What Now?
In the last section we discussed the neccessity to die with Jesus because of our sin nature. Let's look at how and what transpired 2000 years ago on the cross in the Roman Empire.
The cross is placed on the ground and the exhausted man is quickly thrown backwards with his shoulders against the wood. The legionnaire feels for the depression at the front of the wrist. He drives a heavy, square wrought-iron nail through the wrist and deep into the wood. Quickly he moves to the other side and repeats the action, being careful not to pull the arms too tightly, but to allow some flex and movement. The cross is then lifted into place.
The left foot is pressed backward against the right foot, and with both feet extended, toes down, a nail is driven through the arch of each, leaving the knees flexed. The victim is now crucified. As he slowly sags down with more weight on the nails in the wrists, excruciating, fiery pain shoots along the fingers and up the arms to explode in the brain- the nails in the wrist are putting pressure on the median nerves. As he pushes himself upward to avoid this stretching torment, he places the full weight on the nail through his feet. Again he feels the searing agony of the nail tearing through the nerves between the bones of his feet.
As the arms fatigue, cramps sweep through the muscles, knotting them in deep, relentless, throbbing pain. With these cramps comes the inability to push himself upward to breathe. Air can be drawn into the lungs but not exhaled. He fights to raise himself in order to get even one small breath. Finally carbon dioxide builds up in the lungs and in the blood stream, and the cramps partially subside. Spasmodically he is able to push himself upward to exhale and bring in life-giving oxygen.
Hours of this limitless pain, cycles of twisting, joint-rending cramps, intermittent partial asphyxiation, searing pain as tissue is torn from his lacerated back as he moves up and down against the rough timber. Then another agony begins: a deep, crushing pain deep in the chest as the pericardium slowly fills with serum and begins to compress the heart.
It is now almost over – the loss of tissue fluids has reached a critical level – the compressed heart is struggling to pump heavy, thick, sluggish blood into the tissues – the tortured lungs are making a frantic effort to gasp in small gulps of air.
He can feel the chill of death creeping through his tissues . . . Finally he can allow his body to die.
All this the Bible records with the simple words, “And they crucified Him.” (Mark 15:24). What wondrous love is this?
- Adapted from C. Truman Davis, M. D. in the Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Vol. 8
The problem we are seeing, like I have said, is that some are denying the work was completed, that our sins were paid in full or they were partially paid. In other words, Jesus did His part and now we must do our part and if we do, we might make it into heaven. You see, there is no substitutionary atonement in some people’s minds.
Let me give you an example of this theology from Saint Charles Borromeo Catholic Church, and they are not alone in this, but it is the doctrine of the Catholic Church. They state that:
. . . If at the end of our life on earth God judges us worthy, according to our faith and the way we have lived that faith, He will admit us to the kingdom of heaven. That decision is God’s alone to make and it will not be made until we appear before Him for our particular judgment. . . . We have no absolute assurance of our salvation, but we do have the hope of salvation and perseverance in witness and service and Christian growth. . . . His death and resurrection gives us assurance that our salvation is possible.
Did Jesus take all our sins upon Himself when He died on the cross? It is true that Jesus died for our sins (1 Corinthians 15:3). It is also true that Jesus bore our sins in His body on the cross so we might die to sin and live to righteousness (1 Peter 2:24). When we read these verses without the benefit of an Old Testament understanding of what is being addressed, it certainly would make Him a scapegoat, a substitute for us and our sinfulness.
There are absolutely no Biblical texts which when read in proper context portray Jesus as a scapegoat or state that He supplied total satisfaction for our sins. We are required to become living sacrifices (Romans 12:1); to join our sacrifice with that of Jesus the Christ which is being offered perpetually in heaven. Jesus death on the cross accomplished our redemption and made our salvation possible, it opened heaven for us, a heaven which had essentially been closed to mankind since the sin of Adam and Eve.
. . . He paid the price so we may one day enter the kingdom of heaven. This does not mean however that there is no need for us to recognize our individual sins and make restitution for them. . . . God demands repentance and atonement from all sinners. Sins are not ‘covered’ by Jesus’ blood and thus made invisible to God.
