Introduction: This assignment was birth out of a simple question I have always asked myself, “What did the cross really accomplish?” I guess the typical Sunday school answer was, “to save me”. Alright, but surely there’s more to it right? What I realized though is that the more I read through texts of Scripture and working my way through systematic theology book, it completely threw me for a something (I don’t really know the word I’m looking for here)…but it was more than I had expected. So I went to do some research. Ha…I even asked some other people what they thought about it.
And I realize there’s no possible way to detail everything there is to know about the cross within a word document but I’ll just hit the high points. I hope that at the end of all of this you might: a) have a fuller grasp of what exactly the cross of Christ accomplished; b) be able to take texts of scripture and see how God relates to us; c) experience a fuller life. I think it’s useless if we go “ok…that’s some good research” and walk away not changed.
Semantics: I found it very interesting when you do a word search on the original Greek word (stauro,j)[1] “cross”. You’ll come up with three different meanings
1. a pole to be placed in the ground and used for capital punishment: So here’s your typical word for cross – the actual physical cross. It was a way of torture and resulted in an extremely painful death. You’ll find this word in the latter part of the Gospel narratives (Mt. 27:40; Mk 15:30; Jn 19:25)
2. the cross, with focus on the fate of Jesus Christ: Here’s where the New Testament writers will refer to the cross. It was Christ’s death on the cross that brought salvation (Eph 2:16; Col 2:14). This is probably the word we’re going to have to focus on throughout this study.
3. the suffering/death which believers endure in following the crucified Lord: Now this was an interesting find. You’ll remember in Matthew 10:38 when Jesus tells his disciples “and whoever does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me” (c.f. Mt. 16:24; Mk 8:34; Lk 9:23). I find this interesting because Jesus uses this word “cross” and he hasn’t been nailed to the cross yet. It’s very weird I think because up to this point that word is associated only with pain, suffering, and death.
According to the Gospels: At the moment of death
Matthew 27 46 “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" that is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
51 “And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. 52 The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, 53 and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many.
Mark 15 37And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. 38 And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.
Luke 23 44 It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, 45 while the sun's light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. 46 Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!" And having said this he breathed his last.
John 19 28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), "I thirst." 29 A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. 30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, "It is finished," and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
The Atonement: So we gotta figure out what exactly this word means but then we also have to understand all the factors that go along with it. I betcha you have no clue what the word “atonement” means outside of the 2008 movie starring Kiera Knightly. But again, I think in order to get the full weight of what Jesus did on the cross you gotta look at the entire picture…and that my friend starts at the nature of God.
Background
Nature of God: It all starts with God’s holiness – his “sacredness, righteousness”. It pretty much means He is completely apart from all creation and evil. If you check out verses like Exodus 15:11 it says “Who among the gods is like you, O LORD? Who is like you – majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?”[2] I mean, God is so above everything else that when you even try to compare anything to Him, it falls shorts by a bunch. But the thing is He doesn’t have holiness – God is holy by His very nature. Does that make sense? He can’t decide to not be holy, righteous. Alright…so you get it? God is by his nature, from all of eternity, holy.
Not only is God holy, but he’s also just right? I mean throughout the Bible it is clear that God is out for his own glory. His justice comes from who he is. He has to judge those who have belittled his name right? I mean if God just allows us to sin and get away with it, he ceases to be just. It’s like a judge going “yeah…you’re a murder, rapist, and terrorist. But I’ll let you off this time” Uhhh…that judge would be unjust and probably lose his license right? God has to judge righteously or he ceases to be God.
Nature of Man: I think a lot of us think that we’re born and somewhere in our life nature kinda influenced us and we became infected with sin. Or some of us think that sin is that moment when we said a curse word or lied about something to get ahead…something like that. But if you take a look at Eph. 2:3, Paul says “Like the rest, we were by nature objects of God’s wrath”. Just the fact that we were born meant that we are sinners. Want more? Gen. 6:5; Romans 1:18-32; 2 Tim. 3:2-5…even King David in Psalms 51:5 goes “I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me”. Man is totally depraved. Because of sin, all parts of who we are fall prone to sin – our thoughts, emotions, will, even our good deeds (because if you remember Ecclesiastes, he’ll talk about him doing something for others but then it’ll turn into self-righteousness). If you get the time go study the doctrine of “total depravity” – first put forth by St. Augustine and developed by John Calvin and other great men of the faith. But just for the sake of time and space and our discussion we’ll just keep it there. Humans not only perform acts of sin that ought to be accounted for, they are born with a natural bent towards evil. And then thing is that there’s no way for any of us to get out of it. Like have you ever tried to “work” your way out of a particular bad habit or sin? I mean…you, with all your might, try to beat it and perhaps you do a great job for a week or so but then it somehow creeps up and gets you again. It seems almost hopeless right?
