Ultimate Discussions 8

The Ultimate Sacrifice: The Crucifixion
Please see Ultimate Discussion 1 below for Introductory Material



When they came to the place of the Skull, there they crucified him...”¹ That is a pretty simple, straightforward sentence, yet it contains a lifetime of study. When we consider Christ’s death on the cross and His resurrection three days later, we are getting to the climax of history, the heart of the issue, and the power of God for your life. It is the Good News we need to hear after seeing God’s holy nature and man’s sinful heart. At the cross, God’s anger was satisfied, and His love was expressed--all at the same time.

For centuries, the Jewish people were under the command to bring sacrifices to the priest to pay for sins. No sin could be cleansed without the shedding of blood. Sometimes our sophistication makes us think that such a system is barbaric, and I can understand that. The priests of God did butcher thousands of spotless and innocent lambs over the centuries. But why? Why was that? It was not just barbarism of an ancient time. The sacrifices of the Old Testament were to teach all of us several truths through a graphic and bloody lesson.

We see just how much God hates sin. His justice and rightness react violently against it! To slash an animal to bits and burn it over a fire shows us God’s holy and right response to sin.

We learn that sin results in death. Obviously, the sacrifices never lived through the process.

We understand that sacrificial lambs were substitutes. God, in His mercy, allowed the animals to dies in the place of people who actually committed the sins.

We discover a picture of what the ultimate sacrifice was all about. A violent, bloody, substitution.

We celebrate God’s acceptance of Christ’s sacrifice in His bodily resurrection.

The author of the New Testament book called Hebrews argues that the blood of animals never really removed the sins of man. What we need is an ultimate sacrifice. Since it was man who sinned, a Man must be sacrificed. So God provided His own Son as the final and effective sacrifice for man. John the Baptist rightly called Jesus Christ the “Lamb of God.”

Jesus Christ: The Creator, the Second person of the Trinity, the Virgin-born Son of God lived a sinless life for 33 years. He never worshipped a false god. He never misused God’s name. He never broke the Sabbath day. He never dishonored His parents in thought or attitude. He never killed or hated anyone. He never committed adultery or had the desire to do so. He never stole anything. He never, ever lied. He never coveted anything that was not His. In every point where we are sinful, He was sinless--making him the perfect substitute. Absolute goodness walked the face of the earth, and we couldn’t stand it.

So we killed Him.

But ultimately, it was God who killed Him. God the Father sent God the Son to be the sacrifice for man and the receiver of God’s wrath against sin. In this act, God expresses His love for man: “For God did not send his Son not the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.”²

So Jesus Christ died on the cross where God’s hatred for sin and His love for man were expressed.

He bridged the gap.

And He did all this for you.
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¹ Luke 23:32
² John 3:17