The Cross of Calvary

What happened at the cross of Calvary?

Something amazing happened at the Cross of Calvary and what was visible to us was merely superficial. The Tree had roots back into the past eternity and its branches stretched upward into eternities to come. It was a real event in the realm of reality - infinitely more real to God, to the dimension of all angels and spirits, in heaven and hell, than what we saw. “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.” (2 Corinthians 5:19).

Only God can save us. If He had not bothered, we would perish. He is the only One with whom we have to reckon in the end. What He thinks about us is all that matters. If He condemns, what does any other opinion matter? If He does not forgive, it doesn’t matter who else forgives. The Supreme Court may acquit us or the offended party may say ‘I forgive you’, but there is still God to face.

Sinners will stand eventually before the Judge, as naked as Adam and Eve taking to their heels in Eden. How will they cover themselves? With the fig leaves of printed tributes, obituary notices or testimonials? The approval of the whole world, applause, honors, and medals is nothing.

Thank God for ‘so great salvation’. The garments of salvation, the most expensive ever made, loomed at Calvary. What God did to save us is fathomless. “Behold the man…”. “Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world.” What love and what opportunity.

Calvary's Cross seemed to sum up all the negative forces that depress the human race. But this was no defeat; it was omnipotence in action, omnipotence turning every negative into a positive, a supreme act with a supreme outcome. Jesus wept for the weeping; He became helpless for the helpless, unwanted for the unwanted, and unclean for the unclean; He faced death for the dying, and horror for the terrified.

He suffered injustice for all who were oppressed, and He surrendered His reputation for all the nobodies in the world. Beyond all miracles, Christ’s death on the Cross at Calvary was an act of such greatness that the world will never be able to get over it.

CREATION WITHOUT A CROSS

To think of creation without the Cross is to get a distorted view of things. We read about secrets hidden from before the foundation of the earth. The Cross in creation is the secret of God, now made known to us. The Cross is the inner core of truth. The Cross strengthens the fabric of existence - in Christ all things are held together. It means His arms stretched out at Calvary. Without that the world would fall apart.

Evil would break it up. God did not toss this round globe into space and forgot it. He left the Spirit of God brooding over it and the Cross of Christ standing at its heart, holding it together. The Cross of Jesus is the strength of all life and existence, including you and me.

Salvation is not a mystic force plucked out of the air. It rests on history. It is not psychic awareness, or "tapping the reservoir of the super-conscious". It began at the Cross and nothing is more touchable than that. The Cross was salvation's cost to God and fixes its value to us. Salvation has to be gauged by the massive effort behind it, namely the life, death and resurrection of the Son of God. Creation cost God nothing. Salvation cost Him His Son.

We are entitled to expect a tremendous outcome for that outlay. The Calvary-event tore heaven open, darkened the sun, and made Jesus Christ sweat blood bringing angels to help Him. Why all that? Nothing, but nothing could justify it except world redemption, and the guarantee of salvation for every individual who put their trust in Him.

The Cross of Calvary is the scale by which to measure salvation. Creation cost God nothing. Salvation cost Him all He had. "He gave His only begotten Son.” (John 3,16)

Long ago, drop by drop, the Blood of Christ’s life ebbed out of His heart. It stained Calvary’s hill, spelling out in crimson letters the story of the love that surpasses all love.

Today, more than a billion around the whole world – the simple and the wise, those who live in jungles and those who live in concrete apartment blocks, factory workers and academics – take that message as the truth above all truths. It shows us the concerns of God’s heart and a wisdom, which soars far above our cloud-hopping minds. Great intellects have bowed to it. Saul of Tarsus, once full of biting hatred, came to see the Cross as the logic of God. He said it was a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Greeks but the power of God to all that believe (1 Corinthians 1:23-24).

Christ’s death was His greatest achievement and God’s greatest act. The power of love conquered the love of power. It was no mistake, no misfortune, and no accident. Christ was not a martyred victim, but a mighty victor, our champion and God’s hero. The Father in heaven sent Him to hunt out and destroy the devil and evil. A greater David faced a greater Goliath. The Son of God overthrew our greatest enemy, sin, and our final foe, death.

The words, "Jesus saves", embrace everything that defeats us. Every life has a thousand needs. Salvation touches all weaknesses, reaches into the past and future, and is for body, soul and mind, for earth and for heaven. Jesus saves us from our sins, from folly, failure and fear, pride and illusion, the devil’s deceit and every threatening circumstance.

