The crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, dramatically and clearly, sets Christianity apart from every other religion in the world. No other prophet or founder of any religion ever gave his life purely for the sake of sinners - not Buddha, not Confucius, not Muhammad, not any of the 230,000 gods of Hinduism. No one else has ever risen from the grave, demonstrating for all time that HE, Jesus, has Power, even over death.
"It is Finished." John 19:30
"Father, into Your Hands I Commit My Spirit." Luke 23:46
On that 1st Palm Sunday, as Christ made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the crowds had started gathering, even in Bethany, for a glimpse of this Rabbi from Galilee, as well as to gaze on the man, Lazarus, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. They shouted and sang as they lined the roadsides. They threw down their garments on the roadway to cushion his ride (an Oriental custom that is still observed on some occasions today) as well as palm fronds, the symbol of triumph.
The crowd hailed Him like a prince about to become a King, or a politician promising them the world. They hadn't understood what Jesus was talking about when He told them, "But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself."
But perhaps these words may have still been fresh in their minds on Friday, when they saw Him lifted up - nailed to a Cross like the worst of criminals. Jesus Christ became a public spectacle, complete with a mocking sign that proclaimed Him "King of the Jews" in three languages: Aramaic, Latin, and Greek.
And so, as we reach this Good Friday, we hear the last of Christ's 7 cries from the cross: "It is finished" and "Father, into Your Hands I commit My Spirit."
Luke's Gospel tells us a little of the context of those 2 final cries of our Savior from the Cross. Luke tells us that, "It was now about the 6th hour, and darkness fell over the whole land until the 9th hour (12PM - 3:00PM), because the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn in two. And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, 'Father, into Your Hands I commit My Spirit.' Having said this, He breathed His last."
When we compare the Gospel accounts, it brings us to the conclusion that these words, "It is finished," were said "with a loud voice". The 'voice' was the "Shout of a Conqueror", of One who has fought through a long and terrible day, but greets Victory as evening is drawing nigh.
"It is finished": the Death of Jesus Christ on Calvary's Cross Redeemed us from the curse of the law and cancelled out our debt to God with sin by nailing it to the Cross. The Word of God tells us in Galatians: "Christ Redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us - for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree'".
The Love of God does not rest with the curse that hangs over all sinful humanity. God is not content to show Wrath, no matter how Holy He is. Therefore, God Sends His Own Son to absorb His Wrath and Bear the curse for all who trust Him. "In this is Love, not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and Sent His Son to be the Propitiation for our sins." "Propitiation" refers to the removal of God's Wrath by providing a substitute. The "substitute" is provided by God Himself. And, our substitute, Jesus Christ, does not just cancel the Wrath; He absorbs it, and diverts it from us to Himself. God's Wrath is just, and it was Poured Out on His Son, Jesus Christ. And so, after the great darkness had fallen over the whole land until the 9th hour, the sun being darkened, and the veil of the temple torn in two from top to bottom, Jesus cried out with a lour voice, "Father, into Your Hands I commit my Spirit."
"It was Finished!" for Christ Jesus had purchased our salvation by His willing sacrifice. Through the shedding of His Blood He had purchased a World's Redemption. He had, in the words of F.B. Meyer, "wrought out and brought in a perfect salvation. Sin was put away. It is Finished!"
Jesus said to His Disciples at the instituting of the Lord's Supper, "This is My Blood of the Covenant, which is poured out for many." God's Word speaks of an Old Covenant" and a "New Covenant." In the bible the Covenants God makes with man are initiated by God Himself. He sets the terms. (His Obligations are determined by His Own Purposes).
The "Old Covenant" was the arrangement God established with Israel in the Mosaic Law (ca. 1400 B.C.), and we know its weakness was that it was not accompanied by Spiritual Transformation. It was written with letters on stone, not with the Spirit on the heart. Then, the prophets began to write, (especially Jeremiah) promising a "New Covenant" that would be different. It would be "not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." When Jesus Christ said from the Cross, "It is finished," the "New Covenant" came into effect: The blood of Jesus purchased the Power and the Promises of the "New Covenant." This "New Covenant" is radically more effective than the "Old one", for it is enacted on the foundation of Jesus' Suffering and Death. The Word of God in Hebrews says, "He, (Jesus), is the Mediator of a "New Covenant." And so, the "New Covenant" is supremely effective, because Christ died to make it so.
