THE VIEW FROM THE TOMB
Crucifying rebels was the business of Roman soldiers. Hardened to pleas for mercy and deaf to agonized screams, the Romans hammered spikes through the forearms and feet of the condemned, hoisted them up, and moved on to the next victim. Then they had lunch. It was all in a day’s work.
Seventy years before Christ, they crucified 6000 stragglers from a slave rebellion along the road between Rome and Capua – a stretch of 120 miles. And forty years after Christ, Titus and the Roman legions besieged rebellious Jerusalem and crucified as many as 500 Jews per day outside the city walls.
A mere three crucifixions meant a terribly slow day.
That’s what onlookers at Golgotha saw. An ugly but slow day. Three executed criminals, no different from thousands of others who had suffered the same fate. That evening the cross didn’t mean the forgiveness of sin or the hope of salvation or “victory in Jesusâ€. It meant crushing defeat and hopelessness.
The resurrection of Jesus changed that.
Our view of the cross is an interpretation of the cross passed down to us from the apostles who looked back with new eyes through the empty tomb and the empty cross at the Law and the prophets. They found in those ancient Scriptures what the death of Jesus on the cross means.
Our statement of faith spells it out: We believe that the shed blood of Jesus Christ and His resurrection provide the only ground for justification before God the Father and salvation for all who believe. The death of Jesus is the divine transaction that declares sinners ‘not guilty’ (i.e. justification). The cross forgives and saves those who believe.
No one looked at the cross on Good Friday day and saw that the cross meant these things.
The cross didn’t look like a message of God’s love, and it certainly didn’t look like deliverance from anything. If the cross conveyed any divine message, it was judgment against Jesus. That evening, Jesus was not someone to believe in but someone from whom to distance yourself.
People aren’t remembered for being crucified. Had Jesus never been raised from the dead, He would have been lost to history. The practice of crucifixion itself would probably be remembered only by a few history majors!
We are so accustomed to blending the death of Jesus with the interpretation of the cross we think they are the same thing. We forget that when unbelievers look at Jesus on the cross, they see a loser, not a savior. What else is there to see in that broken body and that bloodied hanging head?
Believing Christians see in the cross a Savior, forgiveness, and the guaranteed hope of eternal life. That’s only because for us, the stone is rolled away and we are peering out at the cross from within the empty tomb.
Seventy years before Christ, they crucified 6000 stragglers from a slave rebellion along the road between Rome and Capua – a stretch of 120 miles. And forty years after Christ, Titus and the Roman legions besieged rebellious Jerusalem and crucified as many as 500 Jews per day outside the city walls.
A mere three crucifixions meant a terribly slow day.
That’s what onlookers at Golgotha saw. An ugly but slow day. Three executed criminals, no different from thousands of others who had suffered the same fate. That evening the cross didn’t mean the forgiveness of sin or the hope of salvation or “victory in Jesusâ€. It meant crushing defeat and hopelessness.
The resurrection of Jesus changed that.
Our view of the cross is an interpretation of the cross passed down to us from the apostles who looked back with new eyes through the empty tomb and the empty cross at the Law and the prophets. They found in those ancient Scriptures what the death of Jesus on the cross means.
Our statement of faith spells it out: We believe that the shed blood of Jesus Christ and His resurrection provide the only ground for justification before God the Father and salvation for all who believe. The death of Jesus is the divine transaction that declares sinners ‘not guilty’ (i.e. justification). The cross forgives and saves those who believe.
No one looked at the cross on Good Friday day and saw that the cross meant these things.
The cross didn’t look like a message of God’s love, and it certainly didn’t look like deliverance from anything. If the cross conveyed any divine message, it was judgment against Jesus. That evening, Jesus was not someone to believe in but someone from whom to distance yourself.
People aren’t remembered for being crucified. Had Jesus never been raised from the dead, He would have been lost to history. The practice of crucifixion itself would probably be remembered only by a few history majors!
We are so accustomed to blending the death of Jesus with the interpretation of the cross we think they are the same thing. We forget that when unbelievers look at Jesus on the cross, they see a loser, not a savior. What else is there to see in that broken body and that bloodied hanging head?
Believing Christians see in the cross a Savior, forgiveness, and the guaranteed hope of eternal life. That’s only because for us, the stone is rolled away and we are peering out at the cross from within the empty tomb.