Importance of the cross

The cross of Christ is the centerpiece of Christianity. From this hub emanate all the spokes of the topic of salvation, of being rescued from an eternal life without purpose, hope, lasting accomplishment, and comfort, because it will be without the infinite being we call God. Christians who are born from above are people of the cross for the gospel, the good news that God has paid our price, death, when Jesus fully, truthfully, died and was resurrected. We maintain that this grace was not simply an heroic best effort by some arbitrary man, but a unique act by a unique God-man, Jesus Christ. That’s why He’s called the Lamb of God. He came from God and is God.

In what is unarguably the key NT text stating the gospel in the clearest of terms, Paul wrote

Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures (1 Cor 15:34).

There are two aspects of what we call salvation, what Jesus did in His physical body and what happens to a person who calls upon God to reconcile them with God forever based on what Christ did. Jesus death is therefore what we call “The Atonement.” The doctrine of the atonement of Christ is the heart of Christianity that’s why the cross of Christ is the heart of the apostle’s preaching.

The importance of the atonement is demonstrated in the many prophecies and types of the Old Testament (OT) focusing on the death of Christ as noted by 1 Pet 1:10-11. No less than 175 direct references to the death of Christ occur in the New Testament.

Acts 4:12 And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.

Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please Him (God), for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.

It was Finished

Accounts of Jesus’ ministry record seven things Jesus said while on the cross. Three are recorded in the Gospel of John, three in Luke and one repeated by Matthew and Mark. After Jesus had been on the cross for about 6 hours John records this:

John 19:28-30 After this, when Jesus knew that everything was now [at last] finished, [so] that the Scripture might be fulfilled, He said, I’m thirsty. 29 A jar full of sour wine was sitting there; [sour wine contains little sugar and a high level of acetic acid (vinegar)] so they fixed a sponge full of sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it up to His mouth. 30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, It [has been] finished. Then bowing His head, he gave up His spirit.

• was finished = it has been finished = one word = in the Greek perfect tense, which means an action that still remains complete.
• sour wine = vinegar = more thirst-quenching than water. Since he would have been severely dehydrated, this potion prepared his throat to say the last words. The excruciating pain and bodily collapse, blood loss, shock, and pain make any such cries almost unbelievable, but for the fact that He was proclaiming something of literally cosmic significance.
• It’s at the cross that we come to know God. It’s at the cross that we come to know ourselves.
  He didn’t say, I’m finished, nor did He say I have finished it, but John records the single word as It has been finished using Greek grammar to convey that something or someone has caused some task to become complete, and furthermore, it is still complete. Something had been accomplished by the time Jesus was ready to give up the body He was born into. I submit to you that Jesus was referring to His whole life. You see, the Lamb of Passover had to be a perfect specimen of a sheep. So Jesus had to demonstrate a perfect life to qualify as a sacrifice. He demonstrated that from His birth through His death.

When something is finished, it means something began. Something was planned. Something was intended. God always completes what He intends. We use the word intend as an excuse. Oh, I intended to get to that. I intended to say this, not what I actually said. God doesn’t. God completes all his intentions. I think we can look back to the beginning of John’s Gospel to find what we’re looking for. By Jesus. own words, the greatest of men in Jesus’ day was another John, the one called the baptizer, or John the Baptist. Jesus’ public ministry began with being baptized by John the Baptist.

Matthew 11:11 Truly I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist! Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. (NASB95) How do we describe what was accomplished? Well God has instructed us through the Jews, through Moses how to understand it.There are two things to understand: what was done, and how it matters to us.

John The Baptist

The key is in the exclamation of John the Baptist. The apostle John recorded John the Baptist’s exclamation to the first of the apostles in the opening chapter of John’s Gospel:

John 1:29b: …[John] *saw Jesus coming to him and *said, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away [the one taking away] the sin of the world!

The sin of the world

We act apart from God. In effect, we are our own God. We are essentially alone inside, deep in our souls. And we spend much of our lives searching to fill that loneliness with something or someone that will give us satisfaction that we take for wholeness. But very soon in our lives, Satan begins to woo us to do His will, not God’s. Sometimes people even allow demons to use them, but it’s alwaysa temporary sense of power, of fulfillment, because in the end we were made for the perfectly righteous God to dwell in us forever.How do I know this? Jesus said

