Understanding the Cross: (Part 1) The Power of the Cross

Lesson #13

Memory Verses

1 Corinthians 1:17–18 17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. 18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Galatians 6:14 14 May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which[a] the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

b) Introduction The cross of Christ stands at the heart of our Christian faith. Without it we have no faith, and apart from the truth of it Christianity becomes only another philosophy of life.

Jesus did not come to give us a set of ideas about God, rather, He came to die for us (Mark 8:31). The idea of the cross was central for Jesus to train His disciples, showing the need for absolute commitment to the life of the Kingdom. Later the disciples had to take up their own cross and follow Him (Luke 9:23).

c) The Agony [Pain] of Death We need to understand the reality of Christ’s suffering in order to appreciate: • what it meant for God to save us through the cross • what God has accomplished for every one of us in

the death of Jesus. The cross is horrible and yet powerful. The Holy Spirit wants us to know the importance of Christ’s sacrifice, because this work of the cross should be central to our lives and ministry.

The Scriptures do not hide the shame and agony that was involved for Jesus. It is not simply the fact that He died that is important; how He died has the greatest significance for every one of us. The Old Testament prophecies concerning the death of Christ put the same emphasis on the details of His sufferings, Isaiah 50:6; Psalm 22:12–18.

As disciples we need to feel the deep horror of the cross, to know the full extent of our sin. Yet, deep within our hearts and minds we recoil from this horror. What happened that day at Calvary was not pretty. • There was no pity in a Roman scourging, • Roman crucifixion has been universally

recognised as being the most cruel form of public execution ever devised.

• It was a horrific, slow, painful and humiliating death.

• Disciples need to see the depth of Calvary, to see that everything we can have or be flows out from this act of love.

• Disciples need to recognise that if we are to live for God then we need to walk the same way ourselves.

d) The Power of the Cross

Jesus did not undergo a normal, routine crucifixion. Consider this: He was subjected to the public humiliation of a mock trial before Pontius Pilate during which He was abused, beaten and disfigured; His beard was torn out and a crown of thorns was placed on His head as a gesture of mockery at His claim to be a king.

In the garden of Gethsemane He had faced the awful truth that this cup could be drunk by no one else, the pressure within Himself was so intense that He bled from His brow. When the soldiers came to Jesus on the cross they saw that He was dead already, so they did not break His legs. Instead, they pierced His side and blood and water gushed out. This means that Jesus had died literally of a broken heart. His heart had burst and the blood had congealed: the blood and plasma had become separated and when He was pierced, they flowed out from His side.

In the garden of Gethsemane He had faced the awful truth that this cup could be drunk by no one else, the pressure within Himself was so intense that He bled from His brow. When the soldiers came to Jesus on the cross they saw that He was dead already, so they did not break His legs. Instead, they pierced His side and blood and water gushed out. This means that Jesus had died literally of a broken heart. His heart had burst and the blood had congealed: the blood and plasma had become separated and when He was pierced, they flowed out from His side.

We cannot begin to fully understand His spiritual sufferings. These things are hidden from us because there is no way that we could ever comprehend what it meant for God’s Son to be forsaken by His Father. The cry of Psalm 22:1, ‘‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’’ contains depths of suffering that we will never be able to understand.

But none of these things were by chance. Men took Him but were not in charge of the proceedings that day — God the Father was in control! The Father was offering up His Son for every soul of man! This fact only serves to underline even more clearly the extent of our guilt (Acts 2:23). God, in some mysterious way, laid our guilt upon Jesus and through His sufferings we were set free (Isaiah 53:4–5).

Every detail of the experience of Jesus in suffering has power for us at every point of our need. Ever since the fall, Satan has kept men and women bound in chains of sin and sickness, depression and despair, along with every kind of suffering and affliction as a result of his disobedience to God. On the cross every spiritual and emotional bondage, every affliction brought through man’s disobedience, has been reversed in the power of Calvary.

e) The Six Woes [sorrows or distress] of Man

In Genesis 3 we see the effects of sin and disobedience. Man had lived free in fellowship with God and had authority to rule over everything else on earth, and was now in bondage. Satan now had mastery and man became subject to six terrible woes which since have been the source of every pain and affliction of body, soul and spirit that the human race has ever experienced.

