The Mystery Of The Cross

It’s recorded to have been 3rd Friday in the month of Nisan when Jesus was told to carry his cross. There are signs that happened when Jesus got crucified according to Matthew 27.

Matthew 27:45 Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour

Let’s explore each of these mysterious ‘small small’.

1. Remission

First, there was this darkness from the sixth hour. This was NOON. Throughout the bible, we see the statement ‘darkness at noon’ appearing many times. This represented judgment, the one whose end was …‘Sentenced to death’

In the book of 2 Kings 4, we see the Shunammite’s child who died exactly at noon! This is a representation of darkness at noon. The Psalmist goes on to put all these in one bracket (pestilence, darkness and destruction) and concludes that you won’t fear them when they come at noonday in Psalm 91:6-7.

Now darkness symbolizes sin, and noonday its judgement. This is the first sign children of God, that while Jesus hung on the cross, your sin was siphoned off of you (yes, even if you hadn’t lived yet) and ascribed to Him. The word ascribe means ‘to associate ownership of something to someone’

Sin is a ‘constant’. The same that existed then is the same that does now. It’s like having one person who lives on and on unto the next generation.

That’s not a bad thing in itself. Why? When sin was judged on Christ once, that day, a verdict was made. An adjudication in favor of you was passed!

This was the case settled; ‘That the sin nature would no longer have a grip on you.’ (Rom 6:14) Why? It’s because Christ become your sin literally and died. (Picture sin as a person dying)

2 Corinthians 5:21 For he hath made him [to be] sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

So when you believe in Christ, and confess Him as your personal Lord and savior, you are acknowledging by faith that Christ became your sin. In that action, you have repented and all the benefits of salvation are at your disposal. You are not just righteous. What Jesus did on the cross made you the Righteousness of God itself! (Selah)

Note that the darkness went on for 3 hours. The number 3 is shelosh in Hebrew and it means harmony, new life, and completeness. (Watch this)

Romans 6:4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

The ‘3’ was a shadow of the thing to come after the death of Christ; Newness of life! The reset button for all humanity was about to be pressed and harmony with God, completeness with Him was about to be accessible to every and any human. Jew or gentile. Atheist or believer! As long as they believe in Christ.

I digress…

After Jesus dying, another sign happened.

Matthew 27:51 Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split,

2. Reconciliation

In the Jewish culture, a priest used to go to a certain section of the temple called the Holy of Holies to plead to God for the sins on behalf of all people. There was a veil that separated this section from the rest of temple and only the priest was allowed in!

It’s like one person was allowed to pray for about 3 million people. I ask myself ‘Didn’t those people have voices? Was sin the only thing God and man could talk about? Didn’t God ever get bored?

Yes, He must have got bored at some point. Tell me, if you had this one friend who talked about one bad thing every time you met him or her, how would you feel? You’d get disgusted with time. Surely God did feel the same, and so since the sin question was out of the way, the relevance of the veil was obsolete! God could happily leap out from behind there and be approached by any one, any day, any time!

Be it the thief in want of cleansing, or the prostitute in desire of repenting. God was available! Yes even to you who thinks you need a priest (a man of God who also has their own sin) … You can go in yourself.

For Christ is now your priest and if ever the devil uses your past nature against you, Christ is always before God to remind Him that Hey, my son bore your sin on the cross and you were adjudicated thus, approach me without fear! (Isa 53:12)

2 Corinthians 5:18-19 But all things are from God, Who through Jesus Christ reconciled us to Himself [received us into favor, brought us into harmony with Himself] and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation [that by word and deed we might aim to bring others into harmony with Him]. It was God [personally present] in Christ, reconciling and restoring the world to favor with Himself, not counting up and holding against [men] their trespasses [but cancelling them], and committing to us the message of reconciliation (of the restoration to favor).

3. Resurrection

Matthew 27:52-53 And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.

Throughout the bible, the earth plays a crucial subject as long as matters of judgement are concerned. It’s like a police man ready to drag the judged away to the guillotine or to the cell. In Numbers 16, we see the result of the sin committed by Korah and group, be judged; the earth swallowed them up. Like, ‘they were buried alive.’

I therefore find it no coincidence when the earth opens up and vomits whoever it had swallowed up as a result of the sin of death after Jesus had died. What does this say about Jesus’ death. It states that He redeems time. It states that there is restoration when one partakes in the death of Christ by baptism.

When the stage of remission of sin passed, and reconciliation was made, the earth lost its power to lead men to the grave or to the cell just like that officer does after the sentence has been passed. It had to bring back whoever it had swallowed.

This is the mystery of the cross; that whatever died in your life resurrected with Him. Your dead relationship with God resurrected. Even the earth could not keep you but had to spit you out. (Figurative of being born again)

When Jesus died, you received remission of sins, reconciliation unto God and the power unto resurrection. You received a swap of what Jesus had and he took on all that belonged to you.

John 11:25-26 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

But does the story end there? Can a man who gives eternity to others fail to live in this very same eternity? I think not!

Here’s the next episode;

https://biggiesbigblogs.wordpress.com/2020/04/12/jesus-did-not-stay-on-the-cross/