Christ is the Master of it all. Jesus saves! Christ's hell-shattering work has opened heaven's fountain of resources for all struggling souls. "He that believes in Me, has life." Being saved means being "born again". "To as many as received Him, to them gave He power to be the sons of God." As I write these words, my heart rejoices and affirms every word. Yes! Yes! Yes! Jesus is wonderful.

We need Gods’ power. God needs manpower. Salvation is a joint effort, the Spirit of God waiting on our not waiting but getting on with it. We are “co-workers together with Christ” – what glorious partnership. God does not need us to run the universe, but he depends on our trust in and our obedience to Him. Let’s preach the Gospel and thus fulfill the Great Commission.

Have you ever won anybody for Christ? If you have, you have done something no prophet in the Old Testament ever did! Noah never won one person to join his family to go into the ark. Elijah never won souls, or Jeremiah, or Isaiah. The prophets before Christ were mouthpieces of the Holy Spirit, but they never had the joy and privilege you have if you have brought somebody to know the Lord.

THE CROSS AFFECTED THE THRONE

An indication of Christ’s glorious sacrifice is given us in the Book of Revelation. It describes the whole universe being swept with His praise. Every creature in heaven and earth know that none of them is worthy, only Jesus. (Rev. 5) They multiply accolades and exhaust language to match His unparalleled work. The cause of such worthiness was observable only in a measure even by those who watched Him in His dying hours. But it was not the total cost, because the Cross affected the Throne!

Another tremendous fact is: Christ was one with the Father. Infinity shared with the sin-bearer. The black hurricanes surging around the Cross swept also around the Throne above. Christ accepted our judgement but ‘God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself’. (2 Cor 5,19) The vastness of the heart of God found a place for the sorrows of mankind. The music of heaven developed a minor key.

We can sympathize and empathize with other human beings, but not with God, especially in the passion of His redeeming work. We can relate to God, but never in that dimension. God is the indescribable, and in this work we can only stand aside in ignorance and awe. It can’t be explained. It is unutterable, and if uttered it would be incomprehensible. Only God can appreciate what God experiences.

We are like the disciples Jesus took into Gethsemane. They went with Him so far only. Then ‘He went a little further.’ A few yards away from where Peter, James and John sat waiting, drowsing under the old olive trees, the world’s Redeemer was fighting a cosmic battle totally outside their conception- and ours. Our theology of salvation is the scaffolding only to the temple of our wonderful and glorious God.

Sin separates us from God

When Satan with his wiles managed to deceive Eve, and in turn Adam to disobedience, sin entered into their nature. This sin came between them and God like a veil, separating them from the source of life. Spiritually speaking, they were dead in their trespasses and sins. (Ephesians 2:1) Sin had entered the world, which was cursed, and all living creatures also had to die a physical death.

The sin that entered Adam and Eve’s nature was passed on to all their descendants. This “sin in the fleshSin is anything that goes against God’s will and His laws. To commit sin is to transgress or disobey these laws. The lust to sin dwells in human nature. In other words, it is contaminated and motivated by the sinful...” is not guilt for committed sins, but a strong inclination to do our own will rather than God’s. If we follow this inclination, for example when we are tempted, we commit sin.  To help His people stay on the right path, God gave them laws that spelled out His will for them.

Unfortunately, people were incredibly weak and not one person ever managed to keep pure from sin. In fact, even the best of them usually sinned daily in thought, word and deed. In other words, all people were guilty, and Satan could use this as a letter of accusation against them, demanding that they should die. (Romans 5:12) In the temple, the symbolic house of God on earth, a large, thick veil hung in front of the Holiest of Holies, symbolizing the sin in the flesh that separated people from God. Anyone passing that veil would die instantly, as no sin could stand in the presence of God.

Forgiveness through sacrifice

God, in His long-suffering, gave people a chance: by sacrificing an animal without blemish, the people could get forgiveness. Once a year the high priest could enter the Holiest of Holies, carrying the blood of the sacrifice, and obtain atonement for the people. Through the spilling of the blood of an innocent sacrifice, the debt of sin could be paid. (Leviticus 17:11; Hebrews 9:22)

However, the blood of animals couldn’t take away the root cause of the problem, the sin in human nature. After their sins were forgiven, the people continued to sin, meaning that they had to come back and sacrifice again, year after year. Not even the high priest could help them; he himself was a sinner, and the sacrifice was for himself just as much as for the people. (Hebrews 10:1-4)

God hated this frightful state of affairs. His longing was to have communion with people and to save them. He looked for someone who could lead the people out of the vicious circle of sinning and forgiveness. But, despite the fact that there were righteous, God-fearing people throughout history, none of them were blameless, and none of them could “stand in the gap” between God and mankind. So then God sent His own Son to carry out this greatest work in history. (Ezekiel 22:30; Isaiah 41:28; Isaiah 60:16; Isaiah 63:5; John 3:16-17)

