The Cosmic Significance of Christ's Crucifixion

“Then the soldiers led Him away into the hall called Praetorium, and they called together the whole garrison. And they clothed Him with purple; and they twisted a crown of thorns, and put it on His head, and began to salute Him, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ Then they struck Him on the head with a reed and spat on Him; and bowing the knee, they worshiped Him. And when they had mocked Him, they took the purple off Him, put His own clothes on Him, and led Him out to crucify Him.” [00:28:16]

“Now when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. 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?’ Some of those who stood by, when they heard that, said, ‘Look, He is calling for Elijah!’ Then someone ran and filled a sponge full of sour wine, put it on a reed, and offered it to Him to drink, saying, ‘Let Him alone; let us see if Elijah will come to take Him down.’” [00:180:40]

“Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. So when the centurion, who stood opposite Him, saw that He cried out like this and breathed His last, he said, ‘Truly this Man was the Son of God!’ There were also women looking on from afar, among whom were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the Less and of Joses, and Salome, who also followed Him and ministered to Him when He was in Galilee, and many other women who came up with Him to Jerusalem.” [00:230:32]

“I struggled with how to approach the preaching of the text that I’ve just read. I’m convinced that those who were eyewitnesses in the first instance of the execution of Jesus on this hill outside the city gates of Jerusalem at the hands of the Romans could not possibly really understand what was going on unless they had an uncanny grasp of Messianic prophecy from the Old Testament, along with the illumination of the Holy Spirit.” [00:344:64]

“When the Romans used the execution form of crucifixion, they did not do it for Roman citizens but only for slaves, for the most vile of criminals, and for captured prisoners of war. And yet what was going on in that place at that time was nothing less than the most momentous cosmic event imaginable, that these people were witnessing an atonement by which the wrath and justice of God were satisfied by a Substitute would not have been immediately apparent to them.” [00:414:88]

“Some of you remember when we preached through the gospel of John and looked at the passion narratives of that gospel that I spent some time speaking of the significance of the scourging that was the routine aspect of execution by crucifixion. Those who were to be scourged were tied to an upright post, their backs were bared, and then a guard used this leather braided thong that within the braids contained pieces of bone and pieces of metal, and then the prisoner was lashed until his skin came off his body, his bones were exposed, as well as his entrails.” [00:553:12]

“Jesus didn’t need a Savior. He was about saving us, which God willing we’ll explore more directly next week. And even those like the chief priests continued the mockery. ‘He saved others. Himself He cannot save. Let the Christ, the King of Israel descend now from the cross that we may see and believe.’ They saw the Christ, and they saw the King of Israel. They saw the Savior, but as long as He was attached to that cross, they had no exercise of faith whatsoever.” [00:1112:40]

“Then when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. Amazing, from noon until three o’clock in the afternoon the light of the sun was blotted out and darkness came upon the land. That must have terrified the people who were there, the same kind of reaction that people of antiquity would have when a solar eclipse would come for fifteen or twenty minutes. It would scare them to death because they didn’t know why it was happening.” [00:1194:08]

“As I’ve indicated before and will try to develop more next week that in this atoning death, the light of the countenance of God was turned off, and the Father turns His back on His Son because what was hanging on the cross was the most grotesque, obscene thing in human history because it contained the fullness of the pollution of our wickedness, and God is too holy as to even behold sin. And so the Father turned the lights out on the sun, which was part of the curse for sin.” [00:1239:04]

“And when that happened, Jesus screamed not at the agony of the thorns and of the spears and of the nails or of the cross but of the forsakenness of God. God’s own Son who is with Him from eternity willingly gave up His glory to become incarnate, who enjoyed the closest possible intimacy with the Father throughout His entire lifetime, now drinks the cup of the Father’s wrath and must experience forsakenness.” [00:1287:60]

“At that instant, the veil of the temple, that veil that separated fallen humanity from the sacred Holy of Holies in the temple, that veil of several strands of woven things that could not be penetrated suddenly was torn from top to the bottom, and that wall of separation was ended. That should have been a clue of the more than local significance of what was happening on this occasion.” [00:1471:36]

“Maybe was the first to recognize something going on here beyond a local execution when he said, ‘Truly this Man was the Son of God.’” [00:1530:24]