The prophet, Jeremiah, describes some of the terms of the "New Covenant" which Christ secured for us by His Blood: "I will make a new Covenant…this is the Covenant that I will make…I will put my Law within them, and I will write it on their hearts….For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." (Jer. 31: 31-34)
Jesus' Suffering and His Death guarantees the inner change of His people (the law written on their/your hearts), and the forgiveness of their sins. God's Word in Ephesians tells us, "When we were dead in our transgressions, God made us alive together with Christ." (Eph. 2:5) This is the Spiritual Life that enables us to see, and to believe, in the Glory of Christ, and it is sure and certain because Christ bought it with His Own Blood.
And, what is also guaranteed is not just the inner change of Christ's People, but the securing of our Faithfulness. Jeremiah tells us in the very next chapter, "I will make with them an everlasting Covenant…I will put the fear of Me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me." (Jer. 32:40) When Christ said "It is finished" and "Father, into Your Hands I commit My Spirit" and died, He secured for His People, for us, not only new hearts, but new security. He will not let you (me) turn from Him. He will keep us, for He Promises that "no one will snatch them out of My Hand. My Father, Who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's Hand. I and the Father are One." (John 10: 28-30) We will persevere, for the Blood of the New Covenant guarantees it.
"It is Finished": Christ had completed the perfect Obedience. He alone, of all born of woman, was able to say that there was nothing which the Father had asked that He had not Given; nothing that the Father had Imposed that He had not gladly borne. Christ, in obedience, had Finished the Work Given Him to Do.
For we who are Christians, Saved by His Blood alone, there is application: The same Spirit which Lived and Ruled in Christ's life lives and must rule in our lives, also. The chief priests, the scribes, and elders were mocking Him: "Come down from the Cross and save Yourself," they said to Jesus. But Jesus had no place in His Mission, His Program, for the saving of Himself. You remember, one of the last things He said as He was going up to Jerusalem to die, was, "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life Eternal." (John 12: 24,25) Jesus used this illustration to show the necessity of His Death, and it explains why He calmly breathed out His Life on the Cross in the face of the taunting "rabble" below. And so, I think that this same principle must control our lives if we are to meet the Divine Standard as to what life is really meant to be for we who call ourselves Christians, Followers of Christ, indeed, "Christ's People".
Christ's whole existence, all the way from Heaven to earth and back again by way of Calvary was a continual Outpouring of Himself for the sake of others. And, He says, "If any man wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me" (Mark 8:34).
Illustration: (Wm. Henry Biederwolf) It was about 100 years ago in Liverpool, England. A great building was on fire. Flames were leaping from every quarter, from floor to floor, and dense smoke was blackening the sky above. Then suddenly, two men appeared in the top story of the building at one of the windows. Ladder after ladder was brought, but they all fell short, and the longest ladder was too short by almost a full story. The crowd below waited in breathless suspense, while the men high above stared down with pale and ghastly faces into what seemed their certain death.
Then a man past 50, but brave and strong, stepped out from the crowd. Taking one of the shorter ladders in his hand, he climbed to the top of the tallest ladder leaning against the building, and raising the short ladder above him on his shoulders, he steadied it with his hands and securing his place as best he could, he cried out from his strained position: "Men, come down over me, come down over me." And as the crowd below sent up cheer after cheer, down over the first ladder the two men came and over the body of the man who held it, and on in safety to the ground….Then, their Savior sank backwards, exhausted from his dizzy height and work, and fell - crushed and bleeding and broken, and dying - at their feet.
This is the meaning, the significance of the Cross….."It is finished"…for you, and for me. We are freed to love like Christ, even the stranger, even our "enemies", even at the cost of our lives. "It is finished": the devil may kill our body, but he can no longer kill our soul. It is safe in Christ - and our mortal body will be raised some day. "He Who Raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit Who dwells in you." (Romans 8:11) Because Jesus could say on the Cross, "It is finished" this Completion of the Perfect Obedience, we are the freest of all people. And the Bible is unmistakable in what this freedom is for: "You were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature, but instead, through love serve one another." (Gal. 5:13)
Prayer: Our Heavenly Father, we pray that our lives would be more like Thy Son Jesus' Life, that our lives would even be an interpretation of the Cross. Help us to see ever more clearly that we "have been crucified with Christ and that we no longer live, but that Thy Son, Jesus Christ, lives in us, and that the life we live in the body, we live by Faith in the Son of God, Who Loves us, and Gave Himself for us." Help us to die forever unto self, and to live forever unto Jesus, Thy Son. We pray this in Christ's Name, the Name above all other names. Amen.
