What Really Happened on the Cross?

Six Hours in Eternity

In the Garden The night Jesus was betrayed closed a long, full day after His final Passover meal with His disciples. In the Garden of Gethsemane that same night, Jesus endured a terrible emotional and spiritual ordeal in prayer before His Father. The writer of Hebrews records this: "In the days of His flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to Him who was able to save Him from death, and He was heard for His godly fear. Although He was a Son, He learned obedience through what He suffered...." (Hebrews 5:7,8) "There with only Peter, James and John nearby Jesus experienced a protracted period of excruciating torment of spirit which found expression in groaning... and streaming tears, and ended in a terrible sweat, almost like blood. There is a great mystery here. Jesus seems to face the experience with puzzlement and deep unrest of heart. For the first time in His ministry, He appeals to His own disciples for help, asking them to watch and pray for Him. He confesses being deeply troubled in His spirit. Each of His three prayers questions the necessity for this experience and each is addressed to the One who could save Him from death. "Luke tells us that before the third prayer, an angel was sent to strengthen Him... His cry to the Father was one of such desperate need that the Father answered by strengthening Him through an angel. But when the angel had finished, the third and most terrible experience began. The author implies that Jesus faced the emotional misery which sin produces: its shame, guilt and despair. He felt the iron bands of sin's enslaving power. He was oppressed by a sense of hopelessness, total discouragement and utter defeat. He is anticipating the moment on the cross when He would be forsaken of the Father, since He would then be bearing the sin of the world as though it were His own. "The very thought of it crushed His heart as in a winepress. No sinner on earth has ever felt the stain and shame of sin as He did. He understood exactly the same feeling we have (in much lesser degree) when we are angry with ourselves and so filled with shame and self-loathing that we cannot believe that God can do anything but hate us for our evil. Jesus knows what that is

like. He went the whole way and took the full brunt. We will never pass through a Gethsemane as torturous as He did. He saw our sins as His own, and thus fulfilled beyond any other priest's experience the ability to deal gently with others' sins since He was so fully aware of the sense of personal defilement sin leaves. The Crucifixion After the prayer in the Garden, Jesus was up the rest of that night, without sleep, enduring crossexamination, scourging, beating, cruel mockery and unspeakable brutality. He was already greatly weakened when He carried His cross, stumbling, early the next morning to the place of crucifixion alongside the main public highway probably just outside the Damascus Gate. Medical doctors and forensic experts have written books about the common Roman form of executiondeath by crucifixion. Often the dying process took several days. The nailing of hands and feet forced the victim to push up against the weight of his own body to take a single breath. In the hot sun, terrible thirst ensued and death came, in most cases, from suffocation amidst great pain. The victim was also naked and humiliated death on the cross was reserved for the most wretched of all criminals. A superficial reading of the gospel narratives concerning the death of Jesus will show that He was nailed to the cross at 9 o'clock in the morning, and was dead by 3 in the afternoon. It would seem off hand that His ordeal, terrible as it was, was completed in a mere six hours. This, however, is not the full story. We must look behind the scenes. What Happened on the Cross? Paul in his letter to the Colossians tells us about invisible events taking place, beyond the physical realm and outside of our ordinary space-time continuum, during the dying of Jesus on the cross: "...in Christ all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of His cross. And you, who once were estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, He has now reconciled in His body of flesh by His death, in order to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before Him." (Col 1:19-22) When He died for us on the cross, Jesus met fully the onslaught of demons, fallen angels, and all the power of evil forces in the heavens, disarming all of them completely because "in Christ God was reconciling all things to Himself." Jesus' victory over man's greatest enemy death is boldly announced in the letter to the Hebrews: "Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise partook of the same nature, that through death He might destroy him who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage." (Heb 2:14,15)

