The Crucifixion: The Power of Jesus's Work on the Cross
Easter just passed, and many regard it as a day full of pastel colors and egg hunting. Explore what the cross means and the importance of the symbolism.
FAITH
Dani Fielder
4/7/20263 min read
It's that time of year again when many people who typically do not go to church decide it is time to go, and children are excited to run around and find eggs filled with goodies laid by a mysterious bunny. Easter is a popular holiday, and incredibly important to the believers because it is not truly a day to be excited about a bunny that lays eggs but about Jesus and his work on the cross.
The Cross
Many people wear crosses, get tattoos of crosses, and hang crosses in their car dashboard, but what does the cross mean? Honestly, the cross is a gruesome and horrific symbol. It could be likened to that of an electric chair or a guillotine because it was used as a form of capital punishment. Imagine your arms stretched out and nails being hammered into your left hand to attach you to a wooden plank, then the same to your right hand. Then imagine your feet being placed together, soldiers taking a single, long nail, and banging it into your feet to ensure you were secure enough on the planks that, when they propped you upright, you would not fall. Finally, imagine hanging there in agonizing pain, struggling to breathe, and bleeding from all the wounds you've incurred. This is what Jesus endured on the cross. Jesus's crucifixion, or death on the cross, was not pretty. It was gruesome, immensely painful, and violent, and Jesus went through all of this as an innocent man.
So, the cross was not beautiful, but the reason for Jesus's crucifixion is. Throughout the Bible, Jesus's coming was foreshadowed. In the first chapter of the Bible, Genesis, we learn very quickly about the fall of man, in which Adam and Eve fell to temptation and ate the fruit from the one tree that God forbade them to eat from, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 3). As a result of this sin, God placed a curse on the serpent, the woman, and the man. The earliest foreshadowing of Jesus's coming is when God tells the serpent about the curse he placed on him for deceiving man, saying, "Because you have done this, 'Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. 15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel'" (Genesis 3:14-15, NIV).
Jesus's Work on the Cross
From the fall of man, mankind continued to fall further and further into depravity, and sin separated us from God. God, however, had a plan to bring us back to him through Jesus. In the Old Testament, the sacrificial lamb was an innocent, unblemished animal offered as a substitute for human sin, atonement to "cover over" transgression. Key instances include the Passover lamb, whose blood spared Israelite homes in Egypt, daily temple sacrifices, and prophetic imagery, such as in Isaiah 53, pointing to the ultimate "Lamb of God". Isaiah 53 says, "4 Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. 6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all" (NIV). So, Jesus's crucifixion, while gruesome, was necessary because he became the blemish-free lamb that was slain for all of mankind.
God, ultimately, is a righteous judge, and because of this, our sin separates us from him. There had to be a perfect lamb to be sacrificed on behalf of all our sins because we were dead, spiritually, in our sin. This is where Jesus comes in. He took on the penalty of sin from God, the righteous judge so that we could have a relationship with God. Now, because of Jesus's crucifixion and resurrection, we can go through Jesus for salvation and to have a relationship with God. That is the beauty of that frightful day. This is the reason we celebrate. We celebrate Jesus and how his sacrifice and his suffering set us free from the chains of sin.