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Jesus predicted: “You know after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.” (Mt 26:2)
“Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, delivered Jesus to be crucified.” (Mk 15:20)
Jesus not only predicted his death but resurrection: “the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” (Lk 24:7)
“They crucified Jesus with two others, one on either side, and Jesus in between.” (Jn 19:18)
And the early church “preached Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews” (Ac 2:23, 36; 1 Cor 1:23; 2:2; 2 Cor 13:4; Gal 3:1).
The cross is a key symbol of Christian faith. We place it on our doors, hang it on our walls, and adorn our necks with cross jewelry.
However, today the cross has been sanitized. People look at the cross as another symbol like the McDonalds arches or the Nike swoosh. They understand it’s a religious symbol, but they don’t know the story behind it. The cross has lost its meaning and message.
To ancient cultures, the cross had considerable meaning. Crucifixion implied control by horror.
6th C. Persians impaled their enemies. They would take a long wooden or metal pole with a sharpened point and run it through the midsection of a victim. Then, they would dig a hole and drop the pole into the hole for others to see and know this is what would happen to Persian enemies.
This practice continued through the 4th C. with the Greek empire. Alexander the Great and his military began the spectacle of crucifixion by adding a crossbar.
Yet, it was the Romans who perfected the art of execution. 1st C., Roman philosopher Cicero called crucifixion, “the most cruel and terrifying penalty.”[1] Cicero asked that Roman citizens not even speak of crucifixion because it was too disgraceful a subject for the ears of decent people… And Jewish historian described his viewing of crucifixion as “the most pitiable of deaths.”[2] It was Rome’s way of saying, “You will have instant regret rebelling against us. If you cross us, we will cross you with unlimited pain and violence.”
The Bible gives some historical evidence to how the Romans crucified those they viewed as criminals. The word crucify is used 53x in the Bible. And our English language has formed a word “excruciating,” which literally means “from the cross,” but communicates unbearable pain and unimaginable sorrow.
Again, crucifixion was the most horrendous modes of execution reserved for the most despised criminals.[3] And it was the most expensive form of execution for manpower (length of time with Roman guard oversight). Romans performed this despite extra cost in order to punish extreme criminals and make an extraordinary point to the public.
Jews viewed crucifixion as being under God’s curse.[4] The agony of crucifixion is due to the fact of its prolonged means of death. Those crucified would often hang on a cross for days, passing in and out of consciousness as their lungs struggled to breathe, while laboring under the weight of their dying body. Due to the fact that timber was so expensive, the wood of the cross was typically recycled wood, therefore layered with the blood and sweat of many others.
The crucifixion process started with the victim being stripped naked, humiliated and then attached his hands and feet across a wooden beam to expose the victim’s bare back. A Lictor, a professional executioner, would yield a cat-o’-nine tails, which was a whip with tentacle-like straps having heavy scraps of metal, bone and glass attached to the end of the straps. The intention of the Lictor was to tenderize the flesh of the shoulders, backs, buttocks and legs of the victim. As skin, muscle, tendons and even bones were ripped off the victim some would die from this scourging itself.
After this scourging, there was placed on Jesus’ head a crown of thorns. Long thorns that would pierce into his forehead, ears, brow and even skull.
All of this was done publicly, thereby bringing utter shame and making an utter spectacle of the victim. Sweaty, sun-baked, nailed naked to a cross, bloodied and body fluids oozing was an atrocious sight. The crowds gathering around this sight today would be like viewing an execution in front of a local mall or public park. Females were mostly withheld from this form of execution but when such they were turned to face the cross, so the public did not have to view a woman’s facial expressions, as it was harsher to see females suffer.
On this cross, nails/spikes were driven into Jesus’ hands and feet – the most sensitive nerve centers on the human body. He was then lifted up as the cross was placed into a pre-dug hole. Further mockery would take place as the crowd hurled insults and spat into his face.
The victim endured countless outbursts as he pulled with his arms and pushed with his legs to keep his chest cavity open for breathing and then collapsed in exhaustion until the demand for oxygen demanded renewed spasms. The scourging, the loss of blood, the shock from the pain, all produced agony going on for hours, ending at last by suffocation, cardiac arrest, or overall loss of blood. When there was reason to hasten death, the executors would smash the victim’s legs to be broken so they couldn’t push up for oxygen any longer, and death would be imminent.
Jesus’ death on the cross was not only an event in history but a profound moment for eternity.
