No Greater Love

Research Paper On Jesus and the Cross

Neeli Brisky

November 24, 2014

No greater love than this: that a man lay down His life for a friend (John 15:13)[i]. Are believers aware of the purpose of Christ’s death on the cross? Do we know how deep its significance is? False claims have been made of the cross and the weight of the curse it carries has often been forgot in this day and age. To grasp a deeper understanding of the significance ofChrist’s sacrifice, it is vital to learn of what He suffered. How great was the pain the Lord Jesus Christ faced, in every sense of the word. He endured physical pain none can know without experiencing and carried the weight of the sin of the world without ever having even the smallest blemish of sin. But although Jesus was scorned by the ones He came to save, the last words He shared on the cross paint a picture of His love and give significance to the atonement through which He gave to be united with His creation.

One of the false claims made of the cross is that it was merely God’s plan B. Did God create Adam and Eve on chance, and when they disobeyed, did God experience shock, frantically searching for a remedy? Reading through the Bible, it gives the answer to both of these questions. In Psalm 139:4 and 1 John 3:20, insight is given to the omniscience of God. To assume that Christ’s death on the cross was God’s plan B is to question the scriptural truth of His all-knowing power. Adam and Eve’s disobedience did not come as a surprise to God, even though He never desired separation from His created. 2 Timothy 1:8-9 says, “Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began.” The grace the Lord offers through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus, was purposed in His heart before He ever created time. “…There was a cross in God’s heart long before there was a cross raised upon the Mount of Calvary. There was no gamble here” (Lutzer 66)[2]

            Therefore, with the knowledge that God has had the cross in His mind since before time began and did so to save the world and bring intimacy back between Him and His bride, the question is no longer “was the cross a plan b?” The question now is “what did our Savior endure on the cross for us?” Before addressing the physical burden of the cross, Jesus also experienced a burden that no other human faced on the cross. “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Jesus, the spotless Lamb of God, lived a blameless life and rendered Himself to the cross, where for the first time ever, He experienced separation from God. For upon Himself, Jesus incurred the wrath of God, carrying the weight of every mans sin, both past, present and future. “During those hours of darkness Christ was in a purgatory of pain – our purgatory into which He, without spot or blemish, entered, cleansing us. ‘With His stripes we are healed.’ At that moment the full weight of human sin, sin that was not His own and yet for that very reason all the more His own, pressed His soul down into hell” (Brent 42). Every human has faced the fallen condition of being separated from God. But who can say that they experienced the complete and utter devastation of feeling God’s wrath upon themselves for every sin ever committed? There is none but Jesus.

            Another question to ask of the cross is “What was the motive behind it?” In Matt Redman’s book compilation, “The Heart of Worship Files,” he writes on the satisfied wrath of God and His desire for intimacy being restored, saying, “As Jesus dies in the place of sinners, divine justice is satisfied and divine mercy is extended. What changes is not God’s heart to forgive us but the ground upon which He may do so” (77). God is loving, but He is also just. Therefore, the sacrifice of His only begotten Son was not an option, but an immediate action of His love for the world.[3] This new covenant is established upon God’s faithfulness, not our own. It is unconditional. All we must do to enter in is believe. The thought will rattle any one’s mind that someone would desire to be close to people who have plotted their death. But that is exactly the desire of God. He longed to be in unity with the very ones who put Him on the cross. A.W. Tozer speaks to the very matter of human sin nailing Christ to the cross; “It began in His suffering, and it ended in our healing. It began in His wounds and ended in our purification. It began in His bruises and ended in our cleansing” (226).[4] The passion of Jesus is greater than what can be measured. In love, not out of pity, the Father sent Jesus to carry the curse of the cross. It was His desire for intimacy with every man and woman that led Him to sacrifice His Son’s life, so that we might live and be one with Him.

            It is impossible to look upon the cross of Christ without seeing His passion. Even in Jesus’ greatest time of agony, He loved fiercely. This fierce love is seen in the words He spoke on the cross, known as the seven last words of Christ.[5] These seven last words are not seven specific words, but phrases. Each one gives greater awareness of the love Jesus displayed while on the cross. When looking close enough into every word spoken by Jesus, the cross becomes more vibrant in day-to-day life.

