The Cosmic Significance of Christ's Crucifixion

Christ and Him crucified. Of course that was an example of apostolic hyperbole because Paul also knew considerably more and wrote on many other subjects besides the cross of Christ. But what Paul was saying with that comment was in the crucifixion we reach the zenith of the work of Christ, the acme, the high point of the mission He was sent to accomplish. [00:00:19]

To understand the depth of what happened in the cross, we have to look at the epistles in the New Testament, wherein we receive the interpretation of the meaning of the event of the cross. Just briefly, let me look for a second at Romans, chapter 3, where the Apostle Paul says these words in verse 21, "But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe, for there is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood." [00:02:01]

Now, what does that mean? The Jew who would read this material would understand it in light of the Old Testament celebration of the Day of Atonement. You vie in importance as to which was the most important day of the year, the celebration of the Passover, or the celebration of the Day of Atonement. But the annual Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, took place when the high priest was consecrated for a special task. He himself had to make an offering of a bullock as a sacrifice, and then he was to take two goats, one that would be sent as the scapegoat into the wilderness, and the other goat that was to be killed. [00:03:37]

And then the high priest, again after elaborate cleansing rituals, was allowed to enter into the most sacred place in Israel, into the sanctus santorum, the Holy of Holies, behind the curtain on the edge of the Holy Place, where only the high priest could go. And he would enter into the Holy of Holies carrying with him the blood of the sacrifice that had been killed. And what did he do with it? He would take this blood and sprinkle it on the Mercy Seat. And the Mercy Seat, which was in the Holy of Holies, was the throne of God. [00:04:34]

So what we're involved with in an act of propitiation is an act of satisfaction. This concept is somewhat foreign to us because we've been told so often that God is a God of love. He's a God of mercy. He's a God of grace who forgives us freely of our sins, and the idea we have then of God is that all God has to do to reconcile us to Himself is just simply to dispense His forgiveness upon us. But when we think like this, we forget that God is holy. We forget that God is just. [00:05:49]

God will not wink at sin. God will not simply pass over it without exacting a punishment for it. And so in the whole elaborate ritual of the Day of Atonement, we see the symbolism of the blood sacrifice that is given to propitiate the wrath of God to satisfy His justice. Now, we come to the New Testament, and we read the book of Hebrews. And the book of Hebrews reminds us that the blood of bulls and goats cannot atone for our sins. [00:07:08]

Redemption has to do with redeeming something. We have the experience in our past history in America of having supermarkets and other stores that would give out savings stamps, and that custom has simply passed away in the last few years, but it used to be that in every mall, there would be a little store that was called a redemption center, and in that redemption center, there'd be all different kinds of appliances, and tools, bicycles, whatever, and for so many stamps that were saved, you could turn the stamps in for some real object of use because you couldn't really use the stamps. [00:09:21]

Again in the Old Testament, you had the situation where people when they were not able to pay their debts could give themselves to their debtor and enlist in the process of indentured servitude until the debt was paid. And if a man, for example, became an indentured servant, and he had to work for five, or six, or seven years to pay off his debt, and while he was in this servitude, married a woman, and time came when his term of service was finished, he was to be set free but not the woman. [00:10:40]

That imagery also runs through the Old Testament where Jesus purchases His bride who was in bondage, who was in servitude to the world, the flesh, and the devil. That's why Paul will say to his readers, you are not your own, but you've been bought with a price. You've been purchased. And the price tag was the blood of Christ, or we should say the life of Christ because in Jewish categories the life was in the blood. [00:11:53]

If we look then also at Paul's letter to the Galatians, in chapter 3 of Galatians, we see an astonishing statement where Paul writes in chapter 3, verse 10 these words, "For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all the things that are written in the book of the law, to do them. But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for the just shall live by faith. [00:13:58]

Paul goes on to say here, using these categories of blessing and curse, it says, "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree, that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. In order for the blessing that was promised to Abraham and to his seed to be received, sin must first be punished. [00:18:33]

The agony from which He screams on the cross, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me," happened when God turned the lights out. The Father turns His back on Jesus. Once Jesus had all of our sins imputed to Him, He was the most loathsome sight ever in the universe, and God is too holy as to even to look at sin, and so He turned His back on Him, that He might be cursed, that we may not be cursed, and instead we may be blessed. [00:19:36]