WHY THE CROSS?

                                                                     WHY THE CROSS?

 

Why this sort of death? That is, why didn't Jesus die by being stoned or by a soldier just striking him with a sword or by some other kind of quick death rather than one that was so agonizing and so prolonged?

 

The Bible doesn’t explicitly address that question but here are some suggestions that may be why Christ’s death was hard and there involved so much suffering. It could be so that we could see how destructive sin is and that we could see in a stark shocking portrayal the effects of sin taken to its ultimate conclusion in a human life.

 

God created us to be like him, to be in his image, and to reflect his character and in many ways, we do that. We reflect God's character.  The Redeemed most fully show the image of God and they show what full true beautiful, wonderful humanity was to be like. But The Savior displayed on the Cross, the many aspects of that humanity that were taken away. The crucifixion in a way was an extensive dehumanizing of the person of Jesus Christ. 

 

1. So, for instance, God created us to have life, but crucifixion led to death. It's a destruction of life that was the essence of what it means to be human.

 

2. Another example by being suspended and suspending the criminals weight on his arms it made it increasingly difficult to breathe and was essentially a very slow painful death by suffocation and so it was a prolonged demonstration of a removal of the ability to breathe which is the ability to sustain life and so it was a prolonged removal of life showing us the reality of the consequences of sin. Sin drains life from us. 

 

3. Ultimately God created us to have honor as his stewards over creation and his representatives over creation as the pinnacle of his creation, but crucifixion was holding someone up to shame. It was thought to be so shameful that Roman citizens could not be crucified. Crucifixion was only for those who were not Roman citizens on whom the Roman Empire allowed crucifixion to be inflicted, and it was being held up to public shame and disrepute. Sin does that to us. Sin brings shame ultimately, not honor.

 

4. Another part of humanity with which God created us is that we would have rich and wonderful interpersonal relationships and fellowship with each other, but Jesus was all alone. All his disciples deserted him and fled away. Isn't that also a picture of what sin does? It leads to isolation and loneliness and people who are trapped in sin end up cutting off more and more relationships and being more and more alone. 

 

5. God created us to be in fellowship with him but here Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me”. The beautiful fellowship that he had known with the father from eternity was temporarily disrupted so that there was a dehumanizing factor of loss of fellowship with God and sin does that doesn't it? It alienates us from God. 

 

6. Crucifixion was a loss of mobility to move, to walk around, or to move one's arms or feet and in a way, God created us that way so we have the freedom to move and to have control over our own bodies but sin leads to bondage and imprisonment and loss of freedom so starkly horribly pictured in the loss of freedom ultimately complete loss of freedom even to move. 

Jesus experienced this on the cross. 

 

7. God created us to have independence. He created us to be able to feed ourselves and care for ourselves and that was denied on the cross so that's a picture of sin leading to a loss of ordinary human abilities. It was a loss of independence and sin leads in that direction. 

 

8. God created us to be free from pain having bodies that were healthy and strong but Jesus on the cross was filled with pain. This reminds us that sin doesn't lead to joy, sin leads to suffering and pain and we're seeing a portrayal of the consequences of it.

 

9. God created us to be innocent. He created Adam and Eve in the garden to be innocent, but the cross is a picture of condemnation being condemned to death and sin leads to condemnation. 

 

10. God created us to have strength as well as health but on the cross Jesus experienced physical weakness the loss of that physical strength with which God created us and isn't that what sin does to us? You think of someone in bondage to drug addiction or to alcoholism or many other kinds of sin. Eventually this just leads to physical deterioration due to all sorts of sin. Sin leads to weakness and God created us to be beautiful or handsome or attractive in the way he created us. But Isaiah 53.1-2 talks about the fact that he had no beauty that we should desire him and his face was marred and distorted by the punishment. Isn't that a picture of how sin leads to a loss of beauty or attractiveness or desirableness in life. Sin is ugly and any beauty about us has no beauty ultimately and so there was a picture of the consequence of sin. 

 

11. Jesus even had his clothing taken away. He lost all his possessions. Doesn't sin ultimately lead to a loss of all things and God created us to be in his favor and to have his pleasure and his joy and delight in us but sin leads to an experience of God's wrath and that's what Jesus experienced on a cross. 

 

So, why did Jesus suffer this sort of death perhaps because it was in many aspects taking away of essential qualities of what it is to be truly human in the excellence with which God created us. 

 

All of what sin does to us was portrayed in such a stark way on the cross. The cross was drawn out over time so that that it would be so firmly etched in our minds. This is what sin will do and here Jesus is taking that penalty for us so that through his suffering we could be freed from those things that sin does to us; so that we could obtain the glory of the excellence with which God has created us and be brought back to full possession of  life and breath and honor and relationship and fellowship with God and mobility and independence and freedom from pain and be given back innocence and strength and attractiveness and possessions and the favor of God. 

 

We could ultimately gain back all of those because Jesus took the consequences of sin for us.

(Thoughts from Dr Wayne Grudem)