The Seven Last Words of Christ

            The first word spoken by Jesus is found in Luke 23:34. Jesus spoke the words “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” even while men unknowingly were fulfilling a prophecy by casting lots to divide His garments as Jesus said these words.[6] “Jesus comforted His murderers in advance, even though they did not at all understand His prayer…” (Schlink 7). How great is the comfort that the Lord gives. Even in Jesus’ own distress and anguish, He still sought to comfort those who, at the time, had no awareness of their need to be comforted. His murderers did not understand what they were doing, but He made this prayer public so that when they did realize what they had done, they would know that the One they crucified is the very One who will save them.

            The second word Jesus spoke through His fading breath was directed toward the thief that hung on the cross beside Him, “…Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). Jesus continued to extend love, mercy and forgiveness when He had every right to call down the wrath of God. But the thief who hung on the cross beside Jesus saw the innocence of Jesus and came face to face with his own guilt. The thief realized it was his sins that nailed this Man named Jesus beside him to a cross.  He believed who Jesus was and recognized his need for Him. However, the other criminal that hung by Jesus did not seek to suffer with Jesus that He might share in His glory.[7] He instead questioned and accused Jesus as everyone else who stood by at His crucifixion did. He wanted freedom of suffering, not the freedom of knowing Jesus. He failed to see what Edmund Shlink elaborates on in his book “The Victor Speaks” that, “To be saved is not to be freed from the cross but by the cross!” (16). That quote from Edmund Shlink is the difference between the two thieves that hung beside Jesus on the cross. It is also the difference between what the world’s perception of being free is and what true freedom is. Therefore, as believers our cry should not be “Jesus, save me from this suffering!” But “Jesus, I want to be like You in Your suffering!”

            In John 19:25-27, the picture of the third word is seen and heard, “…“Woman, behold, your son!” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!’…”[8] In this scripture, Jesus is not calling Himself Mary’s son, but He is seemingly directing her attention to John, His disciple and calling His disciple her son. Jesus was not simply giving Mary into the care of His disciple. He was doing something greater for Mary in this moment. It is easy to understand that Mary looked upon Jesus with the anguish that any mother would feel if she saw her son facing torment and death itself. But Jesus was not being harsh in this moment. He was reminding her of the promise she received when the angel first came to her to declare that she would give birth to the Son of God.[9] She had raised Jesus and saw Him grow and easily could have viewed Him more as her son, rather than the Son of God. Although Mary might have taken these words harshly, “…the harshness of the Son is love. For the withdrawal of her Son is the approach and arrival of her God” (Shlink 20). Through this, it can be seen that anything that seems harsh from God is most often His love, destroying the thing that is keeping us form experiencing Him fully, even when we are the very things that are separating us from His love.

            “I thirst.”[10] These two words were the fourth word of Christ on the cross. In this moment, these uttered words of Christ show His humanity. His extreme suffering is no longer imagined as a theory that He could face the cross because He is the Son of God. Yes, He was the only one who could face the cross as atonement for sins because He was the only perfect sacrifice. But His suffering was very real and was not endured by His divinity. He stepped into our humanness and felt every lash of the whip, every driven nail, every drop of blood and every suffocating breath. “By this cry we are assured that He has truly and really suffered and felt all of the agonies of the cross with all their physical pain.  God has really become one of us” (Shlink 29).

            The next word spoken by Christ is known to be the moment where God turns His face away from Jesus, satisfying His just wrath. In Jesus’ greatest state of agony, these words are recorded in Matthew 27:46, “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?’ that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’” Jesus did not say these words with simply a few tears of sadness. He cried out from the agony of His spirit, feeling in that moment the weight of every sin and God’s completely poured out wrath for each one. This pain must beyond what any human has ever experienced physically, spiritually and emotionally. One can only imagine what amount of abandonment, pain and wrath Jesus suffered in that moment as He cried out to God the Father in a loud voice underneath every weight that He bore. “God forsakes the Crucified One means: He accepts the sacrifice of His Son... Therefore this is true: Since Christ was forsaken by God, there is no longer any abandonment by God.”” (Shlink 34). God separated Himself from Jesus as every sin was laid upon Him. How vital it is for Christ-followers to be reminded of the separation Jesus accepted from His Father, that we might know the sacrifice it took for us to never again be separate from God.

