The Sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross: To focus on the glory of the cross

The cross of Jesus is where we can freely abandon ourselves to God in worship without feeling guilt and shame. Our loving Saviour Jesus offered Himself on the cross-- it was to show how wide, how deep Gods love really is for you and for me. Jesus did NOT bear the cross to make us feel guilty or ashamed because of our sin. Quite the contrary-- To show His great love and how much He values us. And today we owe everything to the Sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. So Like Paul, we who are in Christ Jesus must make our boast only in the cross of Jesus. But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. Galatians 6: 13-14 When we make our boast in the cross of Jesus we glorify God. The cross of Jesus is the very place where we find peace with God and receive the power and the will to live. We can begin to understand who we are and who God is. 1. At the cross, Jesus created a new you and restored to God through a brand new relationship. 2. The cross fulfilled Gods purpose for Jesus and for our lives. 3. The place where Christ achieved the final Victory over the enemy. At the Cross we see God in the flesh in the person of Jesus Christ. That He came to reveal the Father and how God intended us to be. Jesus shared humanity and experienced our pain like we never experienced and never will because he bore it in our place. He did all of this to provide salvation for the lost.

When we try to understand the cross it is a mystery to us.

Jesus, the Messiah: Died? Jesus, the Teacher: God abandoned Him on the Cross? Jesus, the Son of God: Sharing the divine nature of God. How could the immortal die? The answer is Jesus died for us. The significance: Death by cross itself is not an extraordinary event. Many criminals were condemned to die an excruciatingly painful death during the Roman rule. But the cross bears a totally different significance with Jesus. The eternal Son of God bore punishment instead of you and me. He bought forgiveness with His blood from God for our sin. Nobody ever achieved anything through their death like Jesus. Jesus defeated our enemy death, sin, sickness, hell and the grave in one go. Once and for all! Amen. And so we will also have resurrection in Jesus. Amen. Hallelujah.

What Jesus accomplished on the cross: everything that we received from the cross of Jesus
Everything Jesus accomplished on the cross is for you and for me. Jesus offered Himself as selfless sacrifice to perfect us by His grace. We are saved by grace and by faith alone. Not by works lest anyone should boast. He removed the handwriting of the law that is against us and that which condemns us, and freed us from the law. When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having cancelled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. Col 2: 13-14. We can experience the fellowship with the Spirit of God with grateful heart but not by dead works. Therefore, we must break free from the mindset of pleasing God to make God love us more by keeping the law of dos and donts. We are accepted in the Beloved and valued by the Blood of His Son. He loved us with an everlasting love. His love is unchanging -- steadfast love. I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore, I have drawn you with loving kindness: Jer 31: 3 Therefore we must rest in His love and grow in an attitude of gratitude with thanksgiving. So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. Col 2:6-7 We are attracted to the Cross because the Love of God is revealed to us on the cross. (Some people who watched the Passion Movie, said, it was bloody and gory). We experience the Love of Jesus for us, when we see that He endured the shame and suffering of the cross for us. He willingly accepted the punishment of the cross to become our substitute sacrifice for us. 1John 4:10, Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. When we were still sinners our response would be to feel deep pain for having offended God. But when our sins are forgiven, the most acceptable response is that of joy and thanksgiving -Joy because we are loved and forgiven from Gods wrath. Because the human race was condemned to hell and, while we are the path to hell, Jesus came to rescue us and died on the cross. And said no more hell no more curse no more death, now return to the Father. I Paid for you in Full. Ive done it all. Forever be blessed and be victorious in My Name. Hebrew 12:2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. We look to Jesus and remember the price he so willingly and joyfully paid so that we can receive His life. This is our first love. The only way can grow deeper and deeper in love with Jesus is by returning to the Cross in thanksgiving and praise.

