Salvation by Crucifixion

Philip G. Ryken

• Editorial: Christian Focus Publication
• Año: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781781913345

1

	The Necessity of the Cross

"This man was handed over to you by God’s
set purpose and foreknowledge.”

ACTS 2:23

Christianity is all about the cross. By cross is meant the wooden post upon which Jesus of Nazareth was crucified. This was a standard means of execution in Roman times. Two wooden beams were nailed together in the shape of a cross or a T. The wrists and ankles of the victim were nailed to the wood, which was then slotted into the ground. There the man hung until he died.

The cross has always been the central symbol of Christianity. When archaeologists dig through the ruins of antiquity, they have one certain way to identify a place of Christian worship. They look for a cross. When they find it painted on a wall, carved into stone, or even worked into a floor plan, they know that they have found a church.

Since the beginning, Christians have identified themselves with the cross on which Jesus died. It is the chief symbol and defining reality of Christian faith.

No Longer Necessary?

Unfortunately, the cross is not as important as it used to be. At least, that is what leading thinkers are saying about the contemporary church. George Lindbeck, who taught theology at Yale, thinks that the cross has become a dead symbol: “A void has opened in the heart of Western Christianity. Where the cross once stood is now a vacuum.” ¹

Not that the cross has disappeared altogether, of course. Not yet, anyway. It still stands atop church steeples. It appears on church letterheads. It is stamped into Bible covers and even breath-mints at the local Christian bookstore. It dangles from postmodern ears. Yet, the cross of Christ is no longer a living reality for the people of God.

At an infamous theology conference in the early 1990s, one speaker objected to Christianity’s seeming obsession with the cross. “I don’t think we need folks hanging on crosses and blood dripping and weird stuff,” the speaker said. In other words, who needs the cross?

It is true that there is something unsightly, even grotesque, about crucifixion. The Bible does not overlook this horror. Concerning Jesus, the prophet Isaiah said, “Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised” (Isa. 53:3). The cross is as unsightly as it is unpopular. But it is still necessary. Wherever the cross disappears, true religion disappears, for there is no Christianity without the cross.

Necessary to Fulfill God’s Plan

Why is the cross of Christ essential to Christianity? For several reasons. First, the cross was necessary to fulfill God’s eternal plan.

There was a time when Jesus Himself wondered if the cross was truly necessary. It was the night He went to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane. He knew that His enemies were closing in on Him. In fact, later the same night He would be betrayed, arrested, and sentenced to death.

Jesus knew that the end was near. Like any human being, He was horrified by the prospect of death. Although Jesus is God, He is also a human being. As a human being, He wondered if it was necessary for Him to die such a painful death. Considering what it would be like to be crucified, He said, “‘My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.’ Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me’” (Matt. 26:38-39). Jesus was asking His Father if there was any way He could save His people without being crucified.

Yet because it was an essential part of His plan, God the Father did not spare God the Son from the cross. Jesus explained this after He was crucified and had come back to life. He spoke with two of His disciples, who were puzzled by what had happened to Him. They did not understand why Jesus died on a cross. He answered, “Did not the Christ have to suffer these things?” (Luke 24:26). According to God’s eternal plan, the cross of Christ was inevitable.

Christians, therefore, have always believed and taught the necessity of the cross. Not long after Jesus returned to heaven, His friend Peter preached to the people of Jerusalem. He said: “This man [Jesus] was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross” (Acts 2:23). God knew about the crucifixion of His Son even before it happened. He not only knew about it, but He also permitted it. He not only permitted it, but He also purposed it. The cross was essential to His plan for humanity.

This is worth remembering whenever it seems as if God doesn’t know what He is doing. The trials and tragedies of life are often puzzling. Does God know what is happening in my life? Does He care? Can He do anything about it? The answer is that God does know and does care. And if you trust Him, He will do something about it.