“For the message of the cross is foolishness to the world, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1Cor 1:18)
Jesus’ death on the cross was not only an event in history but a profound moment for eternity.
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EXAMINE Galatians 2:20 Living Surrendered
20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.[5]
*Paul was the author of 13 NT letters, including Galatians.
*Paul was likely among those who gave voice and influence to sentence Jesus to be crucified.
*Paul persecuted Christians with a vicious pursuit. Ambition w/o wisdom and zeal w/ humility can lead to a lengthy wake of harmful actions.
*Paul was changed by Jesus and became Christianity’s prominent missionary, traveling about 15,500 miles with over ½ of those by foot.[6]
So, Paul’s writings inform and inspire Christians to follow Jesus. And this one verse Galatians 2:20 verse helps us understand why Jesus died and how the cross applies to us.
Next week, we will apply this same verse to understand how the resurrection applies to us.
- Jesus died for my sin.
Sin must always be punished. We consider sin from our own perspective and treat it casually, or worse with contempt and being dismissive. But sin is treated with severity because it is against a holy God. God cannot wink at or overlook any sin.
- Gal 6:7 “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will they reap.”
- Isa 59:2 “your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.”
- Ez 18:20; Rom 3:23 “The soul who sins shall die; all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
So, when we say Jesus died for our sins it means He took our place – He received the consequences that we deserve.
- Isa 53:5 “He was pierced for our transgressions; crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.”
- 1Pet 2:24 “He bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.”
- 2Cor 5:21 “For our sake, God made Jesus to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Jesus we might become the righteousness of God.”
The cross of Jesus is not a religious abstract or physical accident, but God’s intentional means to atone for sin.
Being crucified with Christ means
- Awareness & Confession (self-evaluate)
Ps 139:23-24 “Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts. See if there is any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” - Accountability invited vs defensive
Pr 27:6 “Wounds from a friend can be trusted”
Gal 6:1 “If one is caught in transgression, restore him in a spirit of gentleness”
This is why we are involved in church.
- Jesus died for my salvation.
When Jesus was hanging on the cross, He made 7 significant statements.[7] His last statement was: “It is finished” (Jn 19:30). It was a monumental moment, because Jesus was near seconds of His last cry and final breath. And while it’s 3 words in English, it’s only one word in Greek: [τετέλεσται].
One preacher said “[The word is] an ocean of meaning in a drop of language, a mere drop, for that is all that we can call one word. “It is finished.” Yet it would need all the other words that ever were spoken, or ever can be spoken, to explain this one word. It is altogether immeasurable. It is high; I cannot attain to it. It is deep; I cannot fathom it.”[8]
Tetelestai was a transactional word, sometimes used on business documents or receipts. When you owed a debt, you had to either work to make payment or enter prison. If you entered prison, you were not able to work and earn money, so the only way you could be free was if someone else came on your behalf to pay the debt. The list of your debts would be held up against you and stamped with a single word – tetelestai / paid in full. Essentially, they were saying, “Here is the receipt proving your freedom. Keep this receipt for your safety in case someone accuses you of still owing the debt.”
Likewise, in terms of our sin debt the wage is death and payment must be made. God does not do amnesia to forgive our sin, but atonement. In the OT, God dealt with the sin debt of people through the sacrificial system. The life of animals was substituted for humans, because sin causes death and blood equals life (cf. Lev 17:11; Heb 9:22 “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.”). Each year on the Day of Atonement, there were 2 sacrificial goats (Lev16): The first goat was a sin offering, sacrificed on the altar as payment for sin. This symbolized propitiation, where the penalty of sin is paid. The second goat was sent away, outside the camp, into the wilderness as a symbol that sin and guilt were removed from the people. This symbolized expiation – “As far as east is from west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12). In expiation, the power of sin is removed. However, the sacrificial system needed to be repeated each year. As one biblical author notes, “For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (Heb 10:4). It was as if the OT saints were paying for sin by credit until the Christ came.
When you make a purchase with a credit card, the item becomes yours but only for as long as you make good on the payments. The OT sacrificial system was the credit payment, but it was ultimately insufficient to fully and finally pay the debt. So, God enters from outside our debt prison and pays the debt – tetelestai. Jesus is our substitution for sin(Rom 3:24-26; 1Jn 4:10). The punishment of sin is substituted from us to Jesus, and the place of eternity for sinners is substituted from hell to heaven. In full, the gospel is not just the removal of sin but the restoration of our ability to live among and for God according to our created purpose.
