The Cross and the Saviour

Mark 15:16-41

Introduction

There is a danger of neglecting the preaching of the Cross, though it is at heart of our faith, because it is the heart of our Scriptures. The theme of the Cross must tower above all other themes. Preaching, prayers, hymns and witness must all reflect its supremacy.

Now come to the Cross and the Saviour. Look at the One who died there, and what exactly He accomplished. It is the Cross and not the manger, Calvary and not Bethlehem, which is at centre of all. Exactly who died there, and what did He do, and what has that to do with me in the 20^th Century? “A Christianity without a dying Christ is a dying Christianity” (Dr. Alexander MacLaren).

Why did Christ Come?

Before He was born, He was given the name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins (Matthew 1:21). The Angel told the shepherds There is born to you in the City of David a Saviour (Luke 2:11). The Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10). Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners (1 Timothy 1:15). Save us from what?

If we go to the doctor because something is wrong, he begins with a diagnosis of condition. Slight problem – slight remedy. Gravely ill – send us to hospital at once and soon have operation. What is our condition and problem? It must have been most serious if it required Christ to come from heaven down to earth and die the most devastating of deaths.

Over last 2000 years hundreds of books and thousands upon thousands sermons preached about the death of Christ. But not all said same things. Some say Christ’s death was wonderful example to us of how to live and endure hardships and love enemies. Others say it offers reassurance to us that God loves us, because Jesus kept loving and forgiving those who put him to death. Suffering love ought to move hearts. There may be something in this, but it does not get at the heart of the matter as the New Testament puts it.

What is real problem? What do we need to be saved from? He shall save his people from their sins (Matthew 1:21). Christ died for our sins (1 Corinthians 15:3). The problem is our sin and its disastrous effect on our relationship with God and prospects of eternal life. This is all so strange to the 20^th Century. Sin is not understood, or considered a relic of old-fashioned ideas. Many have either forgotten God, or brought Him down to their own level. Consider Him easy-going, very accommodating with no violent reactions. Our inadequate view of God and sin has led to no real understanding of the Cross and we cease to be amazed or even utterly grateful for what God did there in Christ.

Sin is not harmless peccadilloes. My rebellion against God, determination to sit on throne of my own heart and to have my own way, live for self and not for Him, defying God and breaking His law. It involves not just actions but words, thoughts, imagination and motives. Standing up to God and rejecting His claims. Broken relationship. Not belonging to Him and not on talking terms with Him. Living without Him, dying and spending eternity without Him.

Some say “its not important, He’s a God of love”. Yes, but He is also a God of holiness and righteousness and purity and justice. The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men (Romans 1:18). J.C.Ryle said that it is vague views of sin and of God which are the root of error and false doctrine and half-truths which are preached. John Wesley questioned the first Methodist preachers about the doctrine of sin, because if they were right there, they were right about every other Christian truth.

The Bible exalts and abases men like no other religious book. Made in image of God, to have fellowship with Him and eternal life. But now in apostasy from God, unable to save himself with prospect of eternal ruin facing us. Spiritually dead because cut off from God and in danger of eternal death – cut off from God forever. The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).

Not a thing we can do about this predicament. No remission for good conduct. Cannot buy or merit or work our way out of our predicament. Even if we can say of some one “He’s not too bad, he’s good at heart, he’d give anyone his last shilling” – nothing special about that – no more than ought to be. Never wipe away enormous debt piled up with years of living to please self regardless of God’s will and glory. Do not be deceived. God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows (Galatians 6:7).

Our sin faces God with greatest problem. He is moral ruler of universe, His law must be upheld. Cannot compromise or turn blind eye. He must deal with it. And yet, He loves us. Wants us. Plans to bless and forgive us.

Here we are ruined, in state of condemnation, helplessly bankrupt. Cannot build bridge from our side. The only answer is God’s intervention. God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son (John 3:16). The Father has sent his Son to be the Saviour of the world (1 John 4:14). Christ Jesus is our only hope and the only way in which God could solve His problem. Forgiving and blessing us, and at the same time causing His justice to take its course, and our sin receiving its just desserts.

Who was he?

The Gospel message is this: that God, the offended party, the one against whom we have shaken fist and defied, in matchless grace, steps in to save us. He deigns to do for us what we are powerless to do for ourselves. Through the second person of the Trinity – God the Son. This plan was drawn up before creation. Lamb was slain before the foundation of the world. By it, God’s law to be upheld. Sin would be punished. But the one who committed sin would escape punishment. Freed and saved. Because penalty borne by another. Debt paid by another. Substitute provided by God, to take the sin and the penalty. So cost would be borne by God Himself. Father planned, Son accomplished, and Holy Spirit applies work to hearts.

So the Father sent His Son. Christ Jesus – Christ by highest heaven adored – made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness (Philippians 2:7). The Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14).

