“Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning Himself” (Luke 24:27*). 

Most people who will read a devotional such as this one will not be challenged by the idea that the Cross is the central theme of the gospel (and for those who may doubt, read on), but is it too much to say that the Cross is the central event of history? When we realize that, only pages into the record of mankind, sin and death enter the world and God promises that One will come to put things right, we see glimmers of this centrality.

The first thing God does after the fall is clothe Adam and Eve in the skins of animals. Thus, the first blood was shed because of sin. Later God reveals that He had given us lifeblood for this very purpose (Lev. 17:11), for “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Heb. 9:22). Following this we see God-fearing people, like Abel and the patriarchs, offering blood sacrifices, a practice that continues until one of the most vivid foreshadowings of the Cross plays out at Passover, when the blood of spotless lambs was applied to save the Israelites.

This emphasis on sacrifice in the Law of Moses (where many rituals and offerings were established for God’s people) pointed to the truth that our sin is so egregious in the eyes of God that it requires bloody, awful carnage. Yet none of it was sufficient for our full atonement. It was only a temporary covering.

Besides the rites and sacrifices, there are about sixteen Messianic psalms (including some which vividly point to Christ’s suffering) and hundreds of prophecies in both the major and minor prophets, most notably Isaiah 53. These are what Jesus referenced, both in the verse above (Luke 24:27) and when He chided the Pharisees in John 5:39. All of these references lead to the center point: the Cross. They act like neon arrows which only make sense once the Cross has been revealed. And, as we will see, we are tasked with continually pointing back to the Cross, just as the Old Testament writers foreshadowed it.

* Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from the NIV.

CONSIDER:
• How does our vast need for salvation, a need that is established so early in our time on earth, set up the Cross of Christ to be the focal point of history? What is man’s/your core need?
• With how many of Scripture’s “neon arrows” are you familiar? Which speak the loudest
to you about the Cross? Why are they important to you?
• How central is the Cross in your life? Cite examples.

PRAY:
Lord, renew me in my focus on Your Cross and what You accomplished there. Open my eyes anew. Help me to humble myself before it, recognizing it as my only hope, my greatest joy, and the banner under which I will live my life each day as live a crucified life. Help me to see how vital the Cross still is in my life today.

“What I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).

The Cross is the most recognizable symbol of Christianity. With Judaism we visualize the Star of David, Islam features the Crescent and Star, and when people see the Cross they think “Christian.” But to true believers in Christ, the Cross is more than a mere symbol. As John Stott puts it, “The Cross is not just a badge to identify us and the banner under which we march; it is also the compass that gives us our bearings in a disorientated world. In particular, the Cross revolutionizes our attitudes to God, to ourselves, to other people both inside and outside the Christian fellowship” (Stott 250). The Cross is intended to remain not just our symbol but our center and main message.

This is clear in the New Testament Scriptures. The apostle Paul constantly pointed to the Cross as his main theme, calling it of primary importance. Before he came to faith in Christ, Paul was a highly respected Pharisee, steeped in the knowledge of the Scriptures. He could have easily spent a lot of time speaking and writing about God’s wonders and His Word with in-depth teaching, but he “resolved to know nothing...except Christ and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2). In his book, Stott quotes theologian Samuel M. Zwemer, who tells us, “One comes to realize that literally all the wealth and glory of the gospel centers here. The Cross is the pivot as well as the center of New Testament thought. It is the exclusive mark of the Christian faith” (46).

The Cross is not only the exclusive mark; it is also an exclusion mark. There are some for whom it remains merely a symbol. The core of their doctrine is what Pastor Jay Childs refers to as the gospel of be nice. People who subscribe to this “gospel” see Jesus as a moral teacher but reject the total sinfulness of man (especially of themselves), which leaves us incapable of saving ourselves and in desperate need of the Savior on the Cross who bears our sins.

While nominal believers can find pleasure in the story of Jesus’ birth and encouragement in His resurrection, it is only by meeting Him at the Cross and throwing ourselves in full dependence on His sacrifice that we can be saved.

CONSIDER:
• When speaking of your faith, how do you make the Cross your central focus?
• In what ways have you left the Cross behind you and pressed on to focus more on other biblical truths?
• How can you hold all other teachings in the context of the Cross? For example, how can spiritual disciplines be experienced in the context of the Cross?

PRAY:
Lord, help me to direct my life toward the Cross, living, thinking, and worshipping in its shadow. May it reorient my understanding of You, my attitude toward my life, and my willingness to shoulder my own cross and die there. May I follow the Cross daily, not just as my banner, but as my compass, my hope, and my joy.

“It is written: ‘And He was numbered with the transgressors’; and I tell you that this must be fulfilled in Me. Yes, what is written about Me is reaching its fulfillment” (Luke 22:37).

My notes for this topic are largely made up of verse after verse in which Jesus declared His purposes for coming to earth. He knew He came to serve and not be served, fulfill the law, bring a sword, preach, bring fire on the earth, do the Father’s will, enact judgment “so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind,” give abundant life, bring light, and suffer and be rejected (Mt. 20:28; 5:17; 10:34; Mk. 1:38; Lk.12:49; Jn. 6:38-39; 9:39; 10:10; 12:46; Lk. 9:22). But above He came all “to seek and to save the lost” and “give His life as a ransom for many” (Lk. 19:10; Mt. 20:28). Clearly, He had a focus from His childhood on fulfilling the work the Father had given Him to do (Lk .2:49). He knew the Scriptures and what was written about Him, such as, “I will . . . make You a light for the Gentiles, that My salvation may reach to the ends of the earth” (Is. 49:6). Christ repeatedly expressed that all the Scriptures concerning Himself should be fulfilled (Mt. 5:17; 26:54; Lk. 4:21).

Jesus was committed to accomplishing the purpose for which the Father destined Him. Unlike the tragic heroes of Greek plays who fought haplessly against their prophesied destinies, Jesus said, “I have a baptism to undergo, and what constraint I am under until it is completed” (Lk. 12:50). Jesus embraced His God-ordained destiny, knowing that the “baptism” was the Cross and all the suffering which accompanied it.

Jesus often spoke of Himself as One who was sent. He was keenly aware not only of His destiny—the Cross—but also of His Source as He headed to and through that purpose. Because He knew He had a commission from His wise, good, faithful Father, He lived as His Son: in full, loving obedience to His Father, dependent on Him and under His authority. This union of mind, will, Spirit, and purpose were at the foundation of His steadfast drive toward the Cross.

CONSIDER:
• Jesus’ mind was never far from His destiny of the Cross, informing all He did. How does seeing the Cross as your own destiny—that is, dying to self and living for Him—aid in
keeping you steadfast?
• How does Jesus’ attitude toward the Cross help you as you face yours?
• How does Jesus and the Cross show you who the Father is? How does this help you find your Source in the Father’s love, and the power to face your own cross?

PRAY:
Lord, Your Word not only speaks of Jesus’ destiny, but of my own. Help me to take You at Your Word, as He did, and trust in the plans and purposes You have for me. May I pursue that purity and holiness for which You redeemed me for Yourself, and may I be eager to do the good works You have prepared
in advance for me to do.

“The life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for . . . one’s life” (Leviticus 17:11).

“This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10).

Today we come to the glory of the atonement as we behold it in the Cross.
Atonement is a concept developed in the Old Testament from the word kaphar and its derivatives, and was first used to describe covering, as when Noah covered the ark with pitch. It denotes covering over, cleansing, making amends (as in “covering” an offense), and reparation to restore fellowship. In the New Testament the use of the word varies according to translation, with some preferring the word propitiation (which we will look at tomorrow because it has its own subtleties of meaning).

One commentary explained the difference between atonement and propitiation by saying that atonement is man-centered, focusing on man’s need to make amends and be reconciled to God. Propitiation, on the other hand, is focused on God’s perspective and the need for His wrath to be appeased in order for Him to express the love
He already has for us. While atonement may meet man’s need, John Stott reminds
us that “reparation (a general word for making amends) and restitution (the more particular restoration of what has been stolen) are both necessary to signify the genuineness of repentance” (Stott 102).

Here we see the glory of the atonement on the Cross. We cannot make amends because we have no way to repay God, nor can we be the perfect atoning sacrifice because of our sin nature. But the Son became a man, lived that perfect life, and gave a blood sacrifice as a Man for men, so that we can have our sins atoned for. He made amends on our behalf so that the fellowship with God that He intended when He made us might be restored!

CONSIDER:
• How does your need for atonement help you see the futility of spiritual self-improvement schemes?
• When you’ve offended God by sinning, how does the truth of the atonement move you to restore fellowship, especially when the “accuser of our brethren” is playing on our guilt and shame (Rev. 12:10, KJV)?
• When you gaze at the glory of Jesus’ atoning sacrifice, what thoughts of wonder and worship arise in your heart?

PRAY:
Lord, help me to allow the truth of Your atonement at the Cross to give me joy and boldness, even as I humbly enter Your presence by virtue of Your own precious blood. May I more fully partake of the fellowship You restored, and rejoice.

“He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2, ESV).

Yesterday we laid out some of the nuances between atonement and propitiation. To review, propitiation is about appeasing, pacifying anger, and satisfying God’s justifiable wrath against our sin, which violates His holiness and justice. But when
we use the words appeasement and wrath, what images of God come to mind?

Sadly, a lot of people have an image of God that is solely made up of anger and judgment. They understand God as being against them and ready to strike them down at any moment, just waiting for a chance. They may think that Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross was Him standing between us and this wrathful Father, begging God to accept Himself as the bearer of our punishment in order to appease God’s fury. This is not at all an accurate picture of the glories of the Cross’ propitiation. It’s missing the true joy of those who’ve received it.

Let’s go back to what was probably the first Bible verse you ever heard or memorized: “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son” (Jn. 3:16). Stott puts it this way: “God does not love us because Christ died for us; Christ died for us because God loved us. . . . Let us be clear He did not change from wrath to love . . . since His character is unchanging. What the propitiation changed was His dealings with us” (Stott 172).

Indeed, “sin provokes God’s wrath—He gets angry because He loves—and wrath is propitiated through sacrifice” (Blackburn). An article by the Gospel Coalition assures us, “Jesus is not simply ‘the propitiator’ but the ‘propitiation.’ He is what satisfies the justice of God.” Doesn’t this make it clear how much God is for us?

In all of man’s false religions we see them striving to appease the anger of their gods, but the one true God knows it is impossible for us to do so. Therefore, through the Cross and because of His great love for us, He appeases (propitiates) His own justice so His love can flow freely to us—if we have faith in Him and His finished work on the Cross. What a blessed gift propitiation is!

CONSIDER:
• In what ways have you struggled with wrong images of God, especially the image of God as an angry Father?
• How might you have tried to appease God when you’ve sinned? By distancing yourself until you think He’s cooled down? Making vows? Giving extra money or sacrificing? How does God show He’s for you?
• How does Scripture reveal that the Godhead agrees on the issue of our propitiation?

PRAY:
Lord, help me better grasp the lengths You were willing to go in order to propitiate my sin—not by just covering it up, but by fully appeasing Your justice and wrath—all because of Your great love.

“If, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life! Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation” (Romans 5:10-11).

