The Cross of Christ

My mind is still racing with thoughts that came up from some major events over the last week and also the Scriptural studies we did during InterVarsity's Cross-Training retreat this past weekend. Being an external processor, I'm attempting to piece together some of my thoughts on this blog. I apologize in advance for the incoherency.

Since my trip to The International House of Prayer last December, Christ has been continually revealing His identity to me as my bridegroom and the lover of my soul. This is the Man whose heart is ravished by my one glance (Song of Songs 4:9). This is the Man who's numbered the hairs on my head (Matt 10:30) and who collects my every thought and bottles up my every tear. This is the Man who has designed His creation and purpose to lead to the glorious day in Heaven when He will be united with His bride, the spotless and blameless church (Rev 21).

This journey to discover Him as a Bridegroom has now brought me face to face with the harsh reality of the Cross. I always thought I had to balance the loving nature of God with the just nature. That the merciful and angry God were two different facets of the same God. That Christ, the romancer, and Christ, our substitute, were also two distinct identities of our Messiah. But I can't separate those identities anymore; they are one and the same. The cross is the ultimate act of love and sacrifice for us.

Jesus is the Man who is so perfect and holy that the least of my sins is enough to separate me from Him for eternity. Yet God loves us so much that he desired deeply to redeem us. He searched for the perfect spotless lamb whose blood could be spilled to pay the penalty for our sins....and He found only One who could do so: His beloved, only Son.

Reading the The Cross of Christ by John Stott is leading me to think more deeply about what the sacrifice of Christ entailed. Four points Stott brought up in Chapter 3 are such foundational truths that I've taken them for granted my whole life. Here I rehash the four points adding onto them my own thoughts and understanding of the points.

1. Christ died for us. He did not need to die. He had no reason to die other than the fact that He did it for our sakes.
2. Christ died to bring us to God. Our sins separate us from God, but through Christ's death this separation is no longer. Call it redemption or salvation (negative and positive ways of looking at it,) we are now able to encounter God through Christ our mediator.
3. Christ died for our sins. This is something we say so often. But when we realize that our sins nailed Christ to the cross, it causes us to realize the gravity of the very sins we spend our days rationalizing away. Sin is serious. Although Christ chose to go to the cross, although physically it was Judas, Caiaphas, Pilate, and the soldiers who nailed Him to the cross (although upon closer investigation, for the trials to continue as unlawfully as it did, a repeat of what happened would be next to impossible), it was our sin that led to Christ's choosing to be beaten, to be mocked, to be humiliated, and to be nailed on the cross. (This leads to another train of thought on grace...I'll post on this topic another day).
4. Christ died our death. This leads to my next train of thought:

In Philippians 2 we find the infamous Christ Hymn (this also leads to another train of thought on Lordship...I'll post on this topic another day). This weekend our studied highlighted the fact that our Christ, perfect God, humbled himself through becoming man, and not just man but servant, and not just servant but He died a criminal's death. I often asked myself why the cross? And what's so significant about the cross? Martyrs later on died equivalent physical deaths; in fact, Peter was hung upside down. Why did this particular death matter? In the past, I thought it a matter of humility. The cross was historically reserved for the worst of criminals; it was illegal to crucify a Roman citizen. Symbolically, the cross was the worst physical death known to man and so this was the death that was chosen. This death was completely undeserved by Jesus who was innocent of all wrong. I thought that this was why it was enough to redeem our sins. But His perfection was only part of the story. The punishment He bore is the other. Christ died our death. Yes, the physical pain was almost unbearable. But looking at the account of His death in scripture, it wasn't until the cry "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" that Jesus uttered words of pain. What is so significant about the cross is that on it, Jesus suffered complete and utter separation from God. From my understanding, no one alive in history has ever experienced this separation from God. THIS is the ultimate punishment for our sins, and not the physical death of the cross. Jesus experienced the pain of separation from God so that we did not have to. Through His death he offered us life. He's willing to look at us in the fullness all our sin (knowing full well that these very sins were the cause of His pain and sacrifice) and speak to God on our behalf claiming our sins as His own: bought and paid for. All this, so that He could spend eternity with us (leading to another thought on unity...).

What love is this! Who is this Man that would love me so? Praise be to Jesus, the glorious Lamb and Bridegroom. Amen.