John 14:9 Jesus said to him, Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, Show us the Father? (NASB95) Did people see the Father like we see a tree or a sunset? No. When they watched Jesus act, cast out demons, express compassion, feed the hungry, heal the sick, the blind the deformed, they perceived the power, but much more, the character of the Father. They saw that in Jesus. We are supposed to be like Jesus, acting as the Father would, allowing the Father to act through us to bring righteousness, love, compassion to everyone around us so that they can say I feel like I’ve been around the Father when I’m around you. Even the animals should know the Father’s love through us. This is what it means to be the image and likeness of God.But we are resistant. We are fearful. We seek to find ultimate wisdom and fulfillment apart from God. We think we don’t need God actually inside us – that’s too close, we think too controlling. Did Jesus act like a tyrant? Did He demand His way? No.This is what Jesus came to accomplish on the cross. Not all God accomplishes through Jesus, but a crucial step that cannot be accomplished in any other way or by any other being. In jn 1:29 sin is singular The planet, it’s ecology and non-human life certainly is not functioning as God created it before Adam sinned. But that’s not due to it’s own volition, it’s own will, or it’s own sin. Romans 8:19-22–19 For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. (NASB95)

In the cross, that is in the event of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, we find out who God is, and we find out something crucial about who we are.

Romans 3:21-26But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22 even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; 25 whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; 26 for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. (NASB95)

• the lamb: an object lesson to prepare everyone
  The Synoptic Gospel writers all connect Jesus:s Last Supper to the Passover, both with respect to timing and symbol (e.g., Mark 14: 13-24). 5 Paul makes the connection when he refers to Christ as our Passover, [which] has been sacrificed (1 Cor 5: 7). Peter also makes this connection when he says that we are redeemed . . . with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot (1 Pet 1:18-19). There are a number of significant parallels between the OT Passover and the Last Supper. First, the fellowship meal was eaten by the family. Jesus ate this fellowship meal with His disciples on the eve of His crucifixion. Second, the original Passover occurred on the eve of the exodus. There was a readiness to depart Egypt and trek toward the Promised Land. Luke describes Jesus’s death as an exodus (Luke 9:31). Third, the blood of the lamb applied to the doorposts brought protection from the death angel and salvation for the firstborn. The blood of Christ shed on the cross was a sacrificial offering that brings salvation to those to whom it is applied.
  Notice that the sacrifice of the Lamb did save the firstborn of the family and their animals. It was the application of the blood to the doorposts that staved off the death angel. So with salvation, Christ died as the Passover lamb, but it takes faith to have his atonement applied to a person’s life. However, Christ’s death was not just the death of an animal. He bore the penalty of our iniquity so that God is free to apply His grace to all who call upon Him.

  Acts 2:21 AND IT SHALL BE THAT EVERYONE WHO CALLS ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.

  This crucial event in the history of humanity was predicted

• for our education
• We have no excuse
• We have the ability to apply it
  The foundation of the Mosaic covenant offerings is Exodus 24. Here, for the first time in Scripture, the significance of blood as a necessary part of the covenant sacrifice is mentioned. God teaches Israel that He must be approached through an offering. True worship of God must be based on atonement for sin. Exodus 24: 5 stipulates the sacrifice of animals and the significance of the shedding of blood.

  Exodus 24:5-8 He sent young men of the sons of Israel, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as peace offerings to the LORD. 6 Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and the other half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. 7 Then he took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people; and they said, All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient! 8 So Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words.

  
  

  Choosing the lamb

  
  

  Exodus 12:1-6 Now the LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 2 This month shall be the beginning of months for you; it is to be the first month of the year to you. 3 Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, On the tenth of this month they are each one to take a lamb for themselves, according to their fathers households, a lamb for each household. 4 Now if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his neighbor nearest to his house are to take one according to the number of persons in them; according to what each man should eat, you are to divide the lamb. 5 Your lamb shall be an unblemished male a year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. 6 You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill it at twilight.

  
  

  Jesus’ death was real

  
  

  Jesus active righteousness
  Jesus death was real
  Isaiah 53

  
  

  Isaiah 52:13 Behold, My servant will prosper, He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted.

  Isaiah 53:4-12 Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. 5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. 6 All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. 7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth. 8 By oppression and judgment He was taken away; And as for His generation, who considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living For the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due? 9 His grave was assigned with wicked men, Yet He was with a rich man in His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth. 10 But the Lord was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand. 11 As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear (experience patiently, to endure, to have labor pains) their iniquities. 12 Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, And He will divide the booty with the strong; Because He poured out Himself to death, And was numbered with the transgressors; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, And interceded for the transgressors.

  
  

  why Jesus had to die starts and end with the character and plans of God

  
  

  Mystery

  
  
• James Denney well notes that the question regarding the how of the atonement is often
  vaguely answered or not answered at all.
• There is a certain mystery to the atoning work of Christ. One has sinned. Another has made satisfaction. The sinner does not make satisfaction; the Satisfier does not sin. This is an astonishing
  doctrine.
• As on the Day of Atonement in the OT when the high priest went behind the veil into the holy of holies, where no human eye observed the pouring out of the blood on the altar, so the death of Christ is so marvelous and wonderful that there will always be something of a mystery about which no theologian can ever fully fathom.

