The Cross of Jesus Christ - Five Perspectives

On this Good Friday, 2010, as we somberly remember and meditate on the death of Jesus Christ, let's stand in the shadow of the Cross and consider the matter from these five perspectives:

• SATAN - In spite of the fact that he had been kicked out of heaven, Satan - the great deceiver - believed his own lie that he had orchestrated Christ's death and that he had done a masterful job! The truth is, Jesus willingly laid down His life for His own. (John 10:14-18) He defeated Satan and death because He died for the sins of man. For each one who places his faith in the finished work of Jesus on the Cross, Satan has no retort or recourse. And he knows it full well, for whether he acts like it or not, he knows the Word of God!
• JESUS - Among other things, the Cross for Jesus was pain, suffering and total humiliation. It was the means by which He sacrificed His life for ours in order to bring us to God. It was the hight point of Christ's unqualified obedience to His heavenly Father. It is the purpose for which Jesus came into the world. "It is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." (1 Timothy 1:15) That is why the writer of Hebrews says "For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God!" (12:2)
• GOD - The Cross of Christ is the act - the place, the event, the sacrifice - by which God became favorable, or propitious, toward us who have so greatly sinned against Him. It is the means by which God was propitiated/His anger satisfied, appeased. We now "wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come." 1 Thessalonians 1:10 When God raised Jesus, it proved He was satisfied with His payment for our sin. "Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand. Romans 5:1-2a
• SIN - Crucifixion was not invented by the Romans. They merely perfected it as a form of capital punishment and torture designed to produce a very slow death with maximum pain and suffering. The Cross has paid the debt of sin. The death of Christ has removed the stain of sin. It cancels sin altogether for the one who trusts Jesus who became sin for us. "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; 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; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus."
• BELIEVERS - The Cross of Jesus Christ is at once the symbol of our shame because of our sin, the measure of our guilt and the utter sinfulness of it; and the comforting asurrance that our guilt has been dealt with once and for all!! The Cross is our deliverance, our confidence that we are accepted by God. It is the demonstration of John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life."

"For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth; and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously; and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed." 1 Peter 2:21-24