Lord’s Day, Vol. 10 No. 14

Meditations on the Cross of Christ

The cross is an instrument of death in the Roman world. It is the symbol of death and despair. Yet in the sight of God and His saints, the cross is the message of hope. Therefore, the death of Christ is a glorious event! 

It is a message that the world desperately needs to hear as it sinks into seemingly unredeemable bitterness of strife and human conflict. This is the one good news that ought to be broadcast on every media platform.

This is a message that needs desperately to be sent out as the spiritual needs of men reach a point of acute desperation. There are many offers of help given in the world for man but none will truly help, for none can solve the problem of human sin. The depravity of the human heart is dealt its death blow upon the cross. Man’s depravity was judged and the sentence for the punishment of sin was carried out in full upon our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Upon the cross hung the sinless Son of God, who knew no sin, bearing the punishment for sin that sinful men by faith placed upon Him, for which He was called to bear.

1 Peter 3:18 (KJV) For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:

The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ was a most unimaginable curse that He was called to bear. The curse of death came because of man’s disobedience to the will of God in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3). Not just physical death but eternal death!

The cross of Christ is the place of reconciliation for the depraved human soul to the thrice-holy God. The place where the justice and mercy of God met. 

1 Timothy 2:5-6 (KJV) For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.

The word “ransom” is literally a price paid or means used to set someone free from captivity or bondage ransom; figuratively, of Christ’s atonement for sin price of redemption, means of deliverance. 

There is only one God and He has only one plan of salvation for all men that is through His only begotten Son Jesus Christ. 

John 3:16 (KJV) For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Jesus Christ is only one “Mediator” between God and men because He is fully God and fully man, He is perfectly God and the perfectly Man. There is only one such Person in human history who qualifies. Jesus entered human history at the transitionary pivotal point where we mark our calendar – B.C. Before Christ and A.D. Anno Domini, the year of the Lord. 

Believers in the Old Testament look forward in time to the coming of Christ whilst the believers today in the New Testament era look backward in time to the finished work of Christ for our salvation.

The word “mediator” means a neutral and trusted person in the middle; one who works to remove disagreement mediator, go-between, reconciler (1Timothy 2.5); one who provides a guarantee of fulfillment of contracted obligation mediator (Hebrews 9:15) 

Hebrews 9:14-15 (KJV) How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to 

God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?  14 And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.

Man’s sins are fully paid for by means of the death of Christ who by the shedding of His blood restores the seared conscience of the sinner who by faith takes hold of Christ to find salvation. Jesus rose from the dead three days later triumphant over sin and death. The promise of eternal inheritance comes together with the promise of everlasting life.

Jesus says to His disciples that after He has ascended to heaven, He will return to bring them to receive their eternal inheritance in heaven. We await this glorious day – John 14:1-3 (KJV) Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. Amen.

Yours lovingly,

Pastor Lek Aik Wee