Note how person of Saviour is especially suited to meet our need. Became man. Like us in every way – sin apart. Man had sinned. So man must pay penalty. Yet had to be sinless, else in same condemnation as rest. Yet Christ was also God. Atonement of infinite value. Not die for one man but propitiation for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2). No mere man could do that. So unique and wonderful person of Christ – who is our Saviour and Mediator. One person with divine and human natures. God and man in one person. He is the God Man. Not intermediate being, not great man with power of God resting on him, not a demi-God. But he is God – the second person of the Trinity. Yet also perfectly man.

The one who was born in Bethlehem, because came into world to save sinners, to seek and save the lost, to give his life a ransom for many – this was the eternal Son of God incarnate – who was also man. He gave self in perfect obedience to die for us. Not lose life by accident or taken violently by enemies. He lay it down of Himself. The Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me (Galatians 2:20).

The Father sent his Son to be the Saviour of the World. Not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins (1 John 4:14, 10). Here is our only hope. We cannot make a bridge to reach God, but He has made a bridge to reach to us. This is our only hope.

What did he accomplish?

There is much we do not understand about His death, but its meaning is essentially clear and unambiguous. The New Testament tells us what happened to Him as He hung on the Cross. Made sin for sin (2 Corinthians 5:21). He bore our sins (1 Peter 2:24). The Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:6). Became curse for us (Galatians 3:13). In eyes and sight and purposes of God, He took our sins, our curse, made our liabilities His own, made our doom His own. Our sins were heaped and piled onto Him. Transfer of sins. Our debts were put into His hand, and He paid them to the last farthing.

Martin Luther said “God sent his only son and laid on him all sins of all men. Be thou Peter that denier, Paul the persecutor, David the adulterer, the thief on the cross. Be thou the person who has committed the sins of all men. See you pay and satisfy for them.” Then as he took our sins – he took penalty and punishment. Wages of sin, which is death, He paid them by His death. “My God, My God”, cut off from His Father. Separated from His Father. Entered spiritual death. Forsaken that we should not be. Suffered that we should not. Died that we should not.

Because Christ died, all sins past, present and future can be forgiven. Never brought up against us again. God now has nothing against us. “Payment God cannot twice demand”.

“At one triumphant draught of love

He drank damnation dry”

No one can measure His suffering. Pure spotless Lamb to bear filth and pollution of our sin. How His soul must have loathed it. He had known fellowship with His Father from eternity, now separated and abandoned by Father as He bore our curse.

The heart of it all – this substitution. Listen very carefully and watch intently to see if sermons and books make the point of substitution. If not, they have missed the real point.

“His death is my plea, my advocate see,

And hear the blood speak that he answered for me

He purchased the grace which now I embrace

O Father thou knowest he hath died in my place”

The Lord’s substitutionary sacrifice is soul and centre of evangelical doctrine.

Then Father showed His approval by raising Him from the dead – living and contemporary Saviour whom I can know and contact. You may object – how immoral of God to punish a third party. But He was not a third party – God was in Christ. God sentenced us – and bore the punishment Himself. The punisher and the punished are one – the judge paying the criminal’s fine. Or you may object – unfair – how can suffering for three hours be equivalent to eternal suffering of countless sinners in hell? Answer – He is eternal Son of God. The value of His death in incalculable.

“He bore our sins” is at heart of Gospel. It is simplest truth of Gospel and profoundest truth of theology.

“Jesus paid it all,

All to him I owe”

There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1).

Man in London. Observed the Old Bailey with the figure of Justice on top, blindfolded, scales in one hand, sword in the other. He felt condemned and helpless. What shall I do, in face of God’s eternal justice? Then looked in other direction and saw gold cross on top of St Paul’s Cathedral. There was hope and certainty and salvation. This was God’s solution to the problem, the only ground on which the sinner can meet God and be at peace.

How this message reminds us of out total helplessness and bankruptcy. It contains the final humiliation – which other religions spare men – that if we are to be saved we owe it all to another. How human pride rebels when we are told we are lost and helpless, and owe everything to another. We like to pay our own way, to owe no one anything, for it is beneath our dignity. What fools to cling on to pride. The work is done. The debt is paid. We could never have cleared the debt, if we’d worked for the next 1000 years. There is no other way. Bow the knee. Put pride in pocket. Be indebted to another. “Lord, I am damned – but thou hast died”.

Conclusion

Resurrection of Christ is God’s seal. Alive, loving and contemporary Saviour. Know Him. Seek Him. Put selves and our case in His hands. Find Lord for ourselves. Trust the one who died for me. Then forgiveness and peace with God. Nothing to fear in time or eternity. Face future with calm assurance. Christ owed us nothing. We owe Him everything.

Not enough that these things are interesting and understood. This message demands a verdict. Big issue of life – substitution or perdition, heaven or hell. We must make Him our own. Personal Saviour. Personal trust.

To Christians – up to eyes in debt. Infinite obligation to Christ. Grasp that – what changes it makes in life.

Count Zingledorf – turning point in his life when saw portrait of Christ on the Cross. Underneath this learned and wealthy Count read these words: “I did this for thee and what wilt thou do for me?” He saw there could only be one response. For rest of his life he had one confession only “I have but one passion, it is he and he alone”.