E81 - Hope’s Harbor Gritty Bible Devotions - What Happened at the Cross? 1 of 2
Hope’s Harbor
Gritty Bible Devotions
Episode #81
Title: What happened at the Cross when Jesus died? Part 1 of 2
Date: November 21, 2022
Contact: info@hopesharbor.net
Key verse(s): 1Corinthians 1:17 – ‘For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect.
1Corinthians 1:18 – ‘For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.’
Cross in these verses means figuratively exposure to death, that is, self-denial; by implication the atonement of Christ.
The context in vs 17 is the cross of Christ represents self-denial. And in vs 18 the ‘cross is foolishness’ represents the world’s mockery of denying ourselves of selfish, sinful pleasure. One example is rampant sex outside of marriage for one example.
Intro: It’s easy to identify with an idea about someone and not know the reality behind the idea. People do this with celebrities all the time. May GOD forbid we do this with His Son, Jesus, or the cross on which He died (I’m thinking about trinkets/necklaces, etc.)
Also, many get caught up in the struggle Paul described in Romans 7 and neglect the exhortation of Romans 6:4.
To help get a worshipful mindset about the Cross let me describe the crucifixion from a heavenly perspective: Almighty GOD, who is uncreated eternal self-existent sovereign LORD over all, sent His only Begotten Son from the dimension of Heaven to the dimension of our universe containing the Earth.
They called him Jesus, born to a woman. He lived as one of us and around 30 years of age began to preach the Gospel to the poor in spirit.
This got Him into trouble with the religious crowd of the day because He repeatedly told them their religion would not get them into Heaven. And their religion is all too common today; a belief in good works and religious rituals will earn GOD’s forgiveness of sin.
So they had Him killed by Roman government officials in Jerusalem, at the time. The Romans killed Jesus by spiking Him to a cross until He died.
As the song, In Christ Alone proclaims ‘and on the cross as Jesus died, the wrath of GOD was satisfied,’ Jesus died in our place and it was His death and His death alone that satisfied the wrath of GOD. Now we have but to ask GOD’s forgiveness based on Jesus having paid the penalty for sin (He said from the cross “It is finished!” John 19:30) and we receive that forgiveness by faith, by believing it. If we do this we are born again. The evidence of a new birth, not the cause, but the evidence is repentance worked out in the life of a Christian.
Coming to GOD to obtain forgiveness is more than gaining that forgiveness and then eternal life in Heaven, as wonderful as that is. The question to ask is ‘What about the life in between becoming a child of GOD and when we die?’
So what else happened at the cross when Jesus died?
Devotion focus: Jesus died for our sins to give us His life
Examine with me the results of Jesus's death. But first, I want to go back to the Hebrew name of the Son of GOD to understand the meaning of the cross and who it was that died on it: His name in Hebrew is:
yehôshûa‛ yehôshûa‛
yeh-ho-shoo'-ah, yeh-ho-shoo'-ah
From H3068 and H3467; Jehovah-saved; Jehoshua (that is, Joshua), the Jewish leader: - Jehoshua, Jehoshuah, Joshua.
H3068 yeh-ho-vaw'
From H1961; (the) self Existent or eternal; Jehovah, Jewish national name of God: - Jehovah, the Lord. Compare H3050, H3069.
yâsha‛
yaw-shah'
A primitive root; properly to be open, wide or free, that is, (by implication) to be safe; causatively to free or succor: - X at all, avenging, defend, deliver, rescue, be safe, bring (having) salvation, save (-iour), get victory.
In the key verse of 1Corinthians 1:17, the title of Christ means Messiah. Christ is not the last name of Jesus. His title is Jesus the Messiah.
So in Jesus’s day, He was called Jehoshua Messiah. The meaning of his Hebrew name means ‘GOD saves.’ This is important to understand – it is GOD who saves us. But saves us from what? The penalty for sin is death, eternal death separated from GOD for all time. This happens to all who die without trusting and claiming by faith the pardon available to all who will ask for it.
This pardon was made possible when Jesus atoned for our sins. This means He paid the penalty. The price He paid to make atonement for our sins was His life.
· [So He gave His life for us and if we trust that truth and ask GOD to apply the atonement to our personal sins, Jesus then gives us His life, His eternal life, at the instant we pray in faith. Now, this level of faith reveals its sincerity in our changed life afterward as we grow in knowledge and application of Jesus’s commands found in Scripture.]
Listen to Romans 6:4 – ‘Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so, we also should walk in newness of life.’
Summary: This episode examines some background to Jesus’s life and the Biblical writer’s accounts of a few principles involved in the atonement, that payment that Jesus made with His life… His life for ours.
Action to consider: Read the account of Jesus’s death in the Gospel of John, chapter 19, in its entirety every day for the next 5 days. Before reading ask GOD to open your heart to His truth concerning the death of His Son.
Next week’s devotion: Part 2 of 2