Read more articles by Stephen Alexander
Mr. Alexander:
Thank you for your heartfelt comments.
In an otherwise thoughtful piece, I must take exception to your first paragraph:
"The crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, dramatically and clearly, sets Christianity apart from every other religion in the world. "
That is true. Every religion has its distinct credo and history. Only an eggplant tastes like an eggplant.
"No other prophet or founder of any religion ever gave his life purely for the sake of sinners - not Buddha, not Confucius, not Muhammad, not any of the 230,000 gods of Hinduism. No one else has ever risen from the grave, demonstrating for all time that HE, Jesus, has Power, even over death."
I, nor you, have not scoured all of the worlds religions to see if there are similar resurrection stories, and I would hazard there are.
Again, you point to uniqueness, but it feels to me that you are implying superiority. Every religion recounts stories of martyrdom and sacrifice. I don't care to diminish the power of the gospel of Jesus, just the implication of moral superiority.
On a site which routinely is critical of Islam for its assumed superiority and lack of tolerance, I suggest you not fall into the same trap.
As a non observant Jew, it is deeply embedded into my consciousness, the suffering of our people at the hands of people who thought that they had a monopoly in the spiritual realm.
Perhaps, to you, 1492 is the tale of those three ships, but it is also the date when the Spanish Inquisition forced all non Christians to convert or be burned at the stake. Many of my ancestors were killed.
So, I can respectfully celebrate with you the story of Jesus, and all that it means, but please, realize that good people of all faiths cherish those faiths, and that God has no favorites.
Comment by yonkel | March 22, 2008
"I, nor you, have not scoured all of the worlds religions to see if there are similar resurrection stories, and I would hazard there are."
I don't think you are in any position to tell another person what they do or do not know. Don't assume that your own ignorance of religious history is shared universally.
Also, I find it odd that your sensitivity to the historical persecution of your people is inflamed by a short recap of the significance to Christianity of the death of Jesus, while you simultaneously castigate the treatment of Islam by this website as racist and intolerant. While you've got your history book out, you might want to glance at the sections regarding the historical treatment of Jews under Muslim occupation. Or the treatment of Jews by their Muslim neighbors since the creation of the Israeli state. Or maybe crack a Koran and see what it has to say about the treatment of infidels, including Christians and Jews, in Dar Al Islam. Suffice to say that Spanish Christians aren't the only people in history to force religious minorities out of their country at the risk of death. They are, however, unique from Muslims in having abandoned the practice several hundred years ago. I find the failure of Muslim countries, by and large, to do so a bit more offensive than the resurrection story of Jesus. But hey, that's me.
Comment by Patrick Mulligan | March 24, 2008
Hello Patrick:
Perhaps it was a little contentious to engage in argument with Mr. Alexander who was offering a heartfelt Easter message.
I did say that in an otherwise "thoughtful piece" my contention was with the first paragraph- which to me, implied the moral superiority of Christianity.
I have read the story of Jesus and find it very moving. It was not the Easter story as told by the author which disturbed me and that was stated plainly. What arouses my sensitivity is when a faith claims to be superior. That is the basis from which persecution springs.
There are thousands of cultures in this world with thousands of theologies. It is unlikely that any human is familiar with all the faiths of every tribe and culture in the world. I have no knowledge of the authors expertise, perhaps he is an eminent cultural anthropologist, but can we agree it unlikely that he has knowledge of the inuit, choctaw, tureg, yamamani, quechecal, hmong, maori, ad infinitum.
As the Bible says, none of us are without sin, and every religion has adherents that are intolerant, historically and in the present- Christian, Jew, Moslem or Zoroastrian.
There is intolerance currently in the Muslim world and a very dangerous violent group that has gained a frightening presence and I oppose totally.
I do find that what underpins this extremism is the belief that you have the "one and only way" and that all others are heathans or infidels. And although religious persecution has thankfully disappeared from Christianity since the mid twentieth century, the doctrine of theological superiority has not.
Comment by yonkel | March 24, 2008