Jesus: a human being in every sense of the word

Jesus was the Son of God, but He willingly “emptied Himself” and became the “Son of Man” – a human being in every sense of the word, with the same human nature as all of us. This meant that Jesus was tempted as we are. But Jesus was also born of God’s Spirit, and this Spirit accompanied Him His whole life, giving Him the strength to carry out the task He was sent for. (Luke 1:30-35; Philippians 2:5-8; Isaiah 61:1-3)

“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.” Philippians 2:8. It was as a man that Jesus had to learn obedience, because, being a man, He had His own self-will, or sin in the flesh, and was tempted. There He learned to deny Himself, “take up His cross daily” and put that sin to death. The result was that He never sinned and was without sin. (Hebrews 2:18; Hebrews 4:15; Hebrews 5:7-8)

When Jesus spoke out against sin and against the hypocrisy of the religious leaders of the time, He spoke with authority and conviction. But because the death over sin was taking place in His inner man, hidden from people’s sight, He was misunderstood by nearly all His contemporaries. So much so, that in the end, He was arrested and crucified. The pure, righteous, blameless Man died as a criminal, punished for sins He had never committed. Why?

Atonement – and a way to follow

Being blameless, the only human being in all history who was completely pure and without sin, Jesus was the only one who could “stand in the gap,” the only one on whom Satan had no claim. He was the only one who had not deserved death, either physical or spiritual. But, fulfilling the purpose for which He had come to earth, Jesus voluntarily offered Himself. He was crucified as the ultimate, blameless sacrifice. He died as the Lamb of God, the atonement for all mankind. He bore the punishment of all our sins, and died, the just for the unjust. (Romans 5:10; 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 3:18) Not only did He die a physical death, but He even experienced separation from God while He was hanging on the cross. (Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34) Through this sacrifice, all those who believe in Him are able to obtain forgiveness.

Jesus’ death on the cross on Calvary, though absolutely one of the most momentous and powerful events ever on earth, is actually only part of the Christian story. By the strength of the Spirit that was with Him from birth, Jesus had “suffered in the flesh” by denying it and not giving in to the inclination to sin that He had in His nature as a human being. In this way the sin in His flesh was condemned and He “put it to death,” “crucifying” the lusts and desires. So though He was tempted, He never sinned. (Hebrews 2:18; Hebrews 4:16)

When Jesus died on the cross, He cried out, “It is finished!” At that moment, every last shred of the sin He had inherited in His human nature had been crucified, and His work on earth was finished. When Jesus died, the heavy veil in the temple was torn from top to bottom. The debt had been paid; the way back to the Father was open.

Jesus’ victory over sin was also a victory over death. He did not remain in the grave, but arose from the dead with a glorified body, containing the whole fullness of God’s own nature. Forty days later He ascended to heaven, where He is sitting today at the right side of His Father. (Philippians 2:5-11; Colossians 2:9)

Jesus’ brothers!

So how was Jesus’ crucifixion and sacrifice different from the sacrifice and forgiveness in the Old Covenant? How does Jesus’ death on the cross take away the sin in our flesh? Why are we still tempted? This is because forgiveness alone was not the ultimate goal of Jesus’ life, nor is it the ultimate goal of a Christian. In fact, forgiveness is only the beginning. Jesus Himself indicated this very clearly: “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” Luke 9:23.

Jesus’ purpose was not only to be the atoning sacrifice for people’s sins. He wanted disciples, those who follow Him. We can’t follow Him to the death on the cross on Calvary, but we can take up our cross daily!

By following Him on this way, we become His disciples, and He sends us His Holy Spirit to give us the same strength that He had to overcome sin. We also suffer in the flesh, we also crucify the flesh with its lusts and desires, we also put to death the “deeds of the body” by the Spirit and, we also cease from sin, we become “members of His body,” we become Jesus’ brothers, and we become partakers of divine nature! (1 Peter 4:1-2; Galatians 5:24; Romans 8:13; 1 Corinthians 12:12-14; Hebrews 2:11; 2 Peter 1:2-4)

Jesus’ death on the cross of Calvary was the culmination of His incredible work of love for us people. By His death He reconciled those who believe in Him with God, and through His life He opened a way back to the Father for those who follow Him. Through death over sin, Jesus conquered death. (Hebrews 2:14-15) By His life He gave us life. May His sacrifice not be in vain – may He have many disciples, whom He is not ashamed to call His brothers!