It is for the final outworking in history of Satan's defeat at the cross that we now eagerly await. What is the completed work of Christ on the cross in the eternal time frame will come to pass in human history at God's appointed time on our earthly calendars. Time, you see, neither "flows" at the same rate nor has the same "content" in heaven as it does on earth. The Lamb of God The greatest mystery of Christ's passion concerns the transaction in eternity that took place between the sinless Son of God and His heavenly Father. Jesus was, for the first three hours on the cross, our Great High Priest. From noon till 3 p.m, during which time a strange and terrible darkness came over the earth (Luke 23:44), the High Priest became the Sacrifice. In being made sin for us, in literally taking the sins of the world upon Himself, Jesus became a vile and loathsome thing, cut off from God and man not just in time but also in eternity. The work of Jesus on the cross, as far as we are concerned, is completely finished. Jesus is not now hanging on a cross. He has been raised from the dead, and sits in heaven, fully in charge of the universe as a resurrected man. One man, one son of Adam, Jesus the Lord is now living in glory and He is presently in charge of the universe. But in another sense, if we could step into eternity and view an eternal being such as the Son of God experiencing all things if we could see things from the vantage point of heaven we would perceive that a part of the eternal God must suffer forever, outside of time, because of human sin. The Eternal Aspects of the Cross Paul the Apostle wrote in his Corinthian letters about the "fellowship of Christ's sufferings" and of making up in his own body what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ for the sake of his body; that is, the church. He spoke of "always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus might be revealed in us...." Paul said these things long after Jesus had risen from the dead and ascended into heaven where He now rules, His work on the cross having been completed and finished. The Apostle understood that there is an aspect of the cross that is, indeed, eternal. The crucifixion was one of those important points in our one-dimensional time frame when eternity broke through the normal flow of history and changed everything forever, sending ripples backwards and forwards in time. There are other hints about Jesus in eternity. He is spoken of in the book of Revelation as the "Lamb slain before the foundation of the world." Peter writes, "You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your fathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was destined before the foundation of the world but was made manifest at the end of the times for your sake." (1 Pet 1:18-20) Without in any way diminishing the work of Christ on the cross as finished, completed, and

accomplished in space-time and in history, it is possible to say that a part of God suffers eternally for man's sins. From Scripture we learn that a holy God must ultimately be just. He must ultimately remove evil in all its forms from His presence. Those persons who have permanently rebelled against His gracious mercy cannot cease to exist after death, but remain eternally conscious in a place of everlasting, endless punishment. And the loving God who created us surely suffers infinitely more than any human parent when a beloved child refuses the good and chooses a path leading to hurt, harm and self-destruction. Surely it must be grievously painful for God (who is love) to be denied the opportunity to give of Himself to the objects of His love. And no man can suffer more than Christ has already suffered; nor are our sufferings, however great, something Christ has not already experienced. "God's kindness is meant to lead us to repentance," says Paul (Rom 2:4). "Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire." (Heb 12:28, 29) The same fires which heal purify and warm the righteous are the consuming, everlasting burnings of Gehennawhere beings who refused to become the human persons they were designed to be must finally endure the "backside" of God's love which is hell. C.S. Lewis gathers all this up very well in these words from Mere Christianity : "God is going to invade this earth in force. But what is the good of saying you are on His side then, when you see the whole natural universe melting away like a dream and something else something it never entered your head to conceivecomes crashing in; something so beautiful to some of us, and so terrible to others, that none of us will have any choice left? "For this time it will be God without disguise; something so overwhelming that it will strike either irresistible love or irresistible horror into every creature. It will be too late then to choose your side. There is no use saying you choose to lie down when it has become impossible to stand up. That will not be the time for choosing; it will be the time when we discover which side we really have chosen, whether we realized it before or not. Now, today, this moment, is our chance to choose the right side. God is holding back, to give us that chance. It will not last forever; we must take it or leave it."

What Happened at the Cross?

