, as though, He were going for you alone, because He was really and truly going there for you. What happened on the cross transcended all the limits of time and history and geography. To be a Christian is to know in your soul that you have peace with God, now and for all eternity, only because Jesus Christ went to the cross because of you and instead of you and for you. And if He had not done that for you, you would be under the wrath and curse of God lost in this world today and in the world to come forever. And if we reject what Christ has done for us, or deny what Christ has done for us, and go our own way away from Him and His cross, then we remain under the wrath and curse of God in this world, with no hope for the world to come.

Jesus Christ is your only salvation. No one else has done for you what He has done, and no one else ever will. But He has done everything. And that is why you and I, everyday of our lives, must cling to the cross of Jesus Christ. I know how it is to be weighed down by the burden of sin. I know what it's like to look at my life and see all the selfish, stupid, hurtful things I've done, even as a Christian, and to feel the pang of regret and shame and guilt and self-condemnation, and to be overwhelmed with a sense of my own failure and my own filth. I know what it’s like not to be able to turn back the hands of time and undo what I have done, or do what I did not do. I know what it's like to know that I cannot save myself. And I know that there is only one way to deal with the reality of my sin, the reality of my brokenness, the reality of my unworthiness, and that is to deal with it the way God has said to deal with it, the way that God has graciously provided: to run to Jesus as fast as I can, to throw myself at the foot of the cross, to cast my soul on the promise of His sovereign, saving grace, and to cry out in faith, "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner."

Make no excuses, offer no explanations, cast no blame on anyone else; but come, by faith, and cling, by faith, to the cross of Jesus Christ, now and forever.

"All we, like sheep have gone astray. We have turned, every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all" [Isaiah 53:6].

What happened on the cross of Christ happened for you. To God be the glory! Amen!