Neither atonement nor propitiation were intended to be isolated acts or mere judicial fact. They had a “so that” element to them; they were a means to God’s desired end. Unlike other creatures, God created us in His image so we would be able to fellowship with Him and know Him. However, our sin separated us from God, so this fellowship was severed. We were alienated from God, in the dire state of Ephesians 2:12—“without hope and without God in this world.” What a sense of desolation that verse brings home!

God has taken care of the root cause of this separation at the Cross. This is intended to restore the union between God and mankind—at least those who repent of their sin and believe in His finished work on the Cross. Paul is speaking about the purpose of the Cross when he says, “But now He has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in His sight, without blemish and free from accusation” (Col. 1:22). The Cross is meant to be the end point of our sinful way of life and the beginning of our increasingly sanctified life in Him (1 Pet. 2:24-25).

As we saw with atonement, we are not the ones who reconcile ourselves to God.
He takes on the role of being the Reconciler, making the way to bring us to Himself. In fact, He has not waited for us to make efforts in His direction, as imperfect as they might be, but reconciled us “while we were God’s enemies” (Rom. 5:10). Again, we were at enmity with God, rebels against Him until He made the way for us to be reconciled. Ralph Earle tells us, “The paradox which Paul is proclaiming is that although God looks upon men as enemies, yet He reconciles them to Himself . . . by one decisive act of the Cross of Christ.” How amazing is that?!

If this is not enough, Paul also tells us that through Christ’s Cross, God is reconciling all things to Himself, “whether things on earth of things in Heaven, by making peace through His blood” (Col. 1:20). We’re only beginning to see the glory of the reconciliation, but may we revel in what we can perceive now.

CONSIDER:
• Consider Eph. 2:12. How do you feel knowing you were without hope and without God before Christ’s restoration?
• When you’ve broken fellowship with God, how does the fact that He initiated reconciliation help you sense His desire to restore your fellowship?

PRAY:
Lord, I shudder at the thought of a life without hope and without You, let alone an eternity of that! Give me the firm conviction that You are so desirous of reconciliation that You would give me hope . . . and even Yourself!

“Christ also suffered once for our sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God” (1 Peter 3:18).

We are now going to examine the fruit of reconciliation Christ gained for us on the Cross: the glorious freedom of being brought near to God. God cannot dwell with sin (Ps. 5:4), but His work on the Cross has, in His sight, fully removed sin from us. We’ll explore this more later, but suffice it to say that atonement, propitiation, and reconciliation wrought by Christ on the Cross all play a part in this amazing privilege.

In fact, the writer of Hebrews encourages us to avail ourselves of the confidence we have in the blood of Jesus by “draw[ing] near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings” (Heb. 10:22). We can be confident because it is not our own efforts or desires that have brought us near, but the blood of Christ. Only His blood, shed on the Cross, was sufficient to fulfill God’s desire to have His people near Him. It is not that we first desire God and must convince a reluctant deity to turn to us. To the contrary, the desire for nearness began with Him, continues in Him, and is made possible by Him. It is He who woos us, kindling in
us a desire to respond and draw near to His presence.

Turning back to Ephesians 2, Paul reminds us that we were once “separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship . . . ,without hope God and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ” (verses 12-13). Wycliffe’s commentary says that the “now” in verse thirteen is emphatic, indicating a contrast between our former state and our current status in Christ. In context, this chapter reveals the tragic state we were in: dead in our sins, following the world and the devil’s ways, objects of God’s wrath. . . Let’s pause and let the truth of that press in. Have we come so far from that reality that we are no longer gripped with excitement when verse thirteen says, “But now”? But now! Those of us in Jesus have been brought near! Let’s allow the joy of this reality to flood our souls!

CONSIDER:
• How does the realization that God desires nearness more than you do help you combat the enemy’s lies that He wants little to do with you unless you’re perfect? How does it spur you to draw near?
• What is it that gets in the way of your nearness to God? Distractions? Not making it a priority? Ongoing sin? Insecurity? What will you do about it?

PRAY:
Lord, it awes me that You’d long to be with me so much that You would go through the horrors of the Cross to make a way to bring me near. Kindle a deeper desire in me to pursue intimacy with You, to enter boldly by Your blood into Your presence, and to live a life that draws me ever nearer.

“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace” (Ephesians 1:7).

The concept of redemption was one that was vivid in the understanding of the Jews. Their major religious observance, Passover, is rooted in reenacting the redemption of the firstborn by the blood of the lamb and the subsequent redemption of the nation of Israel from captivity in Egypt. Both theirs and the Gentile’s cultures were also quite familiar with redemption of slaves. 

Indeed, redemption and its companion term ransom are imbued with the picture of a price being paid at a slavery market. And in terms of the Cross, “propitiation focuses on the wrath of God which was placated by the cross; redemption on the plight of sinners from which they were ransomed by the cross” (Stott 173). We are moved from slavery to sin and death—to freedom!

Another distinctive to understand about our redemption is the price paid. While we will examine this more fully in the future, for our purposes here we should note that the New Testament writers do not primarily focus on redemption only in terms of Jesus “giving His life” or “giving Himself,” but specifically that He gave His blood. That language is on one hand repulsive, and it is meant to be, because our sin is repulsive to God. On the other hand, it is gripping because the blood is emblematic of the totality of His giving—unto death—because of our sin, to set us free from its penalty and to purchase us for Himself.

When it comes to redemption it is not merely that a price was paid for us. JV McGee tells us that redemption, being the “primary work of Christ,” is served by several words in the New Testament. One is basic purchasing in the market, another means to purchase for oneself without intent to resell or relinquish, and the third means to purchase in order to set free. Referring to Galatians 3:13, McGee states that the word for redeemed used here (“Christ redeemed us from the curse…”) is the word meaning purchased for Himself and would never be relinquished. What a thought in which to rejoice!

CONSIDER:
• What is your understanding of your need to be redeemed? How have you understoodhow helplessly you were enslaved to sin and death?
• What does it mean to you that the Lord purchased you for His very own?
• How do you understand the implications of God’s ownership of you now that He has purchased you? How does that affect how you live and obey?

PRAY:
Lord, grip me more with my plight before You chose to redeem me. Help me to grasp the vast difference this has made to the trajectory of my eternal life. Help me to revel in the fact that You have purchased me to be Your very own for all eternity, while simultaneously given me freedom in You. 

“Since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through Him!” (Romans 5:9).

When we search for verses on justification, it appears to be one of Paul’s favorite words. He seems determined that we should understand it and celebrate it, so it must be important that we do.

Justification is “an external legal declaration that the sinner has been put right with God, forgiven and reinstated” (Stott 186). Wayne Grudem stresses that God legally declares us as justified in His sight, meaning He no longer sees us as owing any penalty for our sin. We need to grasp that this is not a case of amnesty. God does not just write off our sins as if they have never happened. If He did, He could be accused of being unjust. In fact, in Proverbs 17:15 we learn that “the Lord detests” human judges who acquit the guilty.

Instead, God can declare us justified not because we are without guilt, but because the penalty has been dealt. He Himself paid it in His Son Jesus Christ. Therefore, “justification is an act of justice, of gracious justice” (Stott 187). The notable J. I. Packer said that God’s righteousness is defined by His “gracious work of bestowing upon guilty sinners a justified justification, acquitting them in the court of Heaven without prejudice to His justice as their Judge.”

When we use words like propitiation and justification, it can make our eyes glaze over, but these words aren’t just legal gobbledygook. They have critical, everyday implications: Because the blood of Jesus that was spilt on the Cross paid the price for our sins, we are legally pure before God. Our record of sin has been wiped clean, past, present, and future. “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1). God won’t condemn us, because His justice has been satisfied. Satan can’t condemn us, because Jesus testifies that He’s paid our penalty. And we shouldn’t live in self-condemnation, because we have these truths in God’s Word and should take them to heart. Instead, we should live in gratitude and freedom and celebration for the grace God has given us.

CONSIDER:
• How does understanding your justification lead you to a sense of freedom from the weight of condemnation?
• Romans 3:24 says that God justifies us freely by His grace. What does that tell you about God’s attitude about you? Did He justify you grudgingly?
• Romans 5:1 says we’re justified by faith. Express the faith you have in God’s work.

PRAY:
Lord, what a precious gift is Your justification! What a glory it is to Your grace, mercy, and justice. Help me dwell in the rich truth of it, and battle the lies of the enemy that would hold me bound to the condemnation You’ve already borne. 

“The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10).

“God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us” (1 Thessalonians 5:9-10).

Salvation is such a rich concept that it will be hard to pack into one day’s meditation. We see by Jesus’ own declaration that His mission was to seek and to save the lost. In fact, the angel told Mary that His name was to be Jesus because He had come to “save His people from their sins” (Mt. 1:21). It is equally important to know that He is our only source of salvation—there is “no other name under Heaven by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12; see also Jn. 14:6; 1 Tim. 2:5; 1 Jn. 5:11-12). He was so intent on saving us that He willingly shed His own blood on the Cross because it was the only way to pay the penalty of our sins. In the following paragraphs, we’ll break down the by, the for, and the from of our salvation.

We are saved by His death, by His grace, and by faith in His finished work (Rom. 5:1-2; Eph. 2:8-9). Salvation has nothing to do with any works of righteousness on our part. His salvation is full, free, current, and yet to come, for He has saved us (when we first believed), He is saving us (as His Spirit persistently sanctifies us), and He will save us (when He returns to take us to Himself).

By His blood on the Cross He has saved us from God’s wrath, which is God’s just punishment for our sin and rebellion. He has saved us from spiritual death—eternal separation from God, without hope and without Him—which was the consequence of our sin. And He has saved us from sin, not just by forgiving us but by freeing us from slavery to it.

The glory of this salvation continues when we realize that we are not only saved by Him and from such dire consequences, but we are also saved for Him. We are told that He “gave Himself for us to redeem us . . . and to purify for Himself a people that are His very own,” and that He loves us and plans to present us to Himself as His radiant bride (Titus 2:14; Eph. 5:27). Too often when we think about salvation we focus on the glories of what we’ve been saved from but forget the equally radiant glories of what—and Who—we are saved for, which give us hope and purpose. Let’s not err here anymore.

CONSIDER:
• What does it mean to you that Jesus was so intent on your salvation?
• When you look at the by, for, and from of salvation, which of these has been your focus up to now? Which needs more of your reflection?
• What does John 14:3—which says that Jesus will come again to take you, forever, to Himself—say to your heart?

PRAY:
Lord, refresh my gratitude at what You’ve saved me from—how vast that list is! Deepen my wonder for all You’ve saved me for, especially Yourself. Now show me what You’ve saved me to—those purposes for which You created me. 

“The LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. . . . For He bore the sin of many” (Isaiah 53:6, 12).

“He Himself bore our sins in His body on the Cross” (1 Peter 2:24).

How long has it been since we spent time really contemplating our deep need for a Savior? Even now, do we realize the depth of our sin and the desperate state we were in before we received God’s salvation through the Cross of Christ? Most often we think of our sin too lightly. It is quite possible that we do this because we think too lightly of God and His holiness. Until we come to terms with how depraved and desperate we truly are apart from Him, we will not appreciate the wonder and glory of the fact that Jesus bore our sins on the Cross.