The death of Jesus on the cross was the greatest and most important event the world will ever see. In a day in which things are being stripped of their importance and trivialized, I want us to look again at the cross and see what the Bible says happened there. Some people refer to John 3:16 as "the gospel in a nutshell." I believe the gospel is too great to be fully grasped so easily. It is simple enough to be understood, yet complex enough to be pondered for a lifetime. Thus the greatness of its author -- the Lord God Almighty. Just what happened at the cross?

1. Atonement was made for our sins. In the garden, God told Adam that he could eat freely
from the fruit of every tree, "but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die" (Gen. 2:17). Adam ate of that tree, and he died. He began to die physically that day, but more importantly, he died spiritually. His sin caused a separation between himself and God (Isaiah 59:1-2). He needed to make atonement for this sin, but was powerless to do so. Thus began the great theme of the Bible, God's scheme of redemption. Death was the penalty for sin that was the price that had to be paid. The Law of Moses called for the sacrifice of bulls and goats. Their life was given and their blood was shed, but to no effect, "For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins" (Heb. 10:4). It couldn't be just any death. It was a man's soul that was lost in the garden, atonement required a man's death. But, it couldn't be just any man. A sinless soul was lost in Eden, only a sinless man could make atonement. Thus, the perfect Son of God had to die. "For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Cor. 5:21). Only in the death of Jesus is this wrong made right and God's righteous judgment satisfied. In the cross we see the painful reality of what has been said, "He paid a debt He didn't owe because we owed a debt we couldn't pay."

2. Prophecies were fulfilled. Our Lord's death on the cross was no accident. It was planned in
the mind of God before time began (Acts 2:23). It was foretold to the world through the prophets. The suffering servant of Isaiah 53, the pierced hands and feet of Psalm 22, no broken bones of Psalm 34, given gall and vinegar in Psalm 69, and beaten and spat upon in Isaiah 50. All of these pointed to Calvary. One of the proofs of the inspiration of the Bible is fulfilled prophecy. Jesus' death on the cross is a part of that. This wasn't made up, nor was it an accident. Matthew uses fulfilled prophecy to convince the Jews of his day that Jesus was the promised Messiah. Jesus Himself also foretold His death (Matt. 16:21, 17:22-23, 20:18-19). If He hadn't died on the cross, He would have proven Himself a liar and a false prophet (Deut. 18:15-22).

3. The Old Law was put away. "And you, being dead in your trespasses and the
uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross" (Col. 2:13-14).

That old law was nailed to the cross with Jesus. When He died, the veil of the temple was torn in two (Matt. 27:51), signifying the end of the law it represented. That law of Moses was taken out of the way. God said it would be: "Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah - not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord" (Heb. 8:8-9). We now live under the law of Christ (Gal. 6:2). We don't live under a combination of the law of Moses and the law of Christ. Some principles are carried over from that old law, but we are living under and new and better covenant.

4. Enmity was abolished. "For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has
broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity" (Eph. 2:14-16). The law that separated Jew from Gentile is gone. The gospel truly is for all. "Then Peter opened his mouth and said: 'In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him'" (Acts 10:34-35).

5. The love of God was displayed. "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that
while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom. 5:8). Could God have done any better? What more could He have done? Jesus said, "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends" (John 15:13). Hours after He said this, He did it. He laid down His life for His friends, His enemies, you and me. If you ever begin to doubt God's love for you, ever wonder if He really knows and cares about you, remember the cross. There has never been a greater act of love. Perhaps you have read the following before: "I asked Jesus how much He loved Me. 'This much,' He answered, then stretched out His arms and died."

6. A perfect example in suffering. Times of suffering are going to come to all of us. We will
all face trials various times in our lives. How can we make it though it? Jesus' death on the cross left us both encouragement and an example. "For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: Who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth; who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness - by whose stripes you were healed" (1 Peter 2:21-24). Jesus' death on the cross not only paid the penalty for our sin, it also showed us that we can endure any suffering that we have to face. If Jesus can endure the cross for us, then we can endure anything for Him.

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