The cross of Christ proves that God’s plans are good. The crucifixion of Jesus Christ was the most evil deed ever committed on this planet. God’s own perfect Son was put to death by wicked men. What could be more evil than that? At the same time, however, the crucifixion of Jesus was the best thing that ever happened on this planet. As we shall see, the cross has brought salvation to the world. If God brought the greatest good out of the greatest evil, then He can bring good out of what seems to be evil in our own lives. It is all part of God’s good plan.

Necessary to Pay for Sin

What made crucifixion part of God’s plan in the first place? Why was the cross necessary? What was it necessary for?

The cross was part of God’s plan because it was the only way to save human beings from their sins. In the words of John Owen (1616-1683), the great Puritan and Oxford theologian, “There is no death of sin without the death of Christ.” ² Understanding sin, therefore, is part of understanding the cross.

What is sin? The answer is twofold. Sin is: (1) doing anything God forbids, or (2) failing to do anything God requires.

First, sin means doing what God forbids, as stipulated in Scripture. Whenever we curse God, tell a small untruth, steal office supplies, or strike out at someone in anger, we commit a sin. We have broken God’s commandment against cursing, lying, stealing, or murder.

Second, sin also includes not doing what the Word of God requires. God wants people to worship Him, to put others before themselves, to care for the sick and give to the poor. With these requirements it is worth asking, “What have I done for God lately?” If the answer is “Not very much,” then we are sinning by not doing what God requires.

The reason sin is a problem is because God is holy. God is so perfectly holy that it is impossible for any sinful human being to stand before Him. Sin brings us under divine judgment. We deserve to be cursed and damned for our sins.

This is why Christ’s death on the cross was such a necessary part of God’s plan. God wanted to save His people from their sins. But how could He deal with this sin without sacrificing either His love or His holiness? This was the problem.

God could not simply overlook our sins. This might have been loving, but it would not have been holy. Justice would not have been served. Our sins would not have been paid for. Nor did God simply condemn us to die for our own sins, which would have been holy, but would not have fully demonstrated God’s love.

The place where God’s love and God’s holiness embrace is at the cross. God the Father sent His Son, His only Son, to suffer and to die for our sins. His life for our life, His pain for our gain: here is the love of God. And here also, in the cross, is the holiness of God. The death penalty is executed against sin. The sins of God’s people are paid in full.

The cross of Christ is necessary to preserve both God’s love and God’s holiness in the salvation of God’s people. The German theologian Emil Brunner (1889–1966) explained that the cross of Christ “is the event in which God makes known his holiness and his love simultaneously, in one event, in an absolute manner. ... The cross is the only place where the loving, forgiving, merciful God is revealed in such a way that we perceive that his holiness and his love are equally infinite.” ³

Necessary to Save

There is one other way in which the cross is necessary. The cross is essential for our salvation. Anyone who wants to go to heaven must first go to the cross. Eternal life is God’s free gift for anyone who believes that Jesus died for his or her sins on the cross.

To begin with, this means believing that the crucifixion really happened. The historical records show that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified by Roman soldiers on a hill just outside Jerusalem in a.d. 30 Believing in Jesus’ death on the cross means believing that if you had been there that day, you could have touched His cross and received a splinter in your finger—that’s how real it was. The Christ on the cross was a living, bleeding, dying person. To become a believer is to accept that Jesus Christ lived a real life and died a real death.

But believing Jesus died on the cross also means something more. It means believing that He did what He did for your salvation. It means acknowledging that you, personally, are a sinner. It means confessing that you need Jesus Christ to save you from the wrath and curse of God. It means believing that Jesus died on that splintery old cross for your own personal sins. To become a believer is to accept that Jesus Christ is not merely a legend; He lived a real life and died a real death.

Understanding that Jesus died, or even that He died for sinners, is only part of the faith that God requires. For example, one woman decided to become a member of the church she was attending. So she went to be interviewed by the church elders. They asked her what she thought it meant to be a Christian. Among other things, she explained how Jesus died on the cross to pay for sin.

The woman’s theology was sound, but the elders still fel...