There are some who view God as an abusive Father who took His anger out on His Son on the Cross. But actually the Cross is the superlative display of the Godhead’s love for us. He sees our need far better than we ever could, knowing we are helpless to rid ourselves of our sin. So, by His willing Son, God set forth to supply our need. “Jesus taking our sins upon Himself rends Him that much more glorious, and reveals most magnificently the kind of God He is. . . . The glory—the beauty and the strength—of His hands reveal His scars” (Blackburn). Oh, how much we need this gracious sin-bearer!

To be our sin-bearer He had to become a man. Men had sinned, so a man had to bear the penalty—but not just any man. This man had to meet the criteria of perfection, which only God could meet. Also, only as a mortal man could the eternal God suffer the penalty of death. Christ was the only One to meet all these requirements.

Jesus was also the fulfillment of the Day of Atonement ritual, in which the blood of a sacrificed goat was sprinkled on the Mercy Seat, and another goat bore the sins of the people into the wilderness. John the Baptist pointed to Jesus and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:21, ESV). He carried our sins and their punishment away from us. And if that wasn’t enough, He did so in order to bring us to Himself, and “so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness” (1 Pet. 2:24).

CONSIDER:
• Ponder the questions in the opening paragraph. What are your thoughts?
• How do your views on God affect your views on how serious your sin is?
• Ponder the fact that Jesus bore your sin and penalty. What does that communicate to you about God? What has it done for you?

PRAY:
Lord, help me to take my sin as seriously as You do. Grip me with the truth of what You’ve done to bear sin for and away from me, so I will love You more. 

“He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on Him, and by His wounds we are healed . . . and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:5-6).

“He suffered death, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone” (Hebrews 2:9).

Sin-bearing includes the idea of substitution. From the earliest animal sacrifices, the understanding has been that the creature forfeits its life in exchange for the guilt of the offeror. In fact, part of the ritual of Jewish sacrifice required the offeror to place his hands on the head of the sacrifice to acknowledge that the innocent creature is dying for his sin.

This is why, when we come to faith in Christ, we must acknowledge our sin and claim Him as our Savior and Substitute. This is unique to the gospel of Christ. Other religions, as well as distortions of Christianity, subscribe to forms of self-salvation, whether they exclude Jesus’ sufficient work on the Cross, or try to add one’s own works to His sacrifice.

God’s holiness and justice demand that sin be repaid with death. God made that clear from the beginning. But He also deeply loves people and wants to rectify His relationship with them in a way that keeps with both His love and justice. The only way this can be addressed is by sending His Son to pay for sin in our place. “In order to save us in such a way as to satisfy Himself, God through Christ substituted Himself for us. Divine love triumphed over divine wrath by divine self-sacrifice. . . . Moved by the perfection of His holy love, God in Christ substituted Himself for us sinners” (Stott 158, 165).

It is important to understand that when Jesus took on our sin, He did not become a sinner. He remained morally pure and took our liability for sin—what Stott calls the “penal consequence” (Stott 134). This is not the only remarkable thing about this substitution, because in exchange for our sin we received His righteousness, giving us a legally “righteous standing before God” (148).

CONSIDER:
• What does it mean to you that Jesus’ innocence, not deserving any punishment, was treated as your guilt?
• In what way did yesterday’s verse (1 Pet. 2:24) show that Jesus saw His substitution as personal? As vicarious? As physical? As shameful?
• How would you express the personal impact Jesus’ substitution has had on you: the idea of the Innocent One taking on your guilt and you receiving His righteousness?

PRAY:
Lord, give me more insight into the fact that You personally intervened to take my sin upon Your sinless Self. Help me to feel the wonder of that. Help me to live more fully in the knowledge that I now stand in Your righteousness. 

“The punishment that brought us peace was on Him” (Isaiah 53:5).

“Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:0)

“He Himself is our peace” (Ephesians 2:14).

The world has been at war with God since the day the first couple rebelled against Him. Whatever reasons we might give for the conflicts in our streets and homes today, they all boil down to our enmity with God. We have sin to blame for the war within our souls. But peace with God is not easily had; it comes at an enormous price—to God Himself!

We’ve already seen much of that price over the past several days. The good news is that the price has been paid in the Person of Jesus and His blood sacrifice on the Cross. “The punishment that brought us peace was on Him”—a high price indeed (Is. 53:5)! In paying the price to redeem and justify us, He has reconciled us to God and has given us peace with God through His blood. God is no longer our enemy because His wrath was satisfied by His own act of grace. He Himself is our peaceand our Guarantor of peace.

The wonderful peace we have with God is a lasting peace. Because Jesus declared that His work is finished and sufficient to cover all our sins, we no longer need fear that God is going to remember something about us that He’ll use against us. We can rest fully in the peace He gave us. The Cross purchased for us permanent peace with God.

While this peace with God is permanent, there is another kind of peace we must pursue: peace of God. With and of are little words, but they have meaning. Peace with God is His act, and since He is unchangeable, it is permanent and enables us to have the peace of God. But for us to maintain the peace of God, we must keep our eyes fixed on Him and on His truth, especially the truths surrounding the Cross. There are so many distractions in the world—the flesh and the devil that are designed to rob us of the peace of God—but knowing we have peace with Him can keep us grounded.

CONSIDER:
• How does peace with God give you the peace of God?
• How does realizing the price of your peace prevent you from taking it for granted?
• What things tend to rob you of the peace of God? What can you do to keep yourself rooted in this peace?

PRAY:
Lord, help me to see what pulls my heart away from Your peace so I can focus back on You. May I follow Your sacrificial example when I am called to do so, ready to lay down my rights and even my life for the sake of peace.

“If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36).

“To Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood . . . be glory and power for ever and ever” (Revelation 1:5-6).

Back when we were contemplating the glories of redemption and ransom, we considered the ways these words connect to slavery, specifically the practice of purchasing a slave in order to set the slave free. This is one of the ways we have freedom in Christ through the Cross, for He has set us free at a great personal price.

But what are we set free from? The answer is vast. One of the main ways is that we have freedom from sin (Rom. 6:6-7, 18, 22). Before the Cross and our surrender to it, we had no choice but to serve sin. We couldn’t not sin (to use a double negative). We suffered under its power and feared the certainty of its penalty. And because sin leads inexorably to death, we were also slaves to the fear of death.

Faith in the Cross also freed us from the power of the devil. As sin is tied to death, death is tied to the devil, because he wielded the power of death over us. The devil knows how to cunningly entice us to sin, and when we do, he gleefully pours on the guilt, accusations, and condemnations. Knowing that we deserve all of this and knowing the consequences of God’s wrath, we are slaves to fear until Christ’s Cross sets us free.

Besides the devil, we are slaves to our fallen nature, the evil in the world, and the law which condemns us and upholds the curse. It seems like everywhere we turn we are faced with walls which hold us hopelessly captive—until the Cross, where Christ has offered us freedom!

The equally good news is that we’ve been given more than freedom from all these things; we also have freedom to many others. The glory of Christ’s Cross is that He set us free to accept His gift of salvation, to serve and obey God, to walk in the new way of the Spirit, and to access God’s presence. May we grow in our desire and ability to pursue and fully obtain all these freedoms for His glory.

CONSIDER:
• Paul warns us to stand firm in our freedom so we won’t become re-yoked to slavery (Gal. 4:31–5:1). How can you see this happening, and how do you avoid it?
• He also warned against using freedom as license to sin (Gal. 5:13). How can you avoid that trap? In what ways do you see this happening?
• In what ways to you still behave as though you were enslaved to sin? What promises can you claim to help you?

PRAY:
Lord, help me to live in the freedom that You bought for me at the Cross, and to avoid lie that I am still in bondage to sin. Help me stand firm in freedom and resist becoming re-yoked. Show me if I’m ever confusing my freedom for a license to sin. 

“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole” (Galatians 3:13).

Today’s topic harkens back to a couple of things we’ve already touched upon. Yesterday we spoke briefly about the Cross giving us freedom from the law and its curse. And a few days ago, we considered Jesus as our Substitute. It is obvious from our verse for today that “by becoming a curse for us,” Jesus is plainly our Substitute.

We are speaking here of a complexity of curses. The first curse began in Eden when God placed His judgment on us as a consequence of our rebellion, cursing us with slavery to our sin and resulting in many miseries, and ultimately in death, “for the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). Later, when the Law of Moses was given, the curse of any who were “hung on a tree” was pronounced (Dt. 21:22-23). Jesus bore both curses for us as He suffered and died to set us free.

The Law itself was a curse as well, because it could not save anyone. It could only make us aware of how sinful we are, trapping us in a pit of guilt and shame. The rituals could only put a temporary covering over sin. They did not remove it. Only Christ’s final atonement and propitiation ultimately set us free.

There is another part of the curse of the law, one that Paul is fighting against in his letter to the Galatians. This curse comes upon us when we try to gain righteousness by following the law (Gal. 3:10)—in other words, if we act like Jesus’ sacrifice was not sufficient and we must save ourselves by keeping the law. We are supposed to do good works, but they are meant to be a response, flowing out of a blood-bought, Spirit-transforming life, not an attempt to earn God’s favor. Such futile striving carries a curse.

Jesus broke the curse of sin by bearing our penalty, defeating death and its fear, fulfilling the law, providing a new covenant in His blood, and defeating the devil’s power.

CONSIDER:
• Even though the Cross was a curse and shameful punishment, the early church gloried in it. How is the Cross’ curse still seen as shameful? How do you combat that perspective?
• How does the curse (in all its forms) still affect you? What parts of that are unavoidable and what parts can you do away with because of your freedom in Christ?
• In what ways might you have lapsed into the curse of law-keeping?

PRAY:
Lord, help me to glory in how You broke the manifold curse, bearing it for me and freeing me. Give me more boldness in waving the banner of the Cross, for its shame is my glory. Through it You bore my shame and curse.

“Through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery” (Hebrews 2:14-15, ES).

“The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work” (1 John 3:8).

When mankind succumbed to the serpent’s temptation and rebelled against God, we gave the devil the upper hand. He assumed dominance on the earth and holds power over us. The devil’s weapons are mainly fear and accusation. He tempts us to fear we’re missing out or will lose something if we don’t follow his suggestions. And after we do, he sweeps in with accusations about our sin, and follows that up hard with more fear—fear of the judgment we deserve for our sin and the sentence of eternal death that comes with it.

However, Jesus came to destroy the devil’s work—all the fear and accusations. He destroyed our fear of death by dying, taking our penalty for sin and leaving the devil unable to use our fear of death and wrath against us. We will still die physically, but the judgment that we fear will come after death has been removed by our Substitute. The Cross also removed the weapon of accusation. There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus! The devil can and does try to accuse us, but if we’re walking in God’s truth, he cannot succeed in making those accusations stick (see Zechariah 3).

We need to understand that the word destroy here does not mean “annihilate”; rather, it “disables, disarms, defangs, and breaks the grip” (Jay Childs) of the devil’s power. He still has some power—especially over non-believers—and can still harass us, but we don’t have to fear because his power stops on this side of the grave. Currently he is under God’s limits, but ultimately, we’ll be forever free of him. Jesus made a public spectacle of this defeated enemy and his minions, “triumphing over them by the Cross” (Col. 2:15). Their tenuous reign will end permanently when Christ returns to put all enemies under His feet.

