The Crucifixion

March 25, 2016

The Crucifixion

         

The Roman officer and the other soldiers at the crucifixion were terrified by the earthquake and all that had happened. They said, “This man truly was the Son of God!”

Matthew 27:54

In Matthew’s account of the crucifixion, there are dozens of references to the Old Testament because the death of Jesus was a fulfillment of God’s plan of salvation. It is important that we see these connections because we want our faith to rest on something more substantial than just experience or emotion. As the Apostle Paul says, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Romans 10:17)

The events at the end of Jesus’ life symbolized that the Kingdom of God was being established through the death of the Messiah. Jesus’ crying out in a loud voice represented the commanding authority of God as spoken by His Son, which was similar to God’s commanding voice when He spoke to Moses from the mountain. (Ex19: 9, 19). The tearing of the temple curtain represented the end of the temple system. Now all people have access to God because of the death of Jesus. The earthquake represented the judgment of God upon the ruling powers and the establishment of God’s new order. The saints rising from the tomb represented Ezekiel’s dry bones coming to life through the life-giving Spirit of God. (Ezekiel 37:1-14)

Multiple times we have been told that these events in Jesus’ life occurred during the Passover celebration. While Jesus was on the cross, the soldiers used hyssop branches to extend a sponge soaked in wine to Jesus. In Exodus 22 we read that God commanded the Jews to use hyssop branches to brush the blood of the Passover lamb on their doorposts. In Hebrews 9 we read that it was hyssop branches Moses used to confirm the Covenant God made with the Jews in Exodus 24. The Gospel account of Jesus’ crucifixion is showing us that Jesus is the Passover Lamb who takes away the sins of the world. It is showing us that Jesus confirmed the New Covenant by his own blood.

The bystanders who mocked and jeered at Jesus considered Jesus a failure because he was being executed by the Romans, the very people the Messiah was supposed to defeat. However, the Messiah didn’t come to defeat the Romans; the Messiah came to defeat the power of sin and death. The Messiah, the King of the Jews, fulfilled God’s promise to set us free from oppression.

Still today, the mission of the Messiah is counter-cultural. God’s grace goes against the grain of our performance-based-acceptance world. Somehow we want God to find within us justification for His love and acceptance of us. But God’s justification is never found within us. God’s justification for loving us is only found in Christ. Learning to rest in God’s assurance is counter to just about everything in our culture. Nevertheless, God’s assurance in Christ is our eternal life.

Sē’lah

<><  <><  <><  <><

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.