The reality of the cross of Jesus

When we look at the reality of the cross, we see Jesus endured the cross with love and joy. Because He knew about the torment of hell and did not want any of us to be lost forever in hell. As we look at the cross of Jesus and the way He suffered we find ourselves astounded by the Grace of God that is given to us. We read in the Gospels that Jesus suffered at the hands of wicked men. Jesus suffered various degrees of torture throughout the day of His crucifixion. But he bore it all in silence. People at the high priests palace or the soldiers kicked Him and slapped Him as they wished. He was condemned to be scourged and whipped. As the wickedness unfolded, the soldiers used the most pain inflicting lashes and scourged Jesus in a way most gruelling way. With every lashing, the whip pulled His body apart. We know why He endured this. So that our wounds may be healed by His wounds. (Is 53:5). He paid the costly price for our healing. Fear no more of your sicknesses. Jesus heals us. The soldiers put a crown of thorns on His forehead and a purple coloured robe on his torn body, saluting and hailing Him as the king of the Jews in mockery. When He was condemned to death by crucifixion, as the Roman custom required, He carried the cross outside of the city bleeding all the way to Golgotha soaking the streets in His blood. When He stumbled, the soldiers forced a man by the name of Simon the Cyrene, to carry the cross. Crucified the Lord. We do not see the details of the crucifixion of nails or hammer or any other details. Death by crucifixion is the most horrible death that people in those days knew of. Physical torture: medical doctors describe the agony of the cross:
o

Jesus had to pull himself up to breath supporting himself on His nail pierced feet. While Jesus was able to breath-in in agony, breathing out became much more difficult. Carbon monoxide was built up in the body. Heavy beatings and scourging caused haemorrhage in the chest and built up fluid around His heart which eventually led to ruptured pericardium, a heart failure. This fluid flowed out when the soldier pierced Him in His side.

The religious leaders followed Him up the Golgotha; they jeered and mocked at Him saying He would come off the cross and save Himself if He was the Son of God. But Jesus showed His determination to save us and pleaded with the Father to forgive them for they know not what they do. He was full of Love. Jesus never gives up on you and never lets you down. On the cross we see what a glorious saviour we needed and now we have.

We see Him as a loving son as He commended his mother to Johns care. He fulfilled all his responsibilities as a son to mother while saving the World as the Son of God. He gave the assurance of the heaven to a thief who was hanging by side. This thief lived a life deserving death but Jesus turned his life into life worth living as the thief found his saviour. Because of Jesus our life is worth living. The cry of Thirst: Jesus also cried of Thirsty. To fulfil the scriptures. The soldiers gave Him wine mixed with gall to dull His pain. But Jesus Rejected it to keep a clear mind in order to fulfil every prophetic word that was spoke of His sufferings and death on the cross. Psalm 69:21 They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst.

The whole creation trembled and shook. We read about the records of earthquake, darkness for 3 hours. The cry of rejection: this darkness can be interpreted as a spiritual darkness which engulfed the Son and so felt abandoned by God the Father. As God is light and there is darkness in Him However, there is another interpretation that God was present at Golgotha in that darkness as God dwelt in thick dark cloud at the times sacrifices during the OT period.

At the end Jesus cried the most heartbreaking cry, the cry of rejection, rejection by His Father. Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani Matt 27:46 Mark 15: 33-34, Ps 22:1 The Father and the Son knew that they have to endure this for our sakes. Jesus endured this abandonment by the Father so that we will never be abandoned or rejected by the Father. The cry of victory Just then He also cried the cry of Victory It is Finished. Tetalestai. Paid in full. Jesus set us free. No more Sin No more death. No more Rejection. No more punishment. In All things we are more than conquerors through Christ Jesus who loved us. The cry of commitment Having won the Final Victory Jesus folded His head as He said Into Your hands I yield my Spirit. And the curtain that limited our access to the Holy of Holies and symbolised our separation from God, was torn in two from top to bottom. Gods presence is now always open for us. The triumph of the resurrection: On the third day, the Father raised the Son from the dead and publicly vindicated Him in resurrection. He exalted Him and gave Him the Name that is above every other Name. As we now believe in the Son of God we will never be condemned and sharers of His inheritance. Co-heirs of His Kingdom.

THIS IS OUR GREAT GOD. How great is that Love that He showed towards us.