Crucified with God in Christ
“If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for My sake, the same shall save it.” (Lk. 9:23,24).
Being crucified had become the most feared style of execution. The Romans had adopted this form of death because humanity had come to its lowest point in morality. In the prophecy of Daniel, “In the latter time…when the transgressors are come to the full” was fulfilled in the base idolatry of Rome. Those with wealth and power cared nothing for the multitudes which God had ordained the ruling class to protect and care for. And the idolatrous multitudes’ hatred toward the elite made the proletariat bristle under the abuses of government and law enforcement.
Idolatry had long held sway on earth; self-indulgence had run its course, and the transgression to God’s Law had almost completely come to the full. The only method to quell the rebellious society was a torture that only ended in certain death. The process of crucifixion began with a flogging that left the back parts of the criminal open and oozing, raw and bloody. The word “excruciating” originates from the Latin word for “crucifixion.”
Typical of Roman brutality, the crucifixion pole or cross were designed to send the message to all those dreaming of sedition, that nobody messes with Rome without reaping the most grievous suffering. Over the centuries, loyalty to the ruler had grown bankrupt, and the Caesars’ empire was built upon subjugated peoples ripe for revolt, like a chain of volcanoes ready to blow.
Christ looked forward to His crucifixion; beginning from age twelve He realized His role in the salvation of His fallen human race. “I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!” (Lk. 12:50). “The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified…And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me.” (Jn. 12:23,32). He had walked in the shadow of His cross throughout His life. His every act was a preparation for that climactic event. Every self-denial, every unselfish service, every gift of His miracle working virtue, every burden He bore, every sorrow He shared, every fast and prayer, every scripture He memorized, were but the heaven-ordained school that would not graduate until it ended at Golgotha.
Only the worst criminals and most detested slaves were nailed to crosses. The rest were tied only. Christ was nailed; this we know. From the prophetic statements of Psalm 22 (“they pierced my hands and my feet”), and His confirmation to doubting Thomas, it is seen that spikes were used for Jesus. He did not escape the bitterest misery and woe.
He had given the Jews sixty-nine and one-half prophetic weeks of years for their final probation, to make an end of their history of unfaithfulness and to bring in everlasting righteousness by faith. But they failed the big test, even as the Holy Spirit cooperated with the providences of God to save them. They were found without any faith, and completely disconnected from heaven. “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” was the sentence of their own condemnation. “We have no king but Caesar!”
Jesus felt every nerve, as the spikes mangled His hands and crushed the bones of His feet. Then, the 300 pound cross was lifted up and dropped into its hole with a sudden jarring and abrupt stop. Jesus had earlier in the week unburdened His heart for Jerusalem because of its rejection of His constant love for them. He even sought to comfort the Jewish women who wept for Him on His way to Calvary.
Now on the cross, in excruciating pains, His thoughts are still of His people. “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!” He seeks to gain their justification with His Father, and they are granted 3 ½ more years. But His utmost concern is secreted in words forced from His dark soul. “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” Nowhere can He turn for comfort but He finds Satan has totally surrounded Him with hatred and arrogance and evil. His Father’s ever-present relationship which has been His constant stay is completely gone, the assaults of the enemy tear at His sensitive conscience and soul until the unnatural darkness descends on the crosses and their victims that noon.
“A bruised reed shall He not break, and the smoking flax shall He not quench.” (Is. 42:3). Yet, now He has nowhere to lay His sorrowing head; no consolement for His empty soul. All we like sheep know what it is to have a God-sized hole in our heart. But the Father laid on Him the emptiness of us all.
While He had ever born Himself with divine dignity, and had never given needless pain to the sensitive soul; though He was never rude but treated people with the utmost kindness, all He heard from His creation was the course, brazen touts against His manhood, slights against His Sonship with His Father, and the wildness of His claim to be the One who would come to save them.
“He trusted in God!” was their self-congratulating retort. Yes, He was trusting in God. “He saved others; Himself He cannot save!” Never was a shorter, clearer sermon ever preached about the self-sacrificing love of God!
He did not view this all as needless pain for His sensitive soul, but rather needed pain. Every torture He had ever suffered up to this pint, He saw as needful; for now He was suffering His Father’s torture. He must experience an affliction that tries His trust, a pain that relieves the Father and allows a complete restoration from the infinite anguish and lostness of the great King since the first presence of rebellion and sin.
This was the baptism that the Son of God was looking forward to from the first days in Eden. In His baptism the whole creation, in heaven and earth, are baptized together with Him, baptized in His sorrow, baptized in the Father’s incomprehensible grief. Crucified with God and Christ, the Father can reconcile the world unto Himself.
