“For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again ; when he suffered , he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously: Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we , being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed”—1 Peter 2:21-24
The word translated “tree” in verse 24 above does not refer to a literal tree, i. e., an oak or a maple, but it refers to an object fashioned out of a tree. The “object” in view here is the cross upon which Jesus Christ died for the sins of mankind; the cross of which the Scottish theologian, Samuel Rutherford (1600 1661) wrote: “The cross of Christ, on which he was extended points in the length of it, to heaven and earth, reconciling them together; and in the breadth of it, to former and following ages, as being equally salvation to both.”
Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948), the leader of India’s independence movement while attended a meeting of Christian missionaries was asked to select a hymn. He said, “Sing the one that expresses all that is deepest in your faith. Sing, “When I survey the Wondrous Cross.” Gandhi understood what it appears that the majority of Christians have forgotten today, as so much of preaching, singing, worship and what drives the activity of most churches seems to be anything and everything but the cross, about which Charles Wesley wrote :
When I survey the wondrous cross On which the Prince of glory died, My richest gain I count but loss, And pour contempt on all my pride.
Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, Save in the death of Christ my God! All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to His blood.
See from His head, His hands, His feet, Sorrow and love flow mingled down! Did e’er such love and sorrow meet, Or thorns compose so rich a crown?
Were the whole realm of nature mine, That were a present far too small; Love so amazing, so divine, Demands my soul, my life, my all.
In this modern day when Christians and churches are so inundated by the world, a fresh look at, and renewed appreciation for, the cross is desperately needed. A great key to spiritual power is to think much about Jesus and His cross. The apostle Paul understood this. His approach to living boldly for Christ while turning the world upside down with the gospel message is revealed in his first letter to the Church at Corinth. He wrote: “For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2).
Jesus’ Anticipation of the Cross
Let us say, in the first place that Jesus lived in anticipation of the cross during the years that led up to His dying on it. His anticipation of it before He ever left heaven to come into this world was underscored by Peter on the Day of Pentecost as he preached: “Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain” (Acts 2:22, 23).
Jesus no doubt anticipated the cross every day during his life on earth before it was ever laid on His back to carry up Calvary’s hill. Would not the timber, the hammer and the nails that He handled daily in Joseph’s carpenter shop have been a constant reminder to Him of the cross that He was destined for the not too distant future?
When He left the carpenter’s shop and Nazareth to commence His ministry, would not the specter of the cross He was destined for have remained on Jesus’ mind? That it did was made obvious, when he said to Mary at the marriage festivities in Cana, “Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come” (John 2:4). This coming “hour,” the hour of His death, was in His thoughts throughout His ministry. In John 2:19 he said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days, I will raise it up.” John 2:21 tells us, “He spake of the temple of His body.” To Nicodemus He said, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up : That whosoever believeth in him should not perish , but have eternal life” (John 3:14, 15). Christ lived in anticipation of the cross on which He would lay down His life a ransom for many (Matt. 20:28).
Jesus’ Agony on the Cross
It is a good thing, for a number of reasons, that we give thought on a regular basis, not only to Jesus’ anticipation of the cross, but also to the actuality of the agony that He suffered there. Medically speaking, He endured every kind of wound that it is possible for a man to suffer. We will deal in more detail with this later, but suffice it to say now, that Jesus was physically hurt in every way that it is possible for a human being to be hurt.
Jesus was brutalized by Pilate’s soldiers until is physical features were unrecognizable. Looking on the scene through the telescope of prophecy, Isaiah said, “His visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men” (Isa. 52:14).
They scourged Him, and struck Him with their fists; they spat upon Him and smashed a crown of cruel thorns into His head. These were the preliminary agonies He suffered before He began to suffer those of the cross itself. And all of this agony was for our sakes: “or 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” (1Pet. 3:18).
Jesus’ Victory at the Cross
Everything that was against us, the corruption and the condemnation of sin and the gulf it had fixed between us and God, Jesus “took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross” (Col. 2:14b). Peter at Pentecost assured those by whose “wicked hands” Christ had been “crucified and slain” that Jesus had triumphed at the cross; that He is the Son of God, our Savior, “Whom God hath raised up , having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it” (Acts 2:23, 24).
In the cross of Christ I glory,
Towering o'er the wrecks of time
All the light of sacred story
Gathers round its head sublime.
