The Cross

The following is the message that I offered on September 11th at a tent revival held in our community from Sept. 10-13

Good evening, Church!

My name is Bill Prentice, and I’m a sinner redeemed by the Blood of Jesus!

A pastor was greeting folks at the door after the service when a woman enthusiastically shook his hand and said, “Pastor, that was a great sermon!”
Flushed with pride but wanting to appear humble, the pastor said, “Oh, it wasn’t me. I have to give the credit to the Lord.”

The woman hesitated, then looked the pastor in the eye and said, “Pastor, it wasn’t that great!”

We don’t want to admit that we are sinners, do we! And yet, there we are! And we are confused about a lot of things in faith. Tonight, I want to talk a bit about one of the most confusing issues within the Christian faith – the Cross. Why is it such a core belief in the faith? And why can’t we get our arms around it?

Tonight, I want to offer you 3 views of what the Cross is all about – First, how the Romans of the first century used it, second, why the people of earth find it so terrible to see it as God’s blessing, and third, why God chose this device to bring salvation to the people of earth.

FIRST, THE ROMANS

Rome didn’t invent the cross – it was already in use by other nations, but Rome perfected the excruciating experience. It was always used as a means to not only punish criminals, but to cause them maximum pain and torture, as well as great humiliation.
First, they crucified their victim naked and in public.
Second, paintings of crucifixion generally show nails as penetrating the palms of the hands, but Rome discovered that, due to the weight of the person, many times, the nails tore through the flesh, requiring a second attempt.
Third, we also notice that the feet are usually depicted as being nailed together at the front of the cross. But Rome found a way to make it even more brutal – they nailed each foot to the outside of the beam, which put the feet behind the criminal’s body.
These improvements resulted in the slowest death, the greatest torture, and the most humiliation. Death usually resulted from suffocation, but it could also come from stroke, from pulmonary embolism, or any of several means.

As the body hung from the nails, the rib cage would be compressed, making each breath agonizing and insufficient to sustain life.
So the person would use his, or her (!), legs to relieve the pressure, but in doing so, the back would arch outward, causing muscle spasms and excruciating cramps.

And if death took too long, the soldiers overseeing the execution would be commanded to break the person’s legs to cause suffocation quicker.
This entire process could take as long as several days, and after death, the person would be left on the cross for a few more days as a message to anyone who was considering defiance of the Roman law.

THE WORLD'S VIEW

Is it any wonder that the world sees this as such a terrible image? And as a symbol of God’s grace and forgiveness? Are you kidding! What kind of god would accept this brutality to be forced upon himself, let along on humanity in general?

It doesn’t make sense! It is appalling!
The only reason that the world can see for this travesty is that the Christian God is either weak or crazy, or both! And who in their right mind would follow such a being?

GOD'S PURPOSE

God’s purpose for using the Cross was to break the power that sin had on his creation. But let’s go back to the beginning.

In Genesis, the first book of the Bible, God finishes his creation by creating a caretaker for all that he has put in place, and he calls him “ADAM” (a-‘dam). In the Hebrew, ADAM quite literally means “humanity”. All is in place, but in order to make the male and female ADAM perfect, God gives them the gift of “choice”, or free will. He didn’t want ADAM to be forced and controlled to love him – he wanted us to choose to love their Creator.

But with that choice came a danger. ADAM could not only choose to love God, but could also choose to turn away. And then came the temptation to do just that.
God had told them that all of creation was theirs to care for – to nurture, to harvest, to consume for sustenance – EXCEPT for one thing – the Tree that grew down by the river. “You can eat of anything in all the garden, EXCEPT for the fruit on that tree!

I grew up across the street from a guy named Wayne. We did a lot together, including getting in our share of trouble. One day, Wayne and I were going to do some exploring down at the creek behind my house. I told my Mom, and she said “OK – but don’t go to the river!” I had never mentioned the river and protested, but she said again “Don’t go to the river!” I assure her that we wouldn’t, but you exactly what we did – the very thing I was told NOT to do!

And so did ADAM (Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-6). And because they chose to defy God’s word, they were forced to leave the most beautiful place in all creation. God could not abide disobedience.

But throughout the ages, humanity continued to sin, to defy the commands of their God, and the Lord would put Phase 2 into action.

There was a man known as Abraham. Abraham and his wife Sarah were God loving, and the Lord chose them and their descendants to be his representatives on earth. And God put a Covenant in place – “I will be your God and you will be my people. And your descendants will be as numerous and the stars in the sky and the grains of sand on the shore.”

Now just a word about the difference between a covenant and a contract. A covenant is simple, has no loop holes, and the intent is to establish a trusting relationship. A contract is legalistic, spells out every possible consequence and every responsibility, and is, nearly always, easy to find ways around.

In Genesis 15, the Lord calls Abraham to make a sacrifice right there on the ground, and at nightfall, the covenant is sealed. Normally both parties to the covenant would then pass through the blood that soaked the ground, but on that night, Abraham would see a fire – a torch – pass between the pieces of the sacrifice, but the man was never invited to do so.
God was saying that if the covenant was ever broken, that he, and he alone, would pay the blood penalty for the sin.

Jump forward about 1,700-1,800 years.

The time had come to make the blood sacrifice to cancel the power of sin that gripped the lives of all of humanity. God had made the covenant, and only God would heal it – he would be the sacrifice.
But how could God ever die? How could God shed blood? Humanity had broken the covenant, so why shouldn’t it be ADAM whose blood should be taken?

The answer would be “Yes” to both questions – God would have to become human to complete the healing to repair the brokenness that was so prevalent. So by the power of the Holy Spirit, and the willingness of a young righteous woman, God became incarnate – he took on the flesh and bone and life of humanity.

Jesus became the Son of God AND the Son of Man, and as such, could become that perfect settlement for the sin of ADAM. Jesus would become the fulfillment of ADAM, and would willingly accept criminal punishment for the sins of all time.
And it would be by the most brutal, the most appalling, the greatest means of torture and humiliation that ever has been devised. The new ADAM, Jesus Christ, would pay the blood penalty that you and I and all of humanity so well deserved.
But only God could live beyond that death penalty, and so, Jesus had to be both the Son of God AND the Son of Man.

Jesus tells us in the Gospels that he is the New Covenant, and that by faith in him, by believing that he truly is the new ADAM as well as the Son God, that he is the only means to making the old covenant right.

But we still have to choose – to choose to accept the New Covenant made in the Blood of Jesus, or to suffer the penalty of the old covenant, which is death. Have you made that choice? Have you made that commitment by faith in Jesus Christ? Or have you made that commitment before, but due to the ravages of this life, have fallen away from the grace of God?

Think about your life for just a moment, as our brother Bob Harris offers us moment of contemplation (note: Tomorrow):

If you have been putting Jesus off until Tomorrow, won’t you stand, or raise your hand tonight, and a trained counselor will come along side of you to help you.
(Note: The entire assembly was then led in the Sinner’s Prayer, and those who made a commitment were invited to go to the prayer tent for discussion and prayer, while anyone else who would like general prayer was invited to come forward in the main tent.)