The Crucified Christ

In the city of London England, there is a square known as Charing Cross. It is the geographical center of the city. All distances are measured from this square. The people of London refer to this intersection simply as “the cross”.

One day a little child, with tears streaming down his face, evidently lost, was picked up by a London policeman in the heart of the city. When asked by the bobby, the little boy was unable to tell where he lived. Finally, in response to the repeated questions of the officer, and amid sobs and tears, the little fellow said, “If you take me to the cross, I think I can find my way home from there.”

Today I want to take us to the cross. Because it is only from the cross of Calvary that we can find our way home to God. The cross is the central event of human history. Easter is when we remember the cross. On Easter Sunday, we like to think of the resurrection, but without the cross, the resurrection would never have happened.

On Good Friday evening, we considered the cross. After 2000 years, the cross has taken on such a sacred and holy significance that we find it hard to understand what it meant to the people in Jesus day. But we discovered when we looked back through history that the cross was an instrument of torture and execution, on a par with modern day objects like the gallows or the guillotine.

And we discovered as we looked at the Bible that the Scripture places the focus squarely and unashamedly upon Jesus’ death on the cross. It wasn’t something that the early Christians tried to cover up. Jesus Himself, throughout His earthly ministry, increasingly looked forward to and spoke to his disciples about his death on the cross. The four Gospels, which are the biblical accounts of the life of Christ, spend an unusual amount of time describing the events surrounding his death. So that by the end of them all, where one might expect to find Jesus a conquering hero, enthroned in splendor, we find him hanging upon a Roman cross, instead.

What was Jesus doing on that cross anyway? Was this not a strange and terrible way for such a good man to end up?

The Bible tells us that Jesus was on that cross for a reason. The reason had little to do with the fact that his earthly enemies had put him there. The Jews and the Romans, Caiaphas and Pilate were only bit players in a far greater drama that was taking place. Jesus died on that cross to accomplish something for all of us that we desperately needed then and we still need now.

1. Jesus died on that cross to forgive us our sins.

How do you feel when someone does something deliberately to hurt you? You find it difficult to forgive that person, don’t you? And even if you manage to forgive him, you still have a great deal of trouble forgetting the pain. Forgiveness is something that doesn’t come easy to us.

But what about God? When we sin, and hurt one another, we are not only sinning against each other. We are also offending God. We are breaking his law… violating his standard of righteousness. That is why the Bible says that all our sin is ultimately sin against God. And even if the person we’ve hurt offers to forgive us, that doesn’t take away the fact that God has been offended and His law has been broken. We still need his forgiveness. In fact, only God can truly forgive our sins.

Matthew 9:2 Some men brought to him a paralytic, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.” At this, some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, “This fellow is blaspheming!” Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, “Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins…” Then he said to the paralytic, “Get up, take your mat and go home.”

When Jesus died on the cross, what were the words that he spoke that people remember most? “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” Have you ever stopped to consider exactly what that means? Jesus was not speaking to the people who were standing around at the foot of the cross hurling their insults at him and laughing at him. He was not saying to them “That’s o.k. I forgive you for crucifying me.” He was asking his father in heaven to forgive them, because He knew that their sin against Him was primarily sin against God.

But how could God answer Jesus’ prayer from the cross? How could God forgive their sins? And, for that matter, how can God forgive our sins? Do we expect Him to simply say “That’s o.k. Forget it. Run along and try to do better next time.” Do we expect him to simply sweep our sin under the rug?

If God did that would He be a just and holy and righteous God? No, He would be more like a corrupt judge who turns the other way when the law is broken. He’d be more like a crooked referee who lets the home team off with unfair play. Do you want to worship a God like that?

Suppose for a moment that you are driving your car up Earle Ave., approaching the intersection of Peninsula Blvd. There’s a red light facing you, but for whatever reason, you don’t stop. You go sailing into the intersection against the light and smash into a passing car. You get out of your car and apologize profusely to the driver of the other car. You’ve ruined his car and his day. You tell him how sorry you are, how you didn’t happen to notice the red light, and so on. And to your surprise, he says “That’s o.k. I forgive you.” How wonderful! He’s forgiven you! Now you’re free and that’s the end of it, right? Wrong.

Along comes one of Lynbrook’s finest, who represent the law, and the first thing he does is issue you a traffic summons for driving through a red light. Even though you’ve been forgiven by the other driver, you have still broken the law, and you have to pay the penalty. And then there’s the matter of who’s going to pay for the damages done to his car. Since the accident was your fault, you’re going to be held responsible. When there is a violation of the law, there are consequences to be paid. Forgiveness doesn’t negate the fact that somebody has to pay for the wrong that has been done.