  Extent and Application

  
  We are given Christ’s righteousness before God regardless of how we act after our first
  reconciliation with God.The majority of Christians in church history have taken the position that Christ died for the sins of all, that God equally desires their salvation, but only intends to save those who meet His condition of salvation, namely, faith in Christ.In modern usage, atonement, therefore, is something accomplished by God through Christ on the cross. Atonement is also an act of Christ that is, in some sense, offered to God (Heb. 9:14).

  Hebrews 9:13-14–13 For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? (NASB95)
  The ultimate goal of the atonement is the reconciliation of sinners with God (2 Cor 5:14-21).
  2 Corinthians 5:14-15–14 For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; 15 and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf. (NASB95)
  Objectively considered, reconciliation focuses on God’s attitude toward sinners i.e., He is willing to delay sin’s punishment of the sinner; subjectively, God is willing to be reconciled to all sinners who meet His condition of faith in Christ. Christ’s atonement is fundamentally an act of reconciliation between sinful humanity and God. Sherman describes the atonement this way: In its most basic sense, it answers the human problem.
  Atonement was a finished act on the cross; redemption occurs at the moment a person is granted the benefits of the atonement via regeneration by the Holy Spirit.
  The connection between salvation and atonement is important to understand. Salvation is inseparable from the sacrifice and satisfaction rendered to God by Christ on the cross. In order to forgive sin (provide salvation), Jesus must bear sin (make atonement). In the Bible, as James
  Denney states, to bear sin is not an unambiguous expression. It means to underlie its responsibility and to receive its consequences: to say that Christ bore our sins is precisely the same thing as to say
  that He died for our sins; it needs no other interpretation, and admits of no other.
  2 Corinthians 5:18-21–18 Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (NASB95)
  ==In the atonement, God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself (2 Cor 5:19). We can have no true theology that does not have the cross at its center. We can have no true salvation apart from atonement. Only at the cross do we learn who God is; only at the cross do we learn who Jesus is; only at the cross do we learn the sinners we are; and only at the cross do we learn what redemption and salvation are all about.==

  
  

  Further Thoughts

  
  

  So we may ask why the sacrifice. And the answer certainly begins in the nature of God that is of God’s character. But also in the responsibility of humanity. So in the first instance God requires his creation to be perfect. That is it is to be a reflection of his character, that is why we’re told that
  human beings were made in the image and likeness of God. Some would like to say that the image is some inherent characteristic of human design or function like our DNA or the fact that we have arms and legs or some other factual thing. They would say that the image means we have the capacity for something. There may be some truth to that. I associate that with the likeness of God we have personality we have spirit but we are also part of creation so we are not God’s there is certain capacity within us to act like God in regard to the Earth. It is well known that throughout ancient history even into modern history that when you have a charismatic or focal leader of a culture, that
  that person cannot be everywhere at once and so erects a likeness which can be in the ancient society was a statue it can be or it can be a picture such as the picture of the kings and queens of England or other countries leaders on their money. We are the image of God in that we represent
  God when the animal kingdom sees us they see God. When other human beings see us they are supposed to see God. Jesus epitomized that image because he said if you have seen me you have
  seen the father. He did not mean if if you have seen me with your eyes he meant if you have seen me with your mind that is they watched him with their eyes they heard him with their ears they followed him physically with their bodies and what they observed about his character was the character of God that’s what we mean by seeing in this context. This is an awesome responsibility it is a responsibility there for that carries with it a penalty for willfully refusing that responsibility and, and that penalty is death. It is the removal from this creation. Immediately in the story of creation
  we see God’s patience in the way he treated the Angels who gave up their responsibility and habitation and took on another. We see his patience with Adam and Eve we see his patients with the entire population of the Earth in waiting close to 2,000 years before bringing the flood we see his patience exhibited even now. We saw his patience when he was here on Earth because he could have struck down those who raise their hands against him. The patience of God is meant for our repentance to give us time to repent.But we cannot confuse the patience of God with a lack of responsibility of humanity. Humanity was given the authority to represent God in this creation. God told Adam and Eve as representatives of all human beings to rule over the Earth that is to subdue it to their will, to subdue the animals to their will. This should have resulted in care and righteousness for everyone for every living thing on
  this Earth but it has resulted in something far more disastrous.However that responsibility however that responsibility has never been lifted and will be never and
  will never be listed. So this provides a problem does God destroy the creation and begin again?
  Scripture