(i)  Guilt and condemnation Adam & Eve when challenged by God, tried to avoid their guilt, passing it from one to the other. Only the serpent was willing to accept the blame! This has been mankind’s failure ever since and has divided man from man and man from God. Not until we accept our guilt can there be any reconciliation. Our guilt before God is of such a nature that we could never atone for it ourselves. Jesus became our guilt- bearer. He bore our sins in His body on the tree (the cross).

(ii)  Oppression of the devil Once man fell he was subject to the dominion of Satan.The cross has brought to an end the unchallenged power of Satan.

Colossians 2:13–15 13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you[a] alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

(iii)  Pain and suffering Sickness and suffering are not the will of God for mankind. They are the result of sin and disobedience. God can use pain and suffering for His own gracious ends in our lives — but it is not his best for His children. In the perfect Kingdom of God this will not happen. “By His wounds you have been healed.’’ 1 Peter 2:24.

(iv)  Anxiety and care Man was sentenced to a life of hard labour (Genesis 3:17–19). 17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”

In Eden man had everything he needed for life and health, now he was condemned to difficulty and effort.Jesus wore a crown of thorns, taking upon Himself all the agony of spirit and the anxiety of heart that belong to man as he tries to make his own way in the world without God. Because He carried anxiety and care, we, in faith, walk the way of the Kingdom (Matthew 6:33–34).

33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Garden Of Eden by Roelandt Jacobsz Savery

Micha Brusilovsky, Anatoly Kalashnikov. Garden of Eden.

(v) Death Man was cut off from the source of his life because of sin. Death is the result of our sin and is the common lot of all men (Romans 5:12). However, physical death isn’t the end, as man is destined to die once and after that to face God’s judgement, Hebrews 9:27–28, 27 Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, 28 so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

But through the death of Jesus the judgement of death has been removed — He has borne the judgement for us Hebrews 2:14–15, 14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.

(vi) Rejection and separation from God Man was cast out from the garden and has been fighting rejection ever since: his sin caused a separation between himself and God. The most deeply powerful cry on the cross was a cry of dereliction, ‘‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’’ In taking our sin into Himself, Jesus put Himself outside the boundaries of the Father’s presence.

(vi) Rejection and separation from God Man was cast out from the garden and has been fighting rejection ever since: his sin caused a separation between himself and God. The most deeply powerful cry on the cross was a cry of dereliction, ‘‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’’ In taking our sin into Himself, Jesus put Himself outside the boundaries of the Father’s presence.

Marc CHAGALL : Adam et Eve chassés du Paradis, 1961 Marc Chagall

Heartbreak in the Garden of Eden

United With Him The power of the cross lies in the fact that Jesus took all these negative powers into Himself on the cross and broke their power. He overcame every negative factor that has ever threatened man and He broke the power of Satan who uses all these forces to bring man to destruction.

We need to receive the power of the cross into our own lives. It was in the power of the Holy Spirit that Jesus offered Himself for us (Hebrews 9:14) — and as we allow the Holy Spirit to do the same work of overcoming sin, affliction and the power of death in us, that we will enter into the true victory of Calvary.

Questions and Discussion Points

1.What makes Christianity different from other religions, ideas and philosophies? Discuss. 2.Why did Jesus have to die on the cross for us? 3.Why did Jesus have to go through such a painful, humiliating, drawn out death?

4.How could God the Father have let His Son do what He did? If He is in control, why was it necessary? 5.Was the cross the pivotal point in history? 6.Why has the work of Jesus on and around the cross overcome the power of Satan, and what does this mean for people in general?

7.Does what we read about the cross in the New Testament fulfil what was spoken of in the Old Testament. For example, read Isaiah 52:13–53:12. 8.How can we take up our cross and follow Jesus as He asks when we realise just how much Jesus actually did when He took up His cross? (Luke 9:23).

Summary and Application

1.The cross of Christ stands at the heart of Christian discipleship. 2.Our salvation cost Jesus everything. 3.For the cross of Calvary to be effective we need to receive the power of it into our lives.

4. To be true disciples of Jesus we need to take up our own cross and follow Him! 5. Man has caused his own downfall and yet God was still willing to send His own Son Jesus to suffer and die for us and give us another chance.