CONISDER:
• How does the devil tempt you to fear? What are you afraid to miss or lose? Control? Pleasure? Reputation? Knowledge?
• What kinds of accusations does the devil throw at you the most? How does/can God’s truth help you combat this attack?
• Paul assumes we are aware of the devil’s schemes (2 Cor. 2:11), but how true is that of you? What traps does he try on you?
• If the fear of death still plagues you, how can you battle it with the truth of the Cross? How do you use God’s armor to protect yourself? (Eph. 6:11).

PRAY:
Lord, help me to live in the victory over the devil You gained at the Cross, and to use the weapon of prayer. Make me more aware of his schemes and help me to walk more intentionally in Your truth in areas where I am vulnerable.

“It is finished” (John 19:30)

“The death He died, He died to sin once for all” (Romans 6:10).

After the wrestling and fervent prayer in Gethsemane, the ridicule and torture of the trials, and the brutal ordeal on the Cross, Jesus knew He had completed everything He needed to do to be the sufficient sacrifice for our sin and to overthrow the devil’s reign on earth. It was now time for Him to relinquish His life, which would deal the ultimate death blow to all of the devil’s works. At that moment, and not until then, He cried out in triumph, “It is finished!” then breathed His last.

He did not say, “I am finished,” but declared His redemptive work fully accomplished. And what had He accomplished? What glories had been displayed at the Cross? We need only look over the past several days to see a good number of the gleaming facets of this mission accomplished, but first we must glance back further to remember the enormity of the need.

We had been in bondage to sin and death and alienated from the God who created us for a relationship with Him. But now, Jesus’ mission is complete. He has reversed the curse, cleansed us, freed us from the sin that gripped us from birth, and offered us freedom from not only the fear of death, but from death itself. His work fully atoned, justified, and satisfied God’s justice; appeased His wrath; reconciled us to Him and to one another; and brought us near to God by being our Substitute and bearing our sin eternally away. He fulfilled every prophecy and embodied the faithfulness, grace, and mercy of God. He defeated the devil’s schemes, defanging his power to accuse us and crush us under the fear of death, judgment, and wrath. Mission accomplished, indeed!

The New Testament writers trumpet the glory of the Cross’ sufficiency with passage after passage, repeating the phrase, “once for all” (Rom. 6:10; Heb. 7:27; 9:12, 26; 10:10; 1 Pet. 3:18;) and stressing the all-ness of His work (Rom. 8:28, 32; 1 Cor. 3:21-23; 2 Cor. 9:8; Eph. 3:19; 2 Pet. 1:3; 1 Jn. 1:7). We are the heirs to this vast treasure of all-ness! That should give us great joy, victory, and a reason to worship.

CONSIDER:
• Ponder all that Jesus endured to make sure He accomplished His mission. What does the sheer vastness of His suffering tell you about who He is and how He loves?
• What does it mean to you that Jesus’ work at the Cross is finished? What does that mean as you daily walk in faith?

PRAY:
Lord, it is only when I gaze upon all that Your sufficient, finished work has done that I grasp Your glory. Even this list does not contain it all! Help me to live in the truth of Your finished work and all that it means to me.

“Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus...let us draw near to God…”  (Hebrews 10:19-22, excerpts).

“In Him and through Him we may approach the throne with freedom and confidence”  (Ephesians 3:11-12).

Yesterday we saw how fully Jesus’ mission was accomplished, and noted how that should affect our lives. One of the major effects should be a great and growing confidence in the Cross’ sufficiency. This confidence should translate into actions on our part. Hebrews 10:19 and 22 mention the confidence we can have to draw near to God, which was one of the major reasons Jesus died.

Too often people assume that Jesus died so we don’t have to go to Hell. While that is one outcome of His work on the Cross, it is not the main one. Such a mentality is what has left many professing Christians with tepid, if not dead, spiritual lives. They think that since they are eternally secure, they can go on living as they please. If so, they may have entirely missed the point of Jesus’ work and are in danger of condemnation.

Titus 2:14 tells us Christ’s precise purpose for dying: He “gave Himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for Himself a people that are His very own, eager to do what is good.” Jesus came to restore our ability to draw near to God, to redeem and purify us. This is meant to give us confidence to draw near, and a desire to live a holy life so that we can draw even nearer as time goes on.

Christ’s sufficient work gives us the confidence to say no to the enemy, knowing he is defeated, and to defy his barbs, knowing they are meaningless since we are fully justified and more than conquerors (Rom. 8:31-39). His work gives us confidence to love vulnerably like He did, risking the wounds that open hearts sometimes suffer. It gives us confidence to witness boldly, knowing that this fleeting world’s opinions don’t matter—only His do—and knowing that people can kill our body, but not our soul.

CONSIDER:
• In what part of your life do you lack confidence? What lie might you be believing in this area, or what truth have you yet to lay hold of?
• How much have you availed yourself of the privilege you have to draw near to God, a privilege Jesus won for you on the Cross? Is there lack of confidence there?
• In what ways is God leading you to build your confidence in Him? Seek Him.

PRAY:
Lord, the enemy likes to throw confidence-robbing lies in my direction. Bathe me in Your truth. Help me dwell more on all You’ve given me by Your Cross. Help me to be more than a conqueror in You Who loves me.

“O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!” (Romans 11:33).

“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding”  (Ephesians 1:7-8).

God’s way of salvation was so not the way we would have chosen—but that is part of the glory of the Cross. It displays the splendor of God’s wisdom that far outstrips our own, in part because the wisdom of God is a “a mystery that has been hidden” (1 Cor. 2:7). The world, flesh, and devil conspire to keep us from understanding it until God chooses to open our eyes to His wonderful plan.

So much of God’s wisdom is counterintuitive, the opposite of what we would naturally do. Often, we’re blinded because we try too hard to see. For instance, we tend to want all the facts before we act. But God’s wisdom sometimes calls us to step out in faith and obedience, even if the outcome is not a sure thing, and even if we aren’t sure how God’s plan will work out. Think of Naaman’s instructions to wash in the unremarkable Jordan River to be healed (2 Ki. 5). He would have been happy to do some brave, bold task, but he didn’t want to simply humble himself. Or think of God sending His Son to a stable instead of a palace. It’s just not how our wisdom would do things.

God’s wisdom is displayed in the incarnation of His divine Son, for only a man would be able to both rectify the sin of man and die in order to do so. God’s wisdom looked like submission and dependence. The very reason man fell was that we wouldn’t submit to God’s decrees or depend on Him to supply all our needs. Jesus is the antithesis of this behavior. God’s wisdom overcame power with weakness, overpowered death with death, and stooped down to be ultimately exalted. His wisdom substituted the holy Son for sinners.

For those of us who believe, God’s wisdom in His salvation plan is truly glorious and extremely humbling, yet too often we struggle to seek out and obey His wisdom. It is good for us to review God’s amazing wisdom so we can grow in our faith in Him.

CONSIDER:
• What aspects of God’s wisdom shine most gloriously to you?
• Where do you still struggle to have faith in God’s wisdom?
• How often do you seek more access to His wisdom (James 1:5-6)? Why?

PRAY:
Lord, the fact that Your wisdom is so different than ours intensifies the beauty of it. Only You could devise such a wonderful and sufficient salvation, including its great cost to You. Grow my trust in Your wise ways. 

“He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins”(Colossians 1:13-14).

The Greek word commonly translated as “forgiveness” means “to send away” or “to cancel or repay a debt.” But it is not as simple as waving one’s hand in a dismissive way and saying, “Oh, never mind.” That is not real forgiveness, and it certainly isn’t biblical forgiveness. Biblically speaking, forgiving someone involves the idea of bearing their offense yourself. That is certainly what Jesus did for us, and at great cost.

If we see forgiveness as an easy task, then we have never been terribly offended ourselves, or we have failed to see how horribly offensive our sin is to God, or we have a too-small view of the holiness of God. In God’s economy forgiveness only comes by way of judgment. For our sins to be forgiven, the price for them has to be paid.

When we look at Bible verses about forgiveness, we see the link between redemption and forgiveness. Redemption typically appears first, as it does in today’s verse (and in Eph. 1:7-8). Redemption is implied, if not stated, whenever the Bible refers to the forgiveness of a believer. Jesus bore our offense before we could be forgiven. This is why W. M. Clow could say, “There is no forgiveness in this world, or in that which is to come, except through the Cross of Christ.”

“God tolerates no soft pedaling, no hiding, and no passing the blame. Sin is not left floating, but is dealt with decisively, as decisively as death. . . . In other words, forgiveness restores justice. And justice must be maintained or God is not good” (Blackburn). This is why the forgiveness of the Cross is so glorious.

We show whether we have understood and received God’s forgiveness by how we forgive. Forgiveness is an act of blame, acknowledging and not ignoring the offense, but being willing to bear the cost of it ourselves, just as Jesus did for us. When we forgive someone, we hope that they will receive our forgiveness so we can be reconciled, but we understand that this is not a certainty, just as not all people receive Christ’s forgiveness. But because we rejoice in the costly forgiveness we have received, we are willing to extend it freely to others.

CONSIDER:
• How much of what you call “forgiveness” is genuine and Christlike?
• How much have you considered the cost of forgiveness as you have received and given it? • How will you change your practice of forgiveness going forward?

PRAY:
Lord, I have taken forgiveness too lightly—both Yours and my own. Help me to grow in awe of this great, costly gift and become more willing to extend it.

“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:23-24).

Not only does the Cross display the lengths God would go to bring us forgiveness; it radiates the glories of His grace. God has always had an attribute of grace, but until man sinned He hadn’t had the occasion to display it. So, grace lay as a hidden treasure in the depths of God’s wonders.

Judaism taught that God is gracious, but that He waits for sinners to make the first move. However, the Cross revealed that God was not only willing to extend His grace, but must do so before we can be saved. We could never merit grace on our own; either our souls must be forfeited, or, by His saving grace, Jesus must give His life for us.

The simplest definition of grace is exactly this: unmerited favor. But when we look at verses about grace, we see phrases like grow in grace. How does one grow in unmerited favor? Isn’t it something you either have or you don’t? And Scripture also urges us to administer grace and be strong in grace. It seems that God’s grace is more complex and wonderful than any simple definition, so wonderful that Paul struggled to come up with enough superlatives. He talked about God’s “abundant provision of grace,” “His glorious grace, which He has freely given us,” “the riches of God’s grace,” and “the incomparable riches of His grace” (Rom. 5:17; Eph. 1:6, 7; 2:7).

Paul got the memo on the glories of God’s saving grace, as it was demonstrated on the Cross. He understood how lost and undeserving he was of the gifts of redemption, justification, forgiveness, eternal life, inheritance, and a host of other graces we receive in Christ’s Cross—gifts which we so do not deserve. Paul was bubbling over with joy and gratitude at the wonder of it all.