            Upon approaching the sixth word of Jesus upon the cross, a sense of trust and faith is seen in Jesus. Although He has faced the very epitome of scorn and abandonment, He remembers the promises of the Father. He remembers the reason for which He has given His life. Luke 23:46 says, “Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last.” Jesus cried out once again in a loud voice right before He took His last breath. He declared that He was giving His life and it was not being taken from Him. [11] Edmund Schlink, commenting on the word commending in this scripture, gives this insight, “Commending is more than asking and hoping; commending means entrusting, delivering” (37). Jesus trusted His spirit into God’s hands, knowing God would complete the work for which He sent His Son to do.

            Finally, we come to the seventh word, the final word of Jesus before His death. These words are only recorded in the book of John. John, along with the other woman who stood near the cross, heard these words Jesus said, while in the other epistles they are only recorded as a “loud cry.”[12] Therefore, John heard these last three words of Jesus, known as the seventh last word of Christ, “It is finished.” Once again, Edmund Shlink makes a comment on this word in his book, “Jesus’ work is accomplished, God is glorified on the earth. In fact, so completely is it finished on the cross that nothing, nothing at all, could be added by man” (48). Jesus paid the ultimate price. No longer would sacrifices need to be made for salvation, for He had completed the finished work. These last words before Christ’s death is the faith every Christian walks by. It is not our own works, but the finished work of Christ on the cross.[13]

            Through these words spoken by Jesus, we have seen His passion by the weight He carried for us. Every sin of the world He bore upon Himself.[14] Now, a closer look must be taken at the physical suffering Jesus faced by the cross. Roman crucifixion is believed to have first been practiced among the Persians. “The Romans apparently learned the practice from the Carthaginians and (as with almost everything the Romans did) rapidly developed a very high degree of efficiency and skill at it.”[15] Another historical study reveals that the Romans took this practice and evolved it into a crueler and harsher punishment.[16]

A Closer Look at The Cross

            Dr. C. Truman Davis gives a brutal, yet honest depiction of what Jesus endured through the physical pain of the cross. “The small balls of lead first produce large, deep bruises which are broken open by subsequent blows. Finally the skin of the back is hanging in long ribbons and the entire area is an unrecognizable mass of torn, bleeding tissue. When it is determined by the centurion in charge that the prisoner is near death, the beating is finally stopped.” This gives a whole new meaning to the fact that by His stripes we are healed (Isaiah 53:5). He faced this physical beating for us.

            When hanging on a cross, though loss of blood is one of the reasons for death, the cause of death that comes by the cross is death by asphyxiation. In Pierre Barbet’s book “A Doctor at Calvary” he shares on what this kind of death was like. “After quite a short time, the difficulty in breathing became intolerable. The victim tried to overcome this by drawing himself up on his arms, which allowed him to regain his breath… They then tied weights on to his feet, to make the body heavier, and to prevent him doing this. Asphyxia then came on rapidly, in three or four minutes” (174).

            The nails that were driven into Jesus that He may hang on the cross is spoken in detail once again by Dr. C Truman Davis. It is often believed that Jesus had nails driven through His hands, because of a verse in the bible but with research it is found that easily, it would have torn. “Historical Roman accounts and experimental work have established that the nails were driven between the small bones of the wrists (radial and ulna) and not through the palms. Nails driven through the palms will strip out between the fingers when made to support the weight of the human body.”[17]

            As for Jesus side being pierced, Dr. C Truman covers this matter as well. A soldier pierced Jesus side and from it blood and water flowed.[18] Dr. C Truman believes it to be for this reason, “there was an escape of water fluid from the sac surrounding the heart, giving postmortem evidence that Our Lord died not the usual crucifixion death by suffocation, but of heart failure (a broken heart) due to shock and constriction of the heart by fluid in the pericardium” Perhaps the brokenness Jesus felt in His heart, was the very moment He gave up His spirit.

