Resurrection In Crucifixion

Today is being celebrated as Ascension Day in many denominations. As Christian believers, the Church and Bride of Christ, we believe that the Crucifixion of Jesus, the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead and the Ascension of Jesus back to heaven, are all really and actually true. 

We also come, conscious that we are facing facts which our human minds cannot contain on their own. With the confidence of faith, we come knowing that our prayers for true learning, for fruitful hearing ears and for a deeply submissive spirit, have been heard by the Holy Spirit, who is our undeniable Helper and Truth. These are the questions whose responses we must know in us, as they hold resurrection facts of Jesus, truths that we need to have fixed and fitted in us. 

The picture-image brought to us in the hymn, which is our focus, shows and speaks of, The guilty pair, bowed down with care. The questions asked, as the image of the guilty pair, the sinners hanging beside the Saviour, which were opened up to us, were these.

• Why are the sinners there, on Mt. Calvary, each on a cross? 

• Why is the Saviour there, on Mt. Calvary, on a cross?

• Is death exacting there, on Mt. Calvary, more than its share, its due? 

The hymn speaks of the guilty pair being bowed down with care. What is the care? The truth is that I was quick to answer and say that it was their sins, for I saw them bowed down with the burden of sin. But I was quickly corrected and shown that God is Just, Right and True and His Love is neither fickle, false nor fraudulent. God’s Love is Just. O, may faith allow us to receive the Spirit’s reasoning.

Our first unquestionable resurrection fact to behold is that Jesus is there on Mt. Calvary, because the Love of God has made Him sin for us. 2 Corinthians 5: 21 says this. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Here is the fact. Jesus knew no sin, for He is God’s unblemished Lamb. He is on that cross on Mt. Calvary, because He took upon Him, in His Body, the sins of the world. If the two malefactors represent the world, if they make up the population of the world in terms of believers and non-believers, then what do we have? Among the stunning resurrection facts is this one. Jesus is dying there, because He has taken the sins of the sinner on His right and the sins of the sinner on His left. Jesus is paying the price of sin for the sinner on the right and He is also paying the price of sin for the sinner on the left. The sinner on the right and the sinner on the left, both have had their sin paid for, so that they no longer are paying the wages of sin.

The Love of God, will never and can never degrade, dishonour, and deny the efficacy and sufficiency of the Precious, Powerful Blood of His Only Beloved Son, to satisfy the penalty of sin. Jesus is the propitiation for our sins. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 1 John 4: 10. God never said that I am saved from my sins by a combination of His Son’s Blood and mine. Pure anathema! Therefore, the blood of the malefactors was not shed, as the wages of their sin. Jesus’ Blood was shed for that sole reason, spilled before their looking eyes.

Jesus paid the price of our sins. He paid it in full, nothing owing or outstanding, ransoming us sinners, with His sufficient Blood. God never said that the Blood of His unblemished and well-pleasing Son, was shed to complement my blood, in paying the price of my sin. Twice anathema! It means that the thieves dying on the cross was not to pay the price of their sins. Jesus paid it all, before their very eyes.

Jesus took the punishment for our sins. Did He not take our deserved punishment upon Him? Isaiah records how much Jesus suffered for us. The prophet even foretold this about Jesus. It pleased the LORD to bruise Him. Isaiah 53: 10a. This suffering, the bruising, the torturing, the beguiling, the humiliation and more, which Jesus suffered, was all for sinners. He bore our punishment so that the punishment demanded by law was taken by Him. God never ever said or indicated in any form or fashion that sinners had to bear the wages of their sin, and Jesus be a sort of back-up to sinners. Thrice anathema! It means that the two malefactors who were crucified on Calvary, at the same time as Jesus, were not bearing the punishment of their own sin. Jesus was doing that, for Jesus had taken their punishment. To accept double punishment for sin would be most disingenuous and utterly of the devil. Worse still, and even more dishonouring, is for God to make the Blood of His Son not Supreme and Sufficient enough, to pay the required punishment.

Need we hear more? O how wonderful is the Holy Spirit and thoroughly capable and able to bring truth to the hearts and minds of carnal humans and cement it all in us.

O for faith to receive!