I love this quote from John Blanchard: “So [God] supplies perfectly measured grace to meet the needs of the godly. For daily need there is daily grace; for sudden need, sudden grace; for overwhelming need, overwhelming grace. God’s grace is given wonderfully, but not wastefully; freely but not foolishly; bountifully but not blindly” (268). Oh, the glories of this blood-bought grace!

CONSIDER:
• How well do you grasp the grace that you’ve received in the Cross? Where do you lack in your understanding? What gifts of grace do you find the most gripping?
• What does it mean to grow in grace? Growing in your ability to receive it? To give it? Or does it mean something else?
• How does your experience of grace bring you joy? Help you show grace to others?

PRAY:
Lord, help me to truly grow in grace—in my understanding and experience of what You have given me. Grow my wonder at all You’ve given me that I don’t deserve. Help me to administer Your grace to others as You have administered it to me. 

“Without holiness no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14).

“You are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30).

Like many Christian terms, holiness can be difficult to describe in simple terms. It can be understood as otherness, a quality that makes something unique or set apart from common things. It also contains the concept of absolute purity and sinlessness. Scripture tells us that God’s holiness can’t abide sin. This is why we are in the plight we’re in; we have been steeped in sin since conception (Ps. 51:5).

Since God is holy to His core, He must judge sin. “Because ‘the holiness of God . . . is meaningless without judgment,’ the one thing God could not do in the fact of human rebellion was nothing. ‘He must either inflict punishment or assume it. And He chose the latter course, as honoring the law while saving the guilty. He took His own judgment’” (P. T. Forsyth, quoted in Stott 152–153). This is the glory of the Cross.

Our God is a holy light, a consuming fire. His holiness will expose and purge our sin, which will either result in us being cleansed and refined or destroyed along with our sin. Without the Cross, our only option would have been the latter fate, but since Jesus took the wrath of God’s holiness, we can have the former. At the Cross we see the glory of how God values His holiness. Tim Challies writes, “We see that God will not violate His own holiness even in order to save the ones He loves. . . . The Cross shows us the depth of our sin and the height of God’s holiness, the purity of God’s wrath and the greatness of God’s mercy.”

At the Cross we see that God’s love for us is a holy love. Stott tells us that God’s holy love “yearns over sinners while at the same time refusing to condone their sin. . . . At the Cross in holy love God through Christ paid the full penalty for our disobedience Himself. . . . On the Cross divine mercy and justice were equally expressed and eternally reconciled. God’s holy love was ‘satisfied’” (90–91). God’s holiness is rich and deep, and the Cross displays its splendor perfectly.

CONSIDER:
• How do you think of yourself in relation to God’s holiness? Does it draw you in or keep you at a distance? How does the Cross affect your personal holiness?
• How does the concept of God’s love as a holy love affect your understanding of what love is meant to be? How did He display His holy love?
• What facets of God’s holiness shine particularly bright to you?

PRAY:
Lord, grow my understanding of Your holiness and its glories as displayed on the Cross. Help me to love Your holiness more and insist on it in every aspect of my life. Help me to define all love in terms of Your holy love. May Your love move me to worship and inspire me to live it out in my life.

“God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Righteousness is another term that some struggle to grasp. Simply put, God does only what is virtuous, true, and correct. Therefore, what He did at the Cross could not be anything but right and righteous. The Cross focuses a sharp spotlight on the righteousness of God’s commitment to punish sin, which upholds His holiness. As we have seen, it is on the Cross that He displayed the glory of His righteousness, holiness, and justice, along with a host of other attributes.

For God to maintain His righteousness He has to punish sin. In fact, if He were simply to wave it off, it would show that He was unrighteous—and that could never be! God can never violate who He is; He must be consistent with all of His attributes in order to be God. Therefore, all sin must receive its full punishment: the total impact of God’s wrath.

Today’s verse (2 Cor. 5:21) shows God’s plan to lay all the consequences of our sin upon Jesus. God placed our sin on His Son, then poured all His righteous wrath for that sin upon Him, fully punishing it. And, wonder of wonders, He took Jesus’ own righteousness and placed it on us! So, when God looks at us, He sees Christ’s own righteousness. As Isaiah foretold, “He has clothed me in the garments of salvation and arrayed me with a robe of His righteousness” (61:10). We can also see this poignantly pictured in Zechariah 3, where Joshua’s filthy garments are taken away and clean garments given.

We are the recipients of a “righteousness that comes from God” through faith in Christ’s Cross and the great exchange that took place there (Phil. 3:9). Our own “righteousness” was like Joshua’s worthless, filthy rags. Only Christ’s blood-bought gift, obtained through faith in Him, will do. Grudem notes that when Adam sinned, his guilt was imputed to us; when Jesus paid our penalty, our sin was imputed to Him; and if we have faith in this, His righteousness belongs to us. What a glorious exchange!

CONSIDER:
• Why was Jesus’ own righteousness so vital to this exchange?
• How does self-righteousness get in the way of God’s gift? In what ways might you have struggled with trying to earn your own salvation?
• How does a full knowledge of your vast need, deep sinfulness, and extreme helplessness enable you to grasp the wonder of this great exchange?

PRAY:
Lord, help me to both see my sin and love Your righteousness. May I more richly appreciate being wrapped in the beauty, safety, comfort, and joy of Your righteousness. 

“Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to His own advantage; rather, He made Himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a Cross!” (Philippians 2:6-8).

Many people complain that God is a glory monger because He is always expecting to be praised. But they have totally missed the point. God is incredibly humble, and there is no better testament to this than the Cross. Remember, Jesus came to show us who God is. He said, “Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father” (Jn. 14:9). So, when Jesus displays humility, we can know that He is showing us the Father.

Jesus is God, a Person of the Triune Godhead. God is inseparably One, so what is true of One person is true of all. Philippians 2:6-8 points out that Jesus does not just put on God’s nature, He is God’s nature. Yet He humbled Himself, for a time, to veil some of His glory. And, while He still was fully God, He did not cling to all of the rights, prerogatives, and powers that come with His position.

He further humbled Himself to go from Sovereign to Servant, displaying the Godhead’s humility in His willingness to reach out to us. Ours is a God “who stoops down to look down on the heavens and earth. He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap” (Ps. 113:6-7). He even speaks of serving us at His banquet (Lk. 12:37).

If all of this was not sufficient to show His humility, He was incarnated as a man: “The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us” (Jn. 1:14). The limitless God confined Himself to the body of a man. He walked among us, smelled our smells, tasted our dust, saw our misery, felt our pain, endured our evil. He showed us that God was not indifferent to our plight but was willing to come down and bring us out of it.

He needed to become a man, because as God He could not die. So, He humbled Himself; the eternal God became willing to die. He did not just cease to live. He endured a brutal, humiliating death for our sake. And, even more stunning, He did so by taking on our sin. What glorious humility!

CONSIDER:
• What does God’s humility, especially in dying your death and taking your sin, say about the heart of God? How does it link humility with love?
• Jesus could humble Himself because He knew who He was (Jn. 13). How does knowing who we are in Christ help us follow Him humbly?

PRAY:
Lord, as I look to the glory of Your humility, may I treat my pride with contempt and not cling to my rights and privileges, but love in sacrificial ways, as You did.

“God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of His blood. . . . He did it to demonstrate His righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:25-26).

This section is titled character because each of these topics points to a glory on the Cross that upholds the characteristics or attributes of God. Many of them intertwine, or, as noted earlier, they are a neighboring facets that reflect and glorify God with their own nuanced radiance.

God’s justice is closely aligned with His righteousness and holiness, and even with His faithfulness and truth, which we won’t have the space to cover in this series. It is essential that God be just. When we read the law, it is obvious that God highly values justice. He decries judges who are not just, businesspeople who use rigged scales, landowners who move boundary stones, and so on. The fact that there is a Law of Moses indicates God’s insistence on rules and restrictions, and the fact that violations of these laws result in consequences—which are laid out as plainly as the laws themselves—show that He demands justice. God demonstrated this from the beginning when there was only one law: do not eat of the fruit or you will die. He didn’t have a three-strikes leniency. He didn’t count to ten. He pronounced His just consequence for sin: death.

God can offer us forgiveness not because He wrote off our sin, but because the payment was made in full. The price was paid by God Himself with agony of soul, the sweating of blood, beatings, beard plucking, humiliation, condemnation, and long cruel hours of excruciating pain. Only this way could the Cross do its work so that God’s justice could be upheld. That is how much God values the maintenance of His justice.

God had to be proven just to be our Justifier. If there was a hint of some injustice on God’s part, the devil would have used it against us—and against God. But God proved Himself fully just by bearing His own sentence, which glorified not only His justice but also His love, mercy, and grace.

CONSIDER:
• How have you seen justice perverted and denied around you? What has that done to society? What does it say about God’s ways and wisdom?
• Imagine that you would have to face God’s justice. What does that feel like? Relate that to Jesus’ suffering in your place.
• How did the justice of the Cross both punish evil and overcome it?

PRAY:
Lord, I am thankful, both for Your judgment, and that I don’t have to face it. Help me to live in the light of what that justice cost You—gratefully, humbly, justly. 

“By this we know love, that He laid down His life for us” (1 John 3:16, ESV).

Let’s take a deeper look at the glories of God’s love. First, love is a word that is misunderstood and misused by many. The world’s view of love is only a shadow; it is often self-centered and sometimes a complete perversion of God’s true love. Even in the church, God’s love can be skewed by wrong thinking. The Word shows us God’s love is selfless and sacrificial, faithful and holy.

God’s love begins within the Trinity, as each Person of the Godhead intimately loves and delights in the others. This eternal love also extends outside of the Godhead to us. It was this out-going element of divine love that enables us to enjoy intimacy and loving union with our Creator (see Michael Reeves’s Delighting in the Trinity for more on this).

The Father often expressed His love for and delight in His incarnate Son, announcing that He was “well-pleased” with Him. The willingness God had to sacrifice Jesus, His Most Beloved, is a statement of the depth of His love for us. Whether we are speaking of the Father or the Son, it is obvious that His is a selfless, sacrificial love. The Father was willing to give His Son, and the Son was willing to offer Himself—all that we might be saved from God’s righteous wrath and saved for union with Him, both now and as His eternal bride.

God’s love is a holy love—distinct from any love the world has to offer. His love is in no way indulgent or weak, like a parent who can’t say no, fearing the loss of a child’s love. God does not flinch from sacrificing Himself for the sake of His love for us. Nor is God’s love contractual, as if He says to us, “You believe in me, so I’ll keep my word by loving you.” It is a deep, personal love, as demonstrated by the way He gives of Himself so sacrificially and reaches out to draw us in. Knowing that His holy love walks hand in hand with justice keeps us from thinking of God as harsh and cold. Yes, He demands justice, but He satisfies His own justice by giving His own Self. He is “unwilling to act in love at the expense of His holiness or in holiness at the expense of His love” (Stott 151). That is glorious, indeed!

CONSIDER:
• How do you tend to view God’s love for you? As indulgent? Distant? Intimate?
• How confident and secure are you in God’s love? What fears do you have?
• What do you think of Jesus’ claim that He loves you “even as the Father has loved [Him]”? Is that your current experience of God’s love? Why or why not?
• Compare your love to God’s holy, self-giving, sacrificial love.