The punishment of sin is substituted from us to Jesus, and the place of eternity for sinners is substituted from hell to heaven. In full, the gospel is not just the removal of sin but the restoration of our ability to live among and for God according to our created purpose.
So this means practically…
> Problems are not payback.
When a person experiences tension/trial/tragedy, the tendency is to think, “God is punishing me for something I have done.” But, based on the gospel, we should realize that problems are not always God’s means of paying us back. God has already paid fully and finally all that is needed for your sin. So, you will never experience the eternal consequences of sin. However, there are times when earthly consequences for choices will occur. Sometimes God will send a rainstorm not to pay us back but to bring us back.
> Guilt is gone. You have access to God. God’s presence is near. God’s peace is available. God’s power is possible. God’s hope is an exclamation point not a question mark. God’s love abounds and never abandons. (Gal 5:1 “Christ as set us free; stand firm”).
- Jesus died to fulfill Scripture.
The crucifixion of Jesus was out of Jesus’ ability to manipulate, and yet God was completely in control. Reading the Gospel accounts can identify close to 30 prophecies from hundreds of years before the events, yet every detail fulfilled in Jesus’ life, betrayal, beatings – even the removal of his clothes – along with his death w/o a broken bone, and burial in a borrowed tomb.
> Fulfillment of crucifixion prophecies assures of 2nd coming promises. God is trustworthy. And if we can trust God with our eternal salvation, certainly we can trust Him with 100’s of decisions
- where we go to college
- what job to take / if we lose a job that God will provide another
- who to marry
- how to parent kids
- how to live your life
- financial decisions and tithing
- where to serve (not “if”)
We are saved to serve and be sent!
Not work for salvation but bc of it
Jesus died to sit on a throne.
What we see at the crucifixion is the culmination of the religious leaders’ response to Jesus’ teachings. They knew that Jesus was wise in Scripture and gifted speaker to attract crowds. They believed Jesus was unique and powerful. They affirmed that Jesus was loving to all kinds of people, and even forgave the sins of others. But they also understood that Jesus’ claim to forgive sin and that His teachings demanded authority and priority for our life meant His declaration of divinity.
Even Pilate asked Jesus: “Are you the king?” Then Pilate hung a sign over Jesus’ head that read “king of the Jews.” (Jn 18)
So, the religious leaders paid attention to Jesus’ life and teachings so much that they crucified Him. Yet today many read about Jesus’ life and learn His teachings so we can condense Him to merely being our Savior. We forget to call Jesus, “Savior,” also means to crown Him as king.
Jesus as sin-forgiver and heaven-promiser is inviting; creates warm fuzzies inside. But Jesus as King and Lord is threatening. And if Jesus isn’t threatening anything in your life then you’re probably not taking Him seriously enough.
We forget to call Jesus, “Savior,” also means to crown Him as king.
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Yesterday, our church held its 5th year of Easter Journey. We started in 2021, but the actual seeds of this event was started 10 years ago in 2015 when we held a Sunday evening worship gathering with the stations of the cross, including “foot washing!”
When we consider the various stations of the cross, we can look at each one to pick and choose which one was our favorite, or which we didn’t like… but Jesus doesn’t give us that option.
We should not approach Christianity like a buffet line to pick and choose. Instead, we must approach Jesus as beggars.
But that’s the problem. We don’t view ourselves as beggars. We have stuff. We know stuff. We are better than beggars.
But until we approach Jesus as a beggar we will never truly understand Him as our king nor have a seat of our own at His banqueting table. Amazing grace that saved a wretch like me…
[1] Cicero, Verr. 2.5.165
[2] Josephus, Jewish War, 7.202-3.
[3] Much of the following information on crucifixion comes from Driscoll’s Death by Love pp 17-34, and sermon “The Cross: God Dies”, along with John Stott’s The Cross of Christ.
[4] Deuteronomy 21:23
[5] Frank Thielman, “Galatians,” in Romans–Galatians, ed. Iain M. Duguid, James M. Hamilton Jr., and Jay Sklar, vol. X, ESV Expository Commentary (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2020), 602.
[6] https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/do-pauls-missions-leave-us-with-a-geographic-pattern-to-follow
[7] See my sermon series: https://growinggodlygenerations.com/2019/03/05/status-the-7-last-sayings-of-jesus/
[8] Charles Spurgeon, “Christ’s Dying Word To the Church” (John 19:30) https://www.spurgeongems.org/vols40-42/chs2344.pdf
Growing Godly Generations 