As C.S. Lewis said , "The central Christian belief is that Christ's death has somehow put us right with God and given us a fresh start." ^[1] 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. Jesus was considered 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:

The Roman scourge consisted of a short, wooden handle to which several thongs were attached, the ends equipped with pieces of lead or brass and with sharply pointed bits of bone. The stripes were laid especially (not always exclusively) on the victim's back, bared and bent. The body was at times torn and lacerated to such an extent that deep-seated veins and arteries --- sometimes even entrails and inner organs --- were exposed. Such flogging, from which Roman citizens were exempt, often resulted in death. Or it preceded execution, and was ordered as a sign to indicate that the person to whom it was administered was about to be crucified. ^[2]

            Think of it, the mystery of the Incarnation: “The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). And it came to this: the Word became flesh, and bared His back to the Roman scourge. 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. With every lash of the whip, the punishment for the peace of your soul was laid upon Him.

            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. Jesus took the place of the first Adam and of Adam’s sinful descendants. Adam's sin is our sin; Adam's curse is our curse; Adam's crown is our crown, the crown of Original Sin, the crown of the curse, the crown of thorns. 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, outside the camp, they crucified Him, on a hill called “Golgotha,” that is, “the place of the skull.”  Was it called the place of the skull because it actually looks like a skull, with caves in just the right places that look like empty eye-sockets? Or was it called “the place of the skull” because it was literally littered with skulls and bones bleached white in the sun?

            There 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. ^[3]

            "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 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 sufficient to deal with 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:

...(the death of Christ) is our confident hope of life and our fearless triumph over death because the Son of God has endured it in our stead, and has been victorious. ^[4]

            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.

THE PRAYER FOR A RIGHT RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD: