Host
Tom Shelton
Podcast Content
If Jesus did not actually die on the cross, his was actually little more than an extraordinary resuscitation. Death is more than a natural result of the wonders of Jesus Christas life and statements. Although we cannot know with certainty why God chose death through crucifixion over life, we do know that Jesusa death mode fulfilled an Old Testament prophecy concerning Jesus.
This passage does not just prophesy about the manner of Jesus death, it also prophesies about the man who will die, God the Lord. Elsewhere in the New Testament, we learn also that Jesus died to show Gods wisdom, power, and glory. Christ Jesus, our Lord, is the One who died--more than that, who was raised--who is on the right side of God, and indeed who pleads for us.
Because God is infinitely rich also in mercy and grace, God punished Jesus for our sins on the cross, not for us. God sent Christ Jesus, our Lord, to die in our place, to take away our sins, to carry our judgments, so we can come closer to God. When His Son spoke against sin, and the hypocrisy of religious leaders at that time, he spoke with authority and conviction.
It was as a human being that Jesus had to learn to submit, for, being human, he had his own will, or sins of the flesh, and was subjected to temptation. By the power of the Holy Ghost, His very Son suffered in the flesh, by rejecting and not giving into sin that was present in his very nature as a man. His own Son was also born of Gods Spirit, and that Spirit has accompanied him throughout his life, giving him strength to accomplish the tasks he was sent for.
His own Son was Gods Son, yet he willinglyemptied himself, becoming theSon of Man--a man in every sense of the word, possessing the very same human nature that we have. Of course, from the very beginning, Jesus knew that Jesus came on earth to die for human sin. God loved us so much, Jesus became human, walked among us, went up on a Roman Cross, and died in our place, and paid the price for all of the sins that we had ever committed.
Rather than we dying and being permanently, eternally separated from God, Jesus Christas paid for our sins on the cross, that we might forever be forgiven and live eternally. Jesusas death is the only possible way for the sins of this world to be forgiven, and Jesus is the only way for us to be able to have relationship with God the Father. Just like animals were sacrificed in the Old Testament world to atone for Israels sins, Jesus died in our place to atone for our sins.
We know too that by his suffering, Jesus, Gods one and only Son, paid for the sins of the entire world, including yours and mine. Yet it was the will of God that He should crush Him; He did bring Him to sorrow; When His soul had offered up a sacrifice of sins, He should be seen with His descendants; He should extend His days; The Lords purpose should prosper in His hands. Praise be to God, who has kept his promise, sending and sacrificing Jesus, who bore the sins of those who trusted him.
Paul is an impassioned apologist for Gods grace, for Paul was painfully aware of his own sinfulness, having been persecuting the church of Jesus Christ prior to his conversion.
This comes dangerously close to taking the Crucifixion for granted, since we are placing Christ in the public reproach, suffering, and gruesome slow death. This is where the gospels place Jesus glory -- in the crucifixion of Christ, not in the resurrection. It is on the cross, rather than at the resurrection, where John finds the greatest triumph of Christ--his moment of glory.
Those who question the death of Jesus frequently point out that Jesus spent little time on the cross before his death. Jesus spent just six hours on the cross; His quick death is unusual given that some historical accounts of crucifixions described them taking days. Anyone who had been as heavily beat up in the hours before the crucifixion as Jesus was certainly suffering from circulatory shock and cardiac arrest during his brief period of on-the-cross life.
Being without fault, the one person in all history completely clean and free from sin, his own Son was the one who could stand in the gap, the only one upon whom Satan had no claim.