Ever since the Enlightenment (1600-1800+), modern man does not like the bloody elements of Christianity, the blood that was shed on the cross. This man knows best, right?

However, it is arrogant and condescending to leave him on the cross and just show sympathy for him, a sympathy he never asked for.

Instead, he asks for our lives and our kneeling before his cross.

The cross and its theological significance is essential and indispensable for our salvation and relationship with God.

Let’s explore the key components and benefits of the cross of Christ, point by point.

The NIV is used here. For more translations, please go to biblegateway.com.

I. How Did the Death on the Cross Happen?

A. The death of Christ on the cross was planned by God.

On the road to Emmaus, a town near Jerusalem, Jesus appeared to two men and rebuked them for not know that hi suffering and crucifixion was predicted in the law and prophets (Luke 24:26). “Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” (Luke 24:26)

Peter proclaimed on the day of Pentecost that God in his foreknowledge and deliberate plan, but through the hands of wicked men, Christ was supposed to be put to death on the cross (Acts 2:23). None of this caught God by surprise.

This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. (Acts 2:23)

B. The cross showed Jesus’s obedience.

When he came to earth and humbled himself in the form of a servant, he became full man, but without sin (Heb. 4:15), thanks to his virgin birth (Luke 1:35). His humiliation was so vast and expansive that he hung between the earth and the high reaches of the sky, by dying on the cross (Phil. 2:8).

⁸ And being found in appearance as a man,
    he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death—
        even death on a cross! (Phil. 2:8)

C. The death of Christ on the cross was carried out by humans.

As we just saw in Acts 2:23, the cross was planned, but unjust humans had to commit the injustice. Peter proclaimed before the Sanhedrin (Jewish high court and council) that Christ was put on the cross by their hands—by their decision. God will accomplish his purposes even through the hands of sinful humanity, but he will not let their wrongdoing go free, either. Justice demanded that they paid a price (Luke 21:6).

II. What Did the Cross Accomplish?

A. The cross put to death the curse of the old law.

Paul wrote to the Galatians that according to the old law, everyone who hanged on a pole was cursed (Deut. 21:23), so Christ became that curse in our place (Gal. 3:13). Now the curse of the law is broken over us, so God does not judge us in his justice-wrath-judgment. We are in Christ and are spared his wrath. In this context, a pole means a generic place of execution by suspension.

¹³ Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.”

B. The cross took away our sins.

The power that the law and regulations was broken and canceled over our lives, by the cross. Those things used to condemn us but now through the cross we have forgiveness of sins (Col. 2:13-14).

¹³ When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you 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. (Col. 2:13-14)

1 Peter 2:24 says that Christ himself bore our sins in his body, which happened at the cross (Is. 53:5).

²⁴ “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”  (1 Peter 2:24)

C. The cross reconciled us to God.

Paul writes that humanity used to be divided by ethnic and cultural differences, but through the cross, all humans are made into one new human, united in Christ (Eph. 2:16). The fullness of deity lived in bodily form in Christ, and now God reconciled all things to himself by his cross and the blood that was shed there.

¹⁶ and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. (Col. 2:16)

D. The cross brought us eternal life.

Jesus taught that when he was lifted up on the cross, so that everyone who sees him and believes can have eternal life (John 3:14-15).

¹⁴ Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, ⁵ that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.” (John 3:14-15)

E. The cross triumphed over our enemies.

As noted, Col. 2:15 says all the decrees issued against us were canceled, and Christ dragged behind him all of his enemies like a roman emperor led captive people in his victory parade.

¹⁵ And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. (Col. 2:15)

III. How Should We Respond to the Cross?

A. Our sinful nature must die with Christ on the cross.

Our old self before Christ must die, so our body would not be ruled by sin (Rom. 6:6). When we belong to Christ, we crucify our passions and desires. This means our mammal impulses and instincts (Gal. 5:24). He bore our sins on the cross, so that we would die to sins and live for righteousness. By his wounds we were healed, from our life of sin.

²⁴ Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. (Gal. 5:24)

B. We pick up our cross daily.

This does not speak of sickness, but our own will must be surrendered to God. We pray, “Lord, not my will, but your will be done” (Matt. 26:39). When your will is surrendered to him, he will give you the desire of your heart. But he must come first—daily.

³⁹ Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” (Matt. 26:39)

C. We are crucified to the world.

Paul prayed or thought that he would not boast except in the cross of Christ, by which he died to the world, and the world to him (Gal. 6:14). So all the rewards the world has to offer are temporary and empty—over the long haul.

¹⁴ May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.  (Gal. 6:14)

IV.. Is Christ’s Death on the Cross Divine Child Abuse?

Christ’s Death on Cross = Cosmic Child Abuse?

How does this post help me know God more intimately?

The apostles preached the cross (Acts 2:23; 8:32-35; 13:28-29; 1 Cor. 1:23; 2:1-2). Paul said that he determined not to know anything among the Corinthians except the cross (1 Cor. 2:1-2), not wisdom and eloquence, but Christ crucified (1 Cor. 1:17-18).

Postmodern man does not like the cross. Too bloody and humiliating. God’s child abuse.

However, the cross was necessary because the sacrifices of the offerings in the Old Testament. The cross does not come out of nowhere without precedence. God’s justice and human’s sinfulness and wrongdoing clashed, and humanity had to pay for its sins, just like a criminal has to pay for his crime. But what if someone stepped in and paid the penalty? And what if the penalty was so high that it was death? Christ paid the ultimate price for mankind’s ultimate separation from God and to reconcile the two—man was reconciled to God.

All this happened on the cross, the method of execution in Christ’s world.

Now all we do is accept the purposes and benefits of the cross by faith.

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