To suffer with Christ is a greater statement than what many Christians are aware of. The pain He suffered, the weight He felt. Jesus took more upon Himself than anything we will ever experience, for He became the curse for us and took upon Himself our punishment.[19] Bishop Brent writes in The Consolations of The Cross, “There are two kinds of pain in human experience, the pain that is inevitable and the pain that is chosen” (51). The Lord Jesus experienced both of these to their extreme for the sake of the world. When observing everything Jesus endured on the cross, His sacrifice is not easily forgotten or taken for granted. Knowing not only why but how Jesus suffered is vital to learn how to become like Christ in His suffering in order to be like Him in death. It is only through this that we can know what it truly is to know the power of His resurrection.[20]

[1] In John 15:13, Jesus is sharing with His disciples that they are to love one another

as He has loved the world.

[2] Lutzer gives deeper insight into how God’s

[3] This references to John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only

Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

[4] This A.W. Tozer quote is found in a compilation of his works by Warren Wiersbe.

[5] The Bible does not give Jesus’ last words on the cross the title of the seven last

words of Christ, but each phrase is noted and holds great significance.

[6] The prophecy of the lots being cast on Jesus’ garments is given in Psalm 22:18.

[7] This refers to Philippians 3:10.

[8] The whole picture of this scene is in John 19:25-27, although I only quote part of

verses 26 and 27.

[9] This promise given to Mary is found  in Luke 1.

[10] This scripture is found in John 19:28. Jesus spoke these words to once again fulfill

a prophecy  which was given in Psalm 69:21.

[11] Referring to John 10:18. Jesus’ life was not taken from Him, He freely gave it.

[12] John 19:25-26 specifically say who stood near the cross.

[13] Titus 3:4-7 speaks of salvation by faith, not by works.

[14] Referring to 1 Peter 2:24, which also speaks of how we should respond to this

sacrifice.

[15] http://www.cbn.com/SpiritualLife/OnlineDiscipleship/easter/A_Physician's_View_of_t

he_Crucifixion_of_Jesus_Christ.aspx

[16] http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-topics/crucifixion/a-tomb-in-j

erusalem-reveals-the-history-of-crucifixion-and-roman-crucifixion-methods/

[17] Referring to John 10:27. Jesus could have actually been referring to His forearm.

[18] Referring to John 19:34

[19] Referring to Galatians 3:13.

[20] Referring to Philippians 3:10 again.

Bibliography

 “A Tomb in Jerusalem Reveals the History of Crucifixion and Roman Crucifixion Methods.”

Biblicalarchaeology.org. Biblicalarchaeology.org, 2014. Web. 22 July, 2011.

Barbette, Pierre. A Doctor at Calvary: The Pasiion of Our lOrd Jesus Christ as Described by a

Surgeon. Trans. The Earl of Wicklow. France: Dillen & Cie, 1950. Print.

Brent, C.H. The Consolations of the Cross.  New York: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1904. Print.

Davis, Truman C. “A Physician’s View of the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ.” The Christian

Broadcasting Network. CBN.com. 2014. Web.

Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Crossway. 2001. Olive Tree Bible Software.

Lutzer, Erwin W. Why the Cross Can Do What Politics Can’t.  Eugene, Oregon: Harvest House

Publishers. 1999. Print.

Redman, Matt. The Heart of Worship Files: The Worship Series. Ventura, California: Regal

Books From Gospel Light, 2003. Print.

“Roman Crucifixion Methods Reveal the History of Crucifixion.” Biblicalarchaeology.org.

Biblicalarchaeology.org, 2014. Web. 17 July, 2011.

Schlink, Edmund. The Victor Speaks. Trans. Paul F. Koehneke. Saint Louis: Concordia

Publishing House, 1958. Print.

Wiersbe, Warren. The Best of A.W. Tozer: Book Two. Camp Hill, Pennsylvania: Wing Spread

Publishers, 2007. Print.