PRAY:
Lord, Your love is beyond my ability to grasp, so help me to know Your love through revelation and experience that is beyond my capacity of reason. Help me to be humble and vulnerable enough to love sacrificially, as You do.

“No one takes [My life] from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord” (John 10:18).

“This Man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge”(Acts 2:23).

When Moses asked to see God’s glory, God passed before him and declared, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin” (Ex. 34:6-7). This is what God wanted us to know about Him—His heart. This is the God who is willing to save and have communion with His people (Is. 55:6-7; Ezek. 18:23, 32; 33:11; 1 Tim. 2:4; 2 Pet. 3:9).

He was willing to save us before the foundation of the world, by His love and pleasure (Eph. 1:5-11), knowing we would fall, and having a plan to remedy our plight. And by He, I mean the Trinity—Father, Son, and Spirit. He is One God, and there is no doublemindedness in Him. When the Father sent the Son (Jn. 4:34; 5:30; 17:3, 20-23; 1 Jn. 4:14), the Son was not reluctant to go. He shared the Father’s love for those He came to save. Stott cautions us to “never make Christ the object of God’s punishment or God the object of Christ’s persuasion. . . . The Father did not lay on the Son an ordeal He was reluctant to bear, nor did the Son extract from the Father a salvation He was reluctant to bestow” (Stott 151).

Jesus often spoke of His submission and obedience to the Father. And He also affirmed that He was not some hapless victim, but one who gave His life willingly. His life was not being taken from Him; He was giving it, laying it down (Jn. 10:11-18; Gal. 1:3-4; Eph. 5:2, 25; Heb. 9:14). Jesus needed to have the same choice that Adam had when he chose to step outside of God’s expressed will. To undo this act of rebellion, there must be an act of supreme submission—a life of obedience all the way to death (Rom. 5:19). His Thy will is also a counterpoint to the devil’s I will (Is. 14:12-14). Jesus’ willingness to obey shines as the example for every creature God has made: to lovingly submit to His good will.

The willingness of the Godhead displayed at the Cross should give us a thrill of joy and love. That Jesus loves the Father and us so much that He’d give up His life for us, and that the Father loves us so much that He’d devise and endorse the plan to sacrifice His Son for us, is a great testimony to God’s compassion, goodness, mercy, and love.

CONSIDER:
• How do you view God’s attitude toward your salvation? How willing have you considered Him to be? What does His willingness to sacrifice Himself mean to you?
• What does the contrast between the willing obedience of Jesus and the rebellion of Adam and Satan say to you about your own willingness to fully obey?

PRAY:
Lord, Your Word shows me how eager You are to save me and draw me to Yourself. Help me to be just as eager to avail myself of the intimacy You hold out to me as Your child—to be willing and obedient as Jesus was, despite the cost. 

“But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ” (Ephesians 2:4-5).

“He saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy” (Titus 3: 5).

A week ago, we looked at the glory of God’s grace displayed on the Cross, and today we’ll ponder His mercy. Although closely related, grace means being given what we don’t deserve, while mercy means being spared from what we do deserve. God gave us mercy when, because of Christ’s sacrifice, He spared us of His wrath. Through His substitutionary death we received a full pardon and restored righteousness before God—Christ’s own righteousness imparted to us—as God’s gracious, undeserved gift.

As we saw yesterday, when God declared to Moses who He is, He began by proclaiming that He is compassionate and gracious (Ex. 34:6). Many translations say “merciful” instead of compassionate. While God is both merciful and compassionate, there is an important distinction between them. Compassion is a strong emotion of pity in response to the plight of another. The Gospels often state that Jesus was “full of compassion” for those around Him (Mk. 1:41; Lk. 15:20). Mercy is a compassionate feeling that moves someone to take action. God didn’t just sit in Heaven and shed a tear of pity for His poor, doomed humanity. He exercised true mercy and came down to personally save us.

Notice that Ephesians 2:4-5 tells us that God acted out of a “great love” for us. God states plainly that the reason He mercifully gave us His Son is because He “so loved” us (Jn. 3:16). And note too from the verse in Ephesians that God is “rich in mercy.” Our God is an unlimited God; His supply of mercy is abundant for those to whom He directs it. His mercies are not limited to the Cross, although they may shine brightest there, but rather they are new every morning because of His great faithfulness (Lam. 3:22-23). We are urged to come to Him for mercy (Heb. 4:16).

We need more than God’s one-time mercy to be saved; we need His mercies every day. We still need to come before our God like the penitent tax collector and cry, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner” because, like Paul, we continue to fight a war with our sinful natures (Lk. 18:13; Rom. 7:21-25). Thankfully, our faithful God still has compassion on us and grants us His cleansing mercy!

CONSIDER:
• What does it mean to you that God has had mercy on you? How do you acknowledge that mercy in your life? Do you habitually acknowledge it?
• How does knowledge of His mercy affect how you give mercy?

PRAY:
Lord, have mercy on me today, just as You did at the Cross and have so faithfully done morning after morning. Help me to live in the light of Your mercy, not taking it for granted, but gratefully worshipping, and living it out toward others.

“The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. Instead He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. . . . Our Lord’s patience means salvation” (2 Peter 3:9, 15).

As kind as God’s patience is toward us, it has been misinterpreted in a couple of ways. As in 2 Peter 3:9 and 15, those who believe in God can feel as if He’s dragging His feet. We identify with the laments in the Bible that cry out, “How long, Lord?” Habbakkuk openly wondered why God wasn’t bringing judgment on His people for their wickedness, and the martyrs in Revelation wondered when God would avenge their blood. Haven’t many of us questioned with the psalmist why God lets evildoers prosper and go unchecked and unpunished (Ps. 73)?

The wicked also miscalculate God’s patience. They think that God doesn’t really care, or that He can’t or won’t do anything about their sin. Much like criminals who run rampant because they aren’t held accountable or punished, these sinners have never seen God lower the boom, so they believe they can get away with anything. These are the ones of whom it is said, “they have no fear of God” (Ps. 55:19). They have no respect for His laws and don’t believe He will act on His justice.

But this verse tells us the real reason God is patient, even problematically slow from our limited perspective: God is so compassionate, merciful, and gracious in His deep desire for all people to be saved that He waits and waits until the last of those He’s called to His kingdom turn and are saved.

Think about the patience He displayed when, back in Eden, He promised to redeem humanity, then waited millennia to fulfill that promise in Jesus. During that time, He created a people of His own, slowly unveiled the mystery of His redemption plan, then vindicated and glorified His patience on the Cross. It is only when we realize this that we begin to understand the reasons He waited, and appreciated the grace, mercy, and compassion it took to endure our sin for so long. Then we can grasp the splendor of His benevolence for us as He tirelessly held out His hands to a stubborn people. His patience results in our salvation.

CONSIDER:
• How has God’s patience been at work in your life?
• When have you misunderstood or tested God’s patience?
• How does Peter’s perspective help you to wait on God to work?

PRAY:
Lord, guard me from ever trying Your patience, forgetting that You will hold me to account. Give me Your patient perspective as I await Your return, praying and sharing Your love until that last soul turns to You. 

“You know that it was not with perishable things . . . that you were redeemed . . . but with the precious blood of Christ, a Lamb without blemish or defect” (1 Peter 1:18-19).

When we think about the cost of sin (if we think about it at all), we think in terms of what it costs us rather than what it cost God. It would have cost Him nothing if He had not voluntarily, out of His great love and mercy, taken on our debt Himself. Jürgen Moltmann ponders what meaning there can be in a love which is not costly to the lover? The price that the lover pays should be commensurate to his desire for the object that he redeems. Love is the focus, not the object.

This is why there is such a disparity between the infinite value of the Son of God and the value of the souls of men. The Beloved Only Begotten Son, perfect, holy, fulling willing and obedient, totally innocent, above reproach, fully man and fully God, was given in exchange for sin-filled men, rebels against God, His enemies. Our souls are not equal in value to the precious Gift of Jesus. Rather, God’s love for us is so great that He was willing to pay that tremendous price.

And what a price it was! Look at what it cost Him: He veiled His glory, set aside so many of His divine prerogatives, confined Himself in mortal flesh, and put away all earthly ambitions. In Gethsemane He faced spiritual agony as He anticipated bearing our sin in His sinless, pure, holy Self. There, He faced the tremendous cost of taking on God’s wrath and resolved that it was the only way to deal with our sin, as horrific a prospect as it was. Then He endured the ridicule, abuse, and rejection of the creatures He had made, and embraced all the horrors of bearing God’s wrath on our behalf, submitting Himself, even though He is the Eternal One, to a painful sacrificial death.

What wondrous love is this, that caused the Lord of blissto bear the dreadful curse for my soul!

What a love! What a cost!We stand forgiven at the Cross.

CONSIDER:
• What thoughts come to mind when you think about the price paid for you?
• What does the price paid tell you about God’s love for you? What does it tell you about how much God desires the salvation of souls?
• When you consider that God paid the price for your fellow believers, how should that influence the way you treat them?

PRAY:
Lord, when I think about what my sin and my soul cost You, I am both awed and ashamed. Grip me with the immensity of Your love for me. Help me to loathe my bent toward sin and bury it deep beneath my growing love for You.

“The wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men” (Romans 1:18, ESV).

“Since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through Him” (Romans 5:9).

When we contemplate the horror, finality, and eternity of God’s wrath, it can be difficult to imagine that it displays God’s glory. This may be because we are holding misconceptions about God’s wrath. When we think of human wrath, we recall our experiences with anger or imagine the irrational, ego-driven pique of some despot. But God’s wrath is very unlike human wrath.

Divine wrath is not an attribute of God; Isaiah calls it God’s “strange work” (28:21). It is actually a natural outgrowth and function of God’s love, holiness, justice, and truth. These characteristics are essential to His nature, and when they are violated, He must respond or else cease to be God. God is love. He not only loves people; He loves His holiness and justice. He loves what is true. So, when He sees that sin has hurt those He loves and severed the intimacy He desires with His beloved children, then of course He is angered. What loving, just God—or person—is not incensed when they see a child being hurt or abused, especially their own?

But wrath goes beyond anger. It is the righteous, judicial outcome of violating God’s law. When a judge pronounces a death sentence on a criminal, he does not rant or throw a fit from the bench. He states the crime, declares the guilt, and enforces the sentence with a cool, measured enforcement of justice.

God does not desire to exercise His wrath on us, which is why He went to the extremes of the Cross. There, the full force of His wrath was judiciously and fully poured out on Jesus in the stead of those who believe in Him. While we were, by our sin nature, objects of His wrath, because of His great love for us He saved us from wrath through the Cross (Rom. 5:9; Eph. 2:3-5).

This is the glory of God’s wrath on the Cross. He is glorified because His love, mercy, and grace are displayed in the lengths He would go to save us. And He is also glorified because His justice and holiness are fully vindicated.

CONSIDER:
• How might our low understanding of the offense of our sins keep us from appreciating the glory of God’s wrathful judgment of them?
• How does the Cross show us the riches of God’s glory in His mercy?
• Express how God’s wrath glorifies God’s other attributes.