The Old Testament System: I think some people hit on this point when they talk about the death of Jesus…but most people miss it. You can’t forget about the system that set up. So back in the Old Testament God instituted the sacrificial system to pay off the sins that were committed. When there was an offense against God (say someone punched another dude in the eye) they would have to bring a sacrificial animal but get this…it had to be spotless. So like the man had to bring a goat that didn’t have any defects or a broken leg or anything like that – it had to cost something ya know? And then the one whom atonement had to put his hands on the animal (Lev. 1:3-4). This part symbolized a transfer of guilt from the sinner to the victim (poor animal). Then it was handed off to the priest so the priest could go present it before God. They would take sacrifice, put a knife to its jugular, pour the blood over the altar and burn it up. It all symbolized something – like God going “see that blood…so what your sins cost you? But now look at the fire consuming it…I see it no more”. So yeah, that was the Old Testament sacrificial system.
Was it necessary? You have to realize that Jesus coming to this earth and dying wasn’t plan B. Luke 24:25-26 “O foolish men, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” or what about Romans 3:26 – “It was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies him who has faith in Jesus”. But I think the most telling is found in the book of Hebrews – “He had to be make like his brethren in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make expiation for the sins of the people” (Heb. 2:17). There was no other way for a broken humanity to be saved…none whatsoever. “it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins” (Heb. 10:4). Do you hear it? No matter how many sacrifices people tried to give back to God, it still wasn’t enough…why? Because the blood of bulls and goats were God’s to begin with. But also the sacrifices of sinful man falls short because of sin, pride, self-righteousness, and so forth.
Propitiation: Romans 3:25 says God put Christ as a “propitiation” which means “a sacrifice that bears God’s wrath to the end and in so doing changes God’s wrath towards us into favor”. The wrath of God couldn’t just be erased or forgotten…remember, he’s a just God? So the punishment for sins past, present, and future were absorbed by Christ on the cross.
The Shed Blood: “You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your fathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot” (1 Pet. 1:18-19). Heb. 9:14 says that by Jesus’ blood our consciences are cleansed, we can enter the throne room of God boldly (Heb. 10:19) – alright…now that’s gotta be somewhat crazy. If you really know who you are and all the things you think, fall short on, not do…then you’re not going to stand in front of an all-powerful, creator, holds-everything-together, all just God. But still…1 John 1:7 says that we are progressively cleansed from remaining sin and not only that be there’s finally an escape out of our sinful life (1 Pet. 1:18-19). We are set free to understand all of life because the one who died promised us life to its fullest (John 10:10)
Sacrifice: There’s all this symbolism when it comes to sacrifice. If you look at Hebrews 9:6-15 it’ll reference the Old Testament Day of Atonement – Christ being the high priest who entered into the Holy Place to offer sacrifice. And then when you look at Hebrews 10:5-18, Christ’s sacrifice is “once and for all”. And this is where it blows my mind…when you and I feel disjointed from God, when we openly sin or realize that we have sinned, we run to the alter and try to lay something on it right? Usually in the form of praying more, or church attendance, or lent…just so we can alleviate some of the guilt we feel. But after Jesus died on the cross…when we run to the alter and try to lay our stuff on it God goes “Sorry, the alter is closed. Get your stuff off of my alter…it’s been paid for already. You want right standing with me? Don’t lay your stuff on the alter…you lay on the alter” That’s why all over the Gospels you have Jesus going “I am the vine, you are the branches…if a man remain in me” (John 15:5) Because when we stand in front of God, all he sees now is Jesus’ shed blood and counts us as righteous.
*like I said earlier…there’s a bajillion things that I haven’t even mentioned (i.e. reconciliation, penal-substitution, propitiation, example theory…) but hopefully this is just a brief overview into the depth that is the atonement of Jesus Christ. In writing this short little blurb I used the following: BibleWorks 6 Bible software (BDAG & Halot); Systematic Theology by: Norman Geisler; Matt Chandler; Systematic Theology by: Wayne Grudem; Christian Theology by: Millard Erickson; and Manual of Theology by J.L. Dagg…oh yeah, and the Bible.
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