Before, On, and After The Cross
This week we celebrate Passover and the Passion of Christ. In thinking about the meaning of the cross leading up to Easter, let’s look at some Scriptures from the beginning. Most people think of life with a linear viewpoint. There is a starting point, when I was born. Then there is an ending point when I will die, and life right now is in between. But God’s view differs, and we would do well to adopt His view.
Before The Cross
God sees the end from the beginning and how everything works in between. He affirms that in Scripture over and over. For example, in Revelation 13:8 we read … of the Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world. I Peter 1:20, He (Jesus) indeed was foreordained before the foundations of the world. Yet we read in Genesis 1:26 that the Trinity gathered together and said, “Let us make man in our image, according to Our likeness. Jesus, with God and Holy Spirit collaborate, decide from the beginning how to redeem mankind made in Their image, and at a point in time God comes to the earth as His Son, learns obedience through suffering, obeys the Father, and dies a horrific death on the cross. God raises Him from the dead by His Spirit, and He rejoins God, His Father, in heaven.
“All those who belong to Jesus Christ are fastened with Him to the cross.”— Augustine
Many Old Testament Scriptures point to the coming Messiah. In Genesis 22, God directs Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac, after He promised Abraham that his seed would cover the earth as the sand covers the sea. Abraham’s obedience and faith, believing God would raise up his son, foreshadows what God would do in the future with His only Son, Jesus. In the book of Exodus, the Israelites, Abraham’s seed, prepare to leave the land of Egypt, where they have been enslaved for over 400 years. Moses instructed them to roast a lamb and eat every part of it. This Passover Lamb signified the Lamb of God that would be slain for the sins of the world.
The prophet Isaiah gives one of the most detailed accounts of the coming Messiah in chapters 52 and 53. He details parts of His life and His death’s purpose. In Zechariah 12:10, the prophet writes, ‘They will look on Me whom they pierced.’ Jesus fulfilled all the Old Testament prophecies about the coming Messiah, making Him the Risen King.
On The Cross
In the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, Jesus foretells of His coming death. He shares what will happen after three days, but even His disciples stayed confused. Jesus prepared their hearts with truth, and He knew that when God sent the Holy Spirit in His place that He would reveal everything else the disciples would need to know. You can read in these Scriptures where Jesus tells of His coming death, burial, and resurrection in the Gospels: Matthew 16:21-23, 17:22-23, 20:17-19 /Mark 8:31-32, 10:32-34 /Luke 9:21-22, 18:31-34 /John 18:28 -19:16
In the book of John, starting with Chapter 13, Jesus shares His last words with His disciples before His death. In these chapters, we read about the Spirit of Truth who will come. He leaves them His gift of Peace. He instructs them to stay connected to the Vine and the Vine Dresser. He tells them of Another to come and His purpose and prays a prayer over them that when you read it, really read it, will make you cry and rejoice all at the same time. Here is an excerpt of Jesus’ prayer:
17:14 I have given them Your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. 18 As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.20 “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; 21 that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.
As we approach Good Friday, we know why it is good. The disciples did not. Then it turned into sad Saturday for them. But wait for it… Suddenly, on the third day, just as Jesus said, the grave was empty! He learned obedience through suffering and, for the joy set before Him, he endured the cross. Have you ever thought about the torture Jesus went through, yet He followed through on the final words God gave Him to say? Seven different sayings are recorded in the Gospels, none of which are trite. Each held a meaning, and the last finished it off when He uttered, “It is finished!”
“All of heaven is interested in the cross of Christ, hell is afraid of it, while men are the only ones to ignore its meaning.”— Oswald Chambers
After The Cross
The cross, the point in time where BC and AD were divided. In this AD time, the disciples waited in the upper room for “Another” to show up. And He did! The Holy Spirit, God’s Spirit, filled them and empowered them to do what Jesus commissioned them to do before He went to His Father. The Epistles give us so much of what the cost of the cross offers believers. In Ephesians 2:13, Paul states, But now in Christ Jesus you who were once far off (Gentiles, non-Jewish) were brought near by the blood of Christ (the Anointed One). For He Himself is our Peace, who made both one and has broken down the middle wall of separation.
Galatians 3:27, 28 reads, For you are all sons/daughters of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For many of you who were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you all are one in Christ Jesus.
I challenge you as you read the New Testament to keep the cross in mind. All of what we have now is because of God’s plan from the beginning to die for us. John 3:16, for God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever should believe in Him would not perish but have everlasting life. Only believe.
Until next time, remember, the heart of the matter is the matter of the heart!
Dr. Michele