PRAY:
Lord, show me more clearly how Your wrath and mercy meet on the Cross so I may honor Your wrath as holy and good, glorifying and praise-worthy.  Give me more urgency in my prayer and proclamation so I can show others that Jesus bore Your wrath for them.

“Your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear” (Isaiah 59:2).

“Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade others”(2 Corinthians 5:11).

In our contemplations on the cost of sin and the wrath of God we have touched on the question of how seriously we take our sin (or don’t). We need to understand the extent of the punishment of our sin, and the price God was willing to pay to save us from it, in order to grasp the gravity of sin in God’s eyes. So, it’s important now to pause and drive this point home.

We do take sin too lightly, particularly our own. This is human nature, as Jesus pointed out when He instructed us to take the log out of our own eye before removing the speck in another’s. Even though the Bible is clear that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” we have an amazing ability to excuse ourselves from blame and minimize our guilt (Rom. 8:28). We judge our motives to be pure and our excuses for our shortcomings to be legitimate. Besides having a sin nature, we have a too-low view of God’s holiness and the demands that it brings. Our continued sin makes us increasingly insensitive to the Spirit’s conviction, and, frankly, sin has its pleasures—short-term as they are. Thus, we downplay sin’s gravity in our lives.

But that is not how God sees sin, as testified by the extreme measure of wrath poured out on His beloved Son. God fully knows the consequences of sin. Sin is treason against Him; it’s rebellion and sheer ungratefulness, and thus it separates us from the One who loves us supremely and created us for Himself. It also separates us relationally from one another, as when Adam accused Eve. Further, it separates us physically, because it carries with it a death sentence. Lastly, it separates us eternally, as some face the second death, with its wrath and God-forsakenness. This is why He did not spare His own Son—because He hates sin and loves us to that degree.

When it comes to seeing the gravity of our sins, Stott tells us, “Before we can begin to see the Cross as something done for us . . . we have to see it as something done by us” (Stott 63). And we must grasp the heinousness of what was done by us, because, as Matthew Henry writes in his Bible commentary, “never did God’s hatred of sin appear so conspicuously as it did in the sufferings of Christ” (Henry 174). He takes sin seriously, indeed.

CONSIDER:
• How does seeing God’s view of sin help you avoid it?
• What do Jesus’ words about cutting off hands and plucking eyes (Mt. 5:29-30) tell you about the extremes He wants us to go to so we can avoid sin? (See also Col. 3:5-7.)

PRAY:
Lord, help me to grasp the gravity of my sin—not only so I can avoid it, but loathe it. May I die to sin and live for godliness. And may this understanding help me to rejoice more in my salvation and gratefully love You for all You’ve done for me.

“God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong” (1 Corinthians 1:27).

“To be sure, [Christ] was crucified in weakness, yet He lives by God’s power”(2 Corinthians 13:4).

God’s ways frequently appear to be counterintuitive to ours. His ways are so far above ours that Romans 11 declares that they are beyond our understanding. One such apparent paradox is that the most powerful Being did not conquer our plight with His great strength, but through weakness.

This concept of a weak Savior was an impediment to both the Jews and the Greeks. The Jews were expecting a conquering Messiah who would throw off the reign of Rome, or whoever else was dominating them when He appeared. So, the very idea that this Messiah would be weak and die, let alone die accursed on a tree, was a scandalous non-starter.

The Greeks too would have expected a Savior to be powerful. In fact, Corinth (where Paul sent the letters that contain the above verses) was the home of athletic games, and its “patron saint,” so to speak, was Hercules, who was said to have accomplished some of his labors in that region. For the people of Corinth, the idea of vulnerability and weakness in a hero was utter foolishness. This is why Paul spoke of how the foolishness of God puts to shame human wisdom and the weakness of God puts to shame human strength (1 Cor. 1:25). God didn’t come at the problem of our sin with our reasoning, our resources, or our weapons. He came at it with His own.

The weakness of Jesus wasn’t just a tactic. It was vital. To be one of us—to be human—Jesus had to embrace our frailty. We are subject to illness, injury, thirst, hunger, fatigue, and most importantly, death. As we’ve seen, it was essential that Jesus would be able to die in order to fully pay the penalty of our sins. His weakness is also important so we know that He is able to sympathize with our weakness as our Great High Priest (Heb. 4:15). “It was not in spite of weakness that Christ’s power was released; it was through weakness” (Interpreter’s Bible 10.418). He met our desperate need in every way; His weakness was perfect to conquer the power of sin and death.

CONSIDER:
•On what occasions did Jesus refuse to use His divine power? Why do you think He did?
•How was Jesus’ submission to unjust and evil earthly powers a sign of His strength?How did He show weakness of body but not weakness of spirit?
•How does Christ’s strength through weakness affect how you deal with your own weaknesses and vulnerabilities?

PRAY:
Lord, there is so much glory in the way You laid aside Your power to be weak for my sake. You are indeed the wisdom and power of God. Help me to trust You, and to find joy when You use weakness in my life to display Your power.

“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” (1 Corinthians 1:18).

Since we looked at the glory of weakness yesterday, it is important that we don’t lose sight of the fact that it still goes hand-in-hand with God’s power, particularly in connection with the Cross and its power to save. The word power is from the same Greek word that we get “dynamite.” The Cross has the dynamic power not only to put our sin to death, but to raise our dead-in-sin souls to life. It is the power God used to reconcile us to Himself, to raise Jesus from the dead, and to begin our transformation into the image of His Son.

Before we encounter the Cross, sin blinds us to the mysteries of God, His hidden wisdom, and the meaning of God’s paradoxes (such as how strength and weakness, wisdom and foolishness, poverty and complete ownership of the universe are at work in God’s plan). But when we come to faith in Jesus and are given the Spirit’ power, suddenly the true glory and wisdom of God’s plan shines before us. That is why when we speak of spiritual things, we can get such blank stares, and even ridicule, from those who have yet to see what God has made clear to us about the Cross.

The Cross is the power of God to save us. Without the Cross and without knowledge of what Christ did there, we would all perish. There is no other way to be saved (another truth that the world thinks is foolish). Without the Cross we would be powerless to save ourselves. We can only be saved when we, like Abraham, believe that the Lord has the power to do what He has promised.

The glory of the Cross shines because it has the power to defeat sin and death. “It always dominates. It never compromises, never dickers or confers, never surrenders a point for the sake of peace; it cares only to end its opposition as fast as possible” (Blackburn). The Cross’ power, even at its weakest, is exponentially more powerful than man’s greatest strength, and nothing can stand against it. Not only that, but its power is permanent—it saves us to the uttermost, eternally.

“When we look at the Cross we see the justice, love, wisdom and power of God. It is not easy to decide which is the most luminously revealed” (Stott 221). So let’s just gaze at each in turn and glory in the wonder that God has given them all to us.

CONSIDER:
• How aware are you of the magnitude of the power of God at work in and for you? How much do you avail yourself of it? What are the evidences of it working in you?
• How does your confidence in God’s promise-fulfilling power manifest itself in your faith walk with Him?

PRAY:
Lord, make me more aware of Your power at work in me. Give me more confidence to tap into it, and to pray for the power of the Cross in the lives of others.

“Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father” (Galatians 1:3-4).

“Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us” (Ephesians 5:2).

The focus of the book of Hebrews is the superiority of Jesus above everyone and everything. So far, we’ve looked at many of the glories of His work on the Cross, but today we’re going to draw them all together for a more concise picture of what makes Jesus and His Cross so exceptional.

First, on the Cross, Christ is the perfect sacrifice. This is true in several ways. To begin with, He is perfect because He is the Spotless Lamb. There are no moral imperfections in Him. He kept all of the Law without the slightest deviation. Unlike the other priests, He didn’t have to make a sacrifice for His own sin before He sacrificed for the people. He also fulfilled all the prophecies about Himself. Additionally, He is perfect in the sense of biblical completeness. His sacrifice on the Cross completely satisfied God’s justice concerning our sins. No other sacrifice is needed.

Second, His sacrifice on the Cross is sufficient to cleanse us from all sin—past, present, and future—securing for us a state of righteousness before God throughout endless eternity. His is the only effective sacrifice because sacrifices prior to the Cross had to be repeated day after day, year after year, for millennia. Jesus Christ’s sacrifice is superior because He offered Himself, shedding His own blood on the Cross once for all.

Third, Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross is personal. This was not just a judicial transaction to eliminate the scourge of sin. This was the act of a loving God sending His much beloved Son to save His beloved children. This was a Bridegroom giving His very life’s blood to purchase His bride from her destitution and slavery, and to present her to Himself as a cleansed and radiant bride. The idea that Christ “gave Himself” means more than a stoic or dutiful “I will.” Rather, it has a sense of eagerness. We need to grasp not only the exceptionality of Jesus’ sacrifice but the deeply personal nature of it if we are to appreciate what He did for us.

CONSIDER:
• Describe what Jesus’ exceptionality does to your view of Him.
• How does His sufficiency give you security in your relationship with Him?
• How do you cultivate an awareness of and connection to the deeply personal way you are loved by the Trinity? How do you live in that reality?

PRAY:
Lord, give me a larger and sharper vision of the supremacy and glories of Your sacrifice. Help me to grasp the depth of Your love in the coming and the giving of Yourself—how eagerly and personally You gave Your very life for me!

“Having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the Cross” (Colossians 2:15).

While the Cross is characterized by humiliation, submission, and death, it also resounds with victory. As John Eadie says in his commentary on Colossians,

“Redemption is a work at once of price and power, of [atonement] and conquest. . . . The blood that wipes out the sentence [against us] was there endured” (Eadie 174).

Paul tells us that at the Cross Christ conquered our sin and the law (Col. 2:13-15). It may not be immediately clear how those things are linked, but they both held us in captivity: our sin because it kept us separate from our holy God, the law because it constantly pointed to our sin, but didn’t give a permanent solution to the problem. Christ’s triumph over both freed us from the power of sin and gave us the means of full justification.

The Scriptures also declare Christ’s victory over death and the grave (Is. 25:8; 1 Cor. 15:26, 54-57; 2 Tim. 1:10; Heb. 2:14-15). Through His humanity Jesus was able to die to cancel the curse. By His death He defeated death. That is why Paul can so triumphantly proclaim, “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” (1 Cor. 15:55).

The New Testament is full of the joy because of Christ’s victory over the devil and his vast network of evil powers and authorities. Christ has “triumph[ed] over them by the Cross” (Col. 2:15). The devil is still at work, as we explored on Day 16, but he has been defanged. The New Testament is a triumphant proclamation of the victory we have in Christ: “He gives us the victory;” “we are more than conquerors;” “They triumphed over [the devil] by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony” (1 Cor. 15:57; Rom. 8:37; Rev. 12:11). “Victory, conquest, triumph, overcoming—this was the vocabulary of those first followers of the risen Lord” (Stott 223).

This should be our attitude as well. The environment we live in is no more hostile than theirs. Our enemies, seen and unseen, are still just as limited by Christ’s victory. His victory over sin is ours. His victory over the law is ours. His victory over death is ours. His victory over the forces of evil is ours. “Thanks be to God, who always leads us . . . in Christ’s triumphant procession” (2 Cor. 2:14).