- Saint Charles Borromeo Catholic Church, Picayune, MS, USA
If that is true, if the work of Christ on the cross of Calvary did not pay in full the debt of sin, then we are still lost in our sins with no way out. My desire this evening is to show you clearly from the Scriptures, not the doctrines of man, that Christ completed the work, our sins have been paid in full as He hung on that cross and you can leave here with the full assurance of your salvation because it is based upon His faithfulness, His finished work and not mine and not yours!
With that said, let’s begin reading in Mark chapter 15, starting in verse 6, and look at the crucifixion story and how it unfolded and then we will see what it all means to us!
MARK 15:6-47
When you look at all God did, all He endured, how can people say that Almighty God didn’t finish the work or wasn’t able to finish the work that He started? A. W. Tozer said, “All heaven is interested in the cross of Christ, all Hell is terribly afraid of it, while men are the only beings who more or less ignore its meaning.” May we not do that because outside of Jesus there is nothing. You see, He came to pay a debt He didn’t owe because we owed a debt we couldn’t pay! Praise the Lord for His love for us!
The first issue I would like to look at is good works because many believe you need Christ and good works to be saved, He did His part and now we must do our part! Or you just need to be good enough in this life and you will enter into heaven. The problem with that is it goes contrary to what the Scriptures teach. Paul in Ephesians 2:8-9 makes this point and he is very clear on it. He tells us, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” Do you see how clear that is, not of good works, that does not save us but the grace of God that we believe by faith in Christ.
Now some believe that the sacrifice of Jesus is offered continually for our sins in heaven, it is a perpetual sacrifice. But, once again, that is not what the Scriptures teach us. Paul, in Hebrews 9:24-28 tells us, “For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another — He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.”
Notice carefully that the sacrifice that Christ made for our sins was made only once because it fulfilled the requirement for our sin. Yes, the animal sacrifices in the Old Testament and in the New Testament times were offered daily because they could never take away a persons sin, they only covered their sin for a time, more of a ceremonially cleansing. But the blood of Christ has paid in full the penalty for our sin. That is Peter’s point in I Peter 3:18, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit.”
And thus, it is not a perpetual sacrifice that Christ is making for us, He died once for our sins and we can appropriate that gift into our lives by faith, asking Jesus to be our Lord and Savior!
Remember one of the seven cries of Jesus from the cross of Calvary, “And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?’ which is translated, ‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?’” Mark 15:34. Why did Jesus say that? Because as the sins of the world were placed upon Jesus, my sins, yours sins, the sins of the world, the Father turned His face from the Son, fellowship was broken because God cannot look upon sin with favor, He does not approve and sin separates man from God! This was something that was never experienced between the Father and Jesus in eternity past and will never be experienced again in eternity! It is as Paul said in II Corinthians 5:21, “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us , that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” He became sin for us, He bore the sins of the world to cleanse us from our sin!
In Psalm 22, written by David some 1000 years before Jesus died on the cross of Calvary, gives to us a vivid picture of that day. It is a picture of Jesus as He hung on the cross looking down below at those that put Him there! The verse I want to focus on is verse 6 of Psalm 22, which says, “But I am a worm, and no man; A reproach of men, and despised by the people.”
Why in the world would Jesus, God Almighty, the creator of Heaven and Earth, call Himself a worm? Let me explain. The Hebrew word for “worm” is TOLAATH, (tolah’-ath) or a scarlet worm. This worm was used to dye the curtains of the tabernacle scarlet. To do that you had to crush this worm and as you did the scarlet would be released and the curtains could be dyed.
How does that relate to Christ? Think about it for a minute. Before the blood of Christ could cleanse us He had to be crushed for our sins. In Isaiah 53:5 we are told, “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.” Thus, as He was crushed for our sins His blood can now flow into our lives and it will cleanse us of all our sins if we apply it to our lives, if we receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior. It is as Isaiah 1:18 says, “‘Come now, and let us reason together,’ Says the LORD, ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool.’”