It Was the Only Way

By Pastor Mo

Last night at the Tuesday night study we started The Work of Christ. This was the first session of lesson 5 in the Fundamentals of the Faith class. The main topic of discussion was the condition of man following the fall of Adam and prior to God’s great work in regeneration. Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—We discussed many topics relating to this, but one I would like to share, is a view on our depravity based on the crucifixion.

I was driving to work a few weeks ago (I have a one and a half hour commute with plenty of time to think) when a notion struck me as I was thinking about the Cross. God came down in human flesh. The creator of heaven and earth and the entire galaxy came down and lived with us, taught us, healed us, ate with us, walked with us. You see, John 3:19 tells us And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. The light of the world came down and entered our domain. What did we do to that light? We murdered it. But didn’t just kill Him. No, we spit on Him, we humiliated Him, we tortured Him, then we killed Him. We scourged Him, then ridiculed Him with a crown of thorns and pushed it on His head, we made Him drag His own cross through and out of the city, we came up with a long torturous death that made sure He didn’t die too quick. It was such a despicable and excruciating death that the worst Roman citizen was not allowed to be put to death in this manner. We are used to thinking he was allowed a cloth for modesty because of artistic license used in many statues, but he was stripped completely naked. Our God was nailed to a cross completely naked! Ridiculed with a mocking sign over His head that read “King of the Jews”. This is what we did to the light of the world that committed no sin, only bearing the gift of Everlasting Life.

To put this in perspective I want to ask you, what you would do a rattlesnake that you found in the yard. Now, a rattlesnake actually poses a real threat to your family. It could hurt and kill your kids playing in the backyard. You would kill it. Probably behead it and be done with it. What would people think if you did all these things, that were done to our Lord to it? That would be obviously wrong, and something would be wrong with you. What if someone broke into your house while your family was sleeping? Would it be ok to do a few of these things to the burglar? Absolutely not. You would be in prison longer than the burglar. What a about a convicted and known terrorist against our country, maybe someone involved with the 911 plot that killed over 3,000 people. What would we, the media, and the whole world think of us if we did even 3 of the actions committed against Christ, to them? And the snake, the burglar, and the terrorist actually are there to hurt you, maybe kill you, and your family. The light of the world came to bring eternal life! And what did we do to the light of the world?

I am being very deliberate in my use of words. I am saying “we” because if you are sitting there thinking “that is horrible what THEY did to my Lord.” Then you are not getting it. It is not something they did. It is something we did. This is the level of depravity we were prior to God’s work in us. We were no different than them. This is also the level of our depravity that it took the God of the universe to come in the flesh, enter our sinful world and die for us because we were so depraved, it was the only way we could ever be redeemed and stand before Him one day. It was the only way that the Just could also be the Justifier. The cross was the only way.

The cross is not something beautiful to gaze at, no. What Christ accomplished is and His victory over sin and death is. What occurred on the cross thousands of years ago is the most magnificent event throughout eternal history, and cannot be studied enough. But the cross, itself should shame us and remind us of the sacrifice. It should disgust us and remind us of how depraved we were that it was the only way. That the light had to come into the world and go through all this because this was the debt and punishment we had incurred. This was our balance and what we owed before a just and Holy God.

Then I realized something else. All the suffering that Christ went through and He never cried out. He didn’t cry out until He became curse on the cross. The Father had to abandon Him and the Father’s wrath was poured out on Him and crushed Him ( Isaiah 53:10). This was when He cried out. We have no idea what that was like. We can’t even try to imagine it. This was the only time in all of eternal history that there was separation in the Godhead. It was the only way.