Being crucified had become the most feared style of execution. The Romans had adopted this form of death because humanity had come to its lowest point in morality. In the prophecy of Daniel, “In the latter time…when the transgressors are come to the full” was fulfilled in the base idolatry of Rome. Those with wealth and power cared nothing for the multitudes which God had ordained the ruling class to protect and care for. And the idolatrous multitudes’ hatred toward the elite made the proletariat bristle under the abuses of government and law enforcement.
Idolatry had long held sway on earth; self-indulgence had run its course, and the transgression to God’s Law had almost completely come to the full. The only method to quell the rebellious society was a torture that only ended in certain death. The process of crucifixion began with a flogging that left the back parts of the criminal open and oozing, raw and bloody. The word “excruciating” originates from the Latin word for “crucifixion.”
Typical of Roman brutality, the crucifixion pole or cross were designed to send the message to all those dreaming of sedition, that nobody messes with Rome without reaping the most grievous suffering. Over the centuries, loyalty to the ruler had grown bankrupt, and the Caesars’ empire was built upon subjugated peoples ripe for revolt, like a chain of volcanoes ready to blow.
Christ looked forward to His crucifixion; beginning from age twelve He realized His role in the salvation of His fallen human race. “I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!” (Lk. 12:50). “The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified…And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me.” (Jn. 12:23,32). He had walked in the shadow of His cross throughout His life. His every act was a preparation for that climactic event. Every self-denial, every unselfish service, every gift of His miracle working virtue, every burden He bore, every sorrow He shared, every fast and prayer, every scripture He memorized, were but the heaven-ordained school that would not graduate until it ended at Golgotha.
Only the worst criminals and most detested slaves were nailed to crosses. The rest were tied only. Christ was nailed; this we know. From the prophetic statements of Psalm 22 (“they pierced my hands and my feet”), and His confirmation to doubting Thomas, it is seen that spikes were used for Jesus. He did not escape the bitterest misery and woe.
He had given the Jews sixty-nine and one-half prophetic weeks of years for their final probation, to make an end of their history of unfaithfulness and to bring in everlasting righteousness by faith. But they failed the big test, even as the Holy Spirit cooperated with the providences of God to save them. They were found without any faith, and completely disconnected from heaven. “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” was the sentence of their own condemnation. “We have no king but Caesar!”
Jesus felt every nerve, as the spikes mangled His hands and crushed the bones of His feet. Then, the 300 pound cross was lifted up and dropped into its hole with a sudden jarring and abrupt stop. Jesus had earlier in the week unburdened His heart for Jerusalem because of its rejection of His constant love for them. He even sought to comfort the Jewish women who wept for Him on His way to Calvary.
Now on the cross, in excruciating pains, His thoughts are still of His people. “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!” He seeks to gain their justification with His Father, and they are granted 3 ½ more years. But His utmost concern is secreted in words forced from His dark soul. “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” Nowhere can He turn for comfort but He finds Satan has totally surrounded Him with hatred and arrogance and evil. His Father’s ever-present relationship which has been His constant stay is completely gone, the assaults of the enemy tear at His sensitive conscience and soul until the unnatural darkness descends on the crosses and their victims that noon.
“A bruised reed shall He not break, and the smoking flax shall He not quench.” (Is. 42:3). Yet, now He has nowhere to lay His sorrowing head; no consolement for His empty soul. All we like sheep know what it is to have a God-sized hole in our heart. But the Father laid on Him the emptiness of us all.
While He had ever born Himself with divine dignity, and had never given needless pain to the sensitive soul; though He was never rude but treated people with the utmost kindness, all He heard from His creation was the course, brazen touts against His manhood, slights against His Sonship with His Father, and the wildness of His claim to be the One who would come to save them.
“He trusted in God!” was their self-congratulating retort. Yes, He was trusting in God. “He saved others; Himself He cannot save!” Never was a shorter, clearer sermon ever preached about the self-sacrificing love of God!
He did not view this all as needless pain for His sensitive soul, but rather needed pain. Every torture He had ever suffered up to this pint, He saw as needful; for now He was suffering His Father’s torture. He must experience an affliction that tries His trust, a pain that relieves the Father and allows a complete restoration from the infinite anguish and lostness of the great King since the first presence of rebellion and sin.
This was the baptism that the Son of God was looking forward to from the first days in Eden. In His baptism the whole creation, in heaven and earth, are baptized together with Him, baptized in His sorrow, baptized in the Father’s incomprehensible grief. Crucified with God and Christ, the Father can reconcile the world unto Himself.
posted by David | 12:26 PM
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