CONSIDER:
• In what ways do you experience a sense of victory in your faith walk?
• Where might you still be struggling with bondage and defeat?
• How would your prayers change if you kept Christ’s victory at the forefront?

PRAY:
Lord, too often I think of my life in terms of battle and not victory. Help me to live more in the freedom, power, and triumph I have in You. Change my outlook, my prayer life, and my conversation to reflect this victory.

“I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16).

From Genesis onward, the Scriptures point to the Cross. Jesus’ whole life points to the Cross. The New Testament writers all keep this focus on the Cross. That is what the gospel is: It’s the message that only ever points to the Cross, for there alone is the power for salvation.

This true gospel has not changed in the 2000 years since the Cross. The gospel that has the power to save can’t be watered down. We have seen the effects of a weakened so-called “gospel” message, and it creates “followers” who don’t go anywhere, have no power, and often can’t endure when the road gets difficult. We want the Cross-centered gospel.

The Cross-centered gospel is not only the power of God’s salvation; it is our continued power for living. Jerry Bridges encourages us to preach the gospel to ourselves every day; Paul urges us to put on the helmet of salvation. These wise saints are reminding us that we never outgrow the need to focus on the Cross. We need to reflect on all the things we’ve seen in this series, rejoice in the glory they bring to the Lord, rehearse their truths, and remind ourselves that His victory is ours.

By keeping the gospel our focus, our power to witness will grow. Like Paul, we won’t worry about “fine-sounding arguments” (Col. 2:4). The simple message of the Cross will be the fragrance of God to those who have been prepared to believe. David Brainerd said that he “never got away from Jesus, and Him crucified, and [he] found that when . . . people were gripped by this great evangelical doctrine . . . [he] had no need to give them instructions about morality. . . . One followed as sure as the inevitable fruit of the other.” We also needn’t be concerned about the response of those for whom the gospel is still the stench of death. They’re just not ready yet for their need and their sin to be exposed. We needn’t be discouraged (think of the transformation of Paul himself!), but we should continue to pray and to proclaim the glories of the Cross, our only hope of sure, eternal salvation through Christ.

CONSIDER:
•How does your witness keep its focus on the Cross? How does it reflect the salvific powerof God to those to whom you witness?
•How does reflecting on the many facets of the Cross, as this series does, help you grow inyour appreciation of its glory and put on the helmet of salvation? What will you do goingforward to keep the Cross before your eyes?

PRAY:
“Jesus, keep me near the Cross . . . in the Cross be my glory ever.” May I never get over the Cross. May its glorious gospel be the source of my praises and my power to live for You each day.

“He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a Cross! Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the Name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth” (Philippians 2:8-10).

We have already seen that so many of the attributes of God are glorified through the Cross, but now let’s turn our eyes to gaze on the glorification of Jesus. To the world the Cross was shame, but in the eyes of Jesus it was His glory. Throughout His ministry, He would speak of His “hour” or His “time,” sometimes saying it was coming and at other times pointing out that it had not yet come. Finally, the night before His crucifixion, He declares that His hour has come, and He is clearly referring to the Cross (Jn. 17). Earlier He talked about being lifted up. While the obvious meaning is that He would be physically lifted up to be crucified, the deeper meaning is that He would be glorified—lifted up and praised—on the Cross. He is also quite clear that the Cross would not only glorify Himself but the Father as well (17:1, 4), because the love, wisdom, grace, mercy, justice, and holiness of God would be on full display.

Scripture reinforces this view and shows that this link between the Cross and glorification is essential to the gospel:
• “To Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood . . . to Him be glory and power for ever and ever” (Rev. 1:5-6).
• “After He had made purification for sins [that is, shed His blood], He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in Heaven” (Heb. 1:3).
• “But we do see Jesus . . . now crowned with glory and honor because He suffered death, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone” (Heb. 2:9).

The last passage includes the word see. The word implies more than just to look. It means to give close attention and to seek understanding. We are called to understand that Christ has glory and honor because He suffered death. We also learn that He sat down, indicating that He finished the work He was sent to do; this too is a source of His glory (Jn. 17:4). Indeed, the Cross is resplendent with the glory of the Lord!

CONSIDER:
• How does the Cross still carry shame and veil God’s glory?
• As you gaze at the Cross, what specific aspects of God’s glory are clear to you? Which verses excite you the most?
• As one of His redeemed, in what ways do you seek to glorify the Lord?
• 2 Timothy 2:12 links our suffering with glory. How does that shape your attitude about suffering, particular for God’s name?

PRAY:
Lord, You are indeed high and lifted up—not just on the Cross, but also in my eyes. Like Moses, I pray to see ever more of Your glory, especially through the lens of the Cross. Give me an eagerness to glorify You with my heart and life.

“Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed” (1 Corinthians 5:7).

“Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing at the center of the throne” (Revelation 5:6).

As we saw in yesterday’s meditation, Christ’s suffering and death not only led to His glorification, but in fact was His glorification. Today we will look specifically at how the Cross glorified Him as the Lamb.

While sheep were not the only animals sacrificed in the Old Testament, they played a large role—particularly in the Passover, which was a major foreshadowing of Jesus. Any sacrifice was expected to be perfect and spotless. The offeror gave God his best, just as God would give us His Best.

John the Baptist pointed to Jesus as “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn. 1:29). Indeed, Jesus gave His life on Passover for the redemption of all who believe. His sacrifice was accepted and glorified by the Father.

Throughout Revelation the preferred name for Jesus is the Lamb, often specifically the Lamb that was slain. Because of His willing death He was declared uniquely “worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals” (Rev. 5:9). His death made Him worthy “to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise,” along with the worship of all of the hosts of Heaven (5:12).

Christ is glorified in Heaven not only because of His death, but also because of His judgments. He provided justice for the redeemed by paying our penalty, but on judgment day, He will receive glory because of the “wrath of the Lamb”—the final, awful judgment on all who refused to believe and continued to rebel (Rev. 6:16).

As we noted before, Heaven never gets over the Cross and the One who shed His precious blood upon it. In Revelation, “John is telling us nothing less than that from an eternity of the past to an eternity of the future the center of the stage is occupied by the Lamb of God who was slain” (Stott 44–45). To Him be glory forever!

CONSIDER:
• Think about your private and public worship. How is it similar to or different from the worship pictured in Revelation? (See 4:10-11; 5:11-14; 7:9-12; 19:1-7.)
• How would it affect your worship and your witness if you never got over the Cross?How can you keep everything centered on the finished work of the Lamb?

PRAY:
Lord, help me to worship You for Your excellent worth, for all You have done to redeem me; defeat sin, death, and the devil; and right all that went wrong in Eden. May I live with the perspective that comes from the victorious Lamb.

“Those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified” (Romans 8:30).

“May I never boast except in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Galatians 6:14).

What does it mean that God glorifies those He justifies? John Piper suggests that this verse (Romans 8:30) points back to earlier in the passage where it talks about being conformed to the image of Christ. As those Christ has saved are sanctified into His image, we shine with His glory since we are glorified in Him. Others see His glory in us and are drawn to Him. Our Christlikeness gives us the desire to do good works in Him, which God has promised to reward with glory (yet another way we’re glorified). In turn, and to our great joy, all of these methods result in glorifying Christ’s work on the Cross.

Our second verse (Gal. 6:14) is from a passage that talks about glorying in the Cross by living a Cross-centered life. Such a life is sacrificial and self-denying. It’s not wrapped up in the distraction and attractions of this shadowland world. Like Jesus, we look beyond the pain of sacrifice and the temporal pleasures of comfort to what is real and permanent. We glory in the Cross by scorning the shame the world attaches to it. Instead, we embrace it as our banner and our joy. We realize that the only true shame attached to the Cross is our own shameful sin, from which Jesus redeemed us. The freedom we have in the Cross is reflected by the fact that we tell others about it with joy.

Further, we glory in the Cross by increasingly loving the One who died there, letting that love fill us to the point that it pours out into a world that so needs it. Even our enemies are in need of that love. We glory in the Cross by joining Christ in His loving ministry of reconciliation, showing others the way to the Cross and to Christ.

We glory in the Cross in our worship, as we saw yesterday. But another element of this worship is what Jesus established in the Lord’s Supper. There, we live out our connection to His body and His blood. He instituted this ordinance as a way to keep us focused on His sacrifice on the Cross, and so that we would continually glory in it.

CONSIDER:
• In what ways do you already glory in the Cross? How would you like to grow more in this?What things might you glory in more than you glory in the Cross?
• How is your practice of glorying in the Cross reflected in your willingness to live a Cross-centered, sacrificial, self-denying life?
• How has your practice of glorying in the Cross helped you join Christ in His ministry of reconciliation and comfort for the broken world? (2 Cor. 1:3-7)

PRAY:
Lord, help me to live the kind of crucified life that seeks Your glory and honor. Turn me from the distractions of this world so that I can focus on loving You and drawing nearer to You and Your Cross.

We have come to the end of our forty-day focus on the Glory of the Cross of Christ, but certainly not to the end of all the ways Christ makes this glory known through the Cross. We’ve only just begun to scratch the surface of the wonders contained in the topics we covered, let alone to explore more of the gleaming facets yet to be revealed. Indeed, “the achievement of Christ’s Cross must be seen in terms of revelation. . . . For through what God did there for the world He was also speaking to the world. Just as human beings disclose their character in their actions, so God has showed Himself to us in the death of His Son” (Stott 200). So, the more we gaze at the Cross, the more the Lord will reveal Himself.

As we have pondered the Cross, many things have become clear: 1) the Cross is the most evident display of God’s love for us; 2) God is absolutely holy and detests sin; 3) the Lamb is totally worthy and utterly pure; 4) Jesus faultlessly honored and fulfilled the law, obeyed and loved the Father, and became the perfect man and sacrifice for our sin; 5) He paid a great price for our redemption; 6) those who look to Him for salvation can have full and complete justification; 7) His finished work and the freedom it secured for us are effective and permanent; and 8) He has won for us the exquisite privilege of being able to draw near to Him. He accomplished the work God gave Him to do, and “we were not redeemed with corruptible things such as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ”—His own precious blood (Lutzer).

We have seen how these many facets of the Cross lay side by side to glorify Christ. All the Cross says about us is that we are in a hopeless state. “Propitiation underscores the wrath of God upon us, redemption our captivity to sin, justification our guilt, and reconciliation our enmity against God and alienation from Him. . . . It is He who has propitiated His own wrath, redeemed us from our miserable bondage, declared us righteous in His sight and reconciled us to Himself ” (Stott 199). It was not our own works of righteousness that saved us. We owe it all to Him.

Albert Barnes turns our hearts to glorifying the Lord by saying, “It was a glorious Savior who died; it was glorious love that led Him to die; it was a glorious object to redeem a world; and it is unspeakable glory to which He will raise lost and ruined sinners by His death. O, who would not glory in such a Savior!”

Let us pray that the Lord will not only drive these insights deeper into our spirits, but also open our eyes to even more of His glories which we have yet to glimpse. Just like grace was unknown to us before, there are other glories to which we are blind until He opens our eyes. Like Moses, we would do well to pray, Lord, “show me Your glory” (Ex. 33:18).