--Sir John Bowring
The word translated “tree” in verse 24 above does not refer to a literal tree, i. e., an oak or a maple, but it refers to an object fashioned out of a tree. The “object” in view here is the cross upon which Jesus Christ died for the sins of mankind; the cross of which the Scottish theologian, Samuel Rutherford (1600 1661) wrote: “The cross of Christ, on which he was extended points in the length of it, to heaven and earth, reconciling them together; and in the breadth of it, to former and following ages, as being equally salvation to both.”
Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948), the leader of India’s independence movement while attended a meeting of Christian missionaries was asked to select a hymn. He said, “Sing the one that expresses all that is deepest in your faith. Sing, “When I survey the Wondrous Cross.” Gandhi understood what it appears that the majority of Christians have forgotten today, as so much of preaching, singing, worship and what drives the activity of most churches seems to be anything and everything but the cross, about which Charles Wesley wrote :
When I survey the wondrous cross On which the Prince of glory died, My richest gain I count but loss, And pour contempt on all my pride.
Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, Save in the death of Christ my God! All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to His blood.
See from His head, His hands, His feet, Sorrow and love flow mingled down! Did e’er such love and sorrow meet, Or thorns compose so rich a crown?
Were the whole realm of nature mine, That were a present far too small; Love so amazing, so divine, Demands my soul, my life, my all.
In this modern day when Christians and churches are so inundated by the world, a fresh look at, and renewed appreciation for, the cross is desperately needed. A great key to spiritual power is to think much about Jesus and His cross. The apostle Paul understood this. His approach to living boldly for Christ while turning the world upside down with the gospel message is revealed in his first letter to the Church at Corinth. He wrote: “For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2).
Jesus’ Anticipation of the Cross
Let us say, in the first place that Jesus lived in anticipation of the cross during the years that led up to His dying on it. His anticipation of it before He ever left heaven to come into this world was underscored by Peter on the Day of Pentecost as he preached: “Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain” (Acts 2:22, 23).
Jesus no doubt anticipated the cross every day during his life on earth before it was ever laid on His back to carry up Calvary’s hill. Would not the timber, the hammer and the nails that He handled daily in Joseph’s carpenter shop have been a constant reminder to Him of the cross that He was destined for the not too distant future?
When He left the carpenter’s shop and Nazareth to commence His ministry, would not the specter of the cross He was destined for have remained on Jesus’ mind? That it did was made obvious, when he said to Mary at the marriage festivities in Cana, “Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come” (John 2:4). This coming “hour,” the hour of His death, was in His thoughts throughout His ministry. In John 2:19 he said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days, I will raise it up.” John 2:21 tells us, “He spake of the temple of His body.” To Nicodemus He said, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up : That whosoever believeth in him should not perish , but have eternal life” (John 3:14, 15). Christ lived in anticipation of the cross on which He would lay down His life a ransom for many (Matt. 20:28).
Jesus’ Agony on the Cross
It is a good thing, for a number of reasons, that we give thought on a regular basis, not only to Jesus’ anticipation of the cross, but also to the actuality of the agony that He suffered there. Medically speaking, He endured every kind of wound that it is possible for a man to suffer. We will deal in more detail with this later, but suffice it to say now, that Jesus was physically hurt in every way that it is possible for a human being to be hurt.
Jesus was brutalized by Pilate’s soldiers until is physical features were unrecognizable. Looking on the scene through the telescope of prophecy, Isaiah said, “His visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men” (Isa. 52:14).
They scourged Him, and struck Him with their fists; they spat upon Him and smashed a crown of cruel thorns into His head. These were the preliminary agonies He suffered before He began to suffer those of the cross itself. And all of this agony was for our sakes: “or 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” (1Pet. 3:18).
Jesus’ Victory at the Cross
Everything that was against us, the corruption and the condemnation of sin and the gulf it had fixed between us and God, Jesus “took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross” (Col. 2:14b). Peter at Pentecost assured those by whose “wicked hands” Christ had been “crucified and slain” that Jesus had triumphed at the cross; that He is the Son of God, our Savior, “Whom God hath raised up , having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it” (Acts 2:23, 24).
In the cross of Christ I glory,
Towering o'er the wrecks of time
All the light of sacred story
Gathers round its head sublime.
--Sir John Bowring
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