When Jesus died on the cross, he died forgiving our sin, but he also died to pay for our sin.

2. He died to pay for our sins.

When you think of the Archbishop of Canterbury, what do you think of? If you’re like me, you think of a stuffy Englishman with an accent that sounds just like the Queen’s. Would you be surprised if I told you that there once was an Archbishop of Canterbury who was an Italian? His name was Anselm. Anselm was a brilliant theologian who, though he was an Italian, became the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1093. At the time, Christians widely believed that when Jesus died on the cross, he was actually paying a ransom to the devil, who held sinners hostage. This was called the “Ransom Theory”. For about 500 years, the majority of Christians had thought of the death of Christ this way. Until this Italian theologian came along!

Anselm didn’t believe it. And he wrote a book to disprove it. The name of the book is Cur Deus Homo, or literally, Why God Man? It is one of the most significant books ever written. In this book, Anselm taught that man’s sin against God places us in debt, not to Satan, but to God. When, as God’s creatures, we break God’s law, we are failing to render to God the righteousness that is due Him. We are robbing God of that which belongs to Him. This, said Anselm, is the very essence of sin. Our sin is an affront to God. It dishonors God. And it places us in relation to God as debtors with a great debt we owe. How can we possibly pay? The only solution Anselm saw was for God to pay our debt by becoming a man himself and dying in our place. That is Cur Deus Homo… why God became a man.

Anselm wrote “if anyone imagines that God can simply forgive us as we forgive others, that person has not yet considered the seriousness of sin.”

Recently I read a story about a young Russian soldier who served in the army

of Czar Nicholas 1. He had been made a paymaster in one of the barracks. But the young man was a gambler, and pretty soon, he had gambled away not only all of his own money, but the money he had been entrusted with as paymaster as well.

The day came for inspection of his accounts. The representative of the Czar was on his way. The young man knew he was in a lot of trouble. As he looked at his books, and what he owed the government, he was overwhelmed at where his gambling had got him. He was ruined, and in a few hours he would be disgraced as well.

At last, in misery, he decided to take his own life. He pulled out his revolver, placed it on the table before him, and wrote out a summary of his misdeeds. At the bottom of the ledger, where he had totaled up his illegal expenditures, he wrote “A great debt. Who can pay?” He decided that at the stroke of midnight, he would die.

As the evening wore on, he became drowsy and eventually fell asleep. That night, Czar Nicholas visited the barracks. Seeing a light on in the young man’s room, the Czar stopped and looked in. Finding the soldier asleep in the chair and noticing the pistol on the table, the Czar looked at the ledger. Immediately he understood what had happened. He was about to awaken the young man and place him under arrest, when his eye caught the message at the bottom of the sheet.

Suddenly, with a surge of compassion, the Czar leaned over and wrote one word beside that note, and quietly withdrew from the room. The young man awoke later that night and seeing it was well past midnight, reached for his revolver to shoot himself. But his eye fell on the ledger and he saw something that had not been there before. There, beside his writing “A great debt. Who can pay?” was the word the Czar had written: “Nicholas”.

The soldier was dumbfounded. It was unmistakably the Czar’s signature. He said to himself “The Czar must have come while I was asleep. He’s seen the ledger. He knows all. Still he is willing to forgive me.”

The young man then rested on the word of the czar and the next morning a messenger arrived from the palace with exactly the amount needed to pay the debt. Only the czar could pay, and the czar did pay.

In the same way, only Jesus Christ was able to pay our debt to God. When we look at the perfect demands of God’s righteousness, and compare it with our meager and pitiful performance as sinners, we say “A great debt. Who can pay?” But then the Lord Jesus steps forward and signs His name in blood to our ledger. Only He can pay. And on the cross, He did pay.

Jesus paid it all. All to Him I owe. Sin had left its crimson stain. He washed it white as snow.

Our forgiveness didn’t come cheaply. It cost the Lord Jesus Christ His life. When the Bible says that the wages of sin is death, Jesus stepped in on our behalf and paid those wages for us. Although eternal life is a free gift from God to us, it cost Jesus everything to obtain it for us.

Have you experienced God’s forgiveness? Have you let Jesus pay for your sins? I trust that you have. For that is why Jesus died.