The meaning of the Cross: Reflections for Good Friday (Preparing our Hearts for Easter Series)

As I browsed the sea of devotions for Easter, my heart sank. I saw titles like, "What Kind of Easter People are we?" and "Why Easter is not about you." Really? Is this what modern Christianity wants? Does Easter mean pondering our "Easter peopleness"? Do we really have to be told WHY Easter is not about us? Do we really think Easter is only about new clothes, Easter egg hunts and fancy dinners?

Another article in a Christian forum informed us that we "practice resurrection" by rolling around in the grass like dogs and eating when we are hungry. 

Easter of course is not about rolling in the grass, eating when we want, and Easter is not about us. It is about Christ and the glory of His resurrection. Yes, His resurrection has MASSIVE implications FOR us as talked about in our last entry: He is Risen Indeed! What that means to you and me.

Yet, let's not strip this glory from Christ. Easter is about His resurrection three days after dying on a cross for our sin.

The cross is about God pouring out His wrath that Jesus took for our sin. The cross is not a magical instrument by which we are saved. It was an instrument of torture that thieves and murderers and criminals were tortured on and killed. It was not uncommon in that day for people to be crucified. Many people were crucified. History tells us that even Peter too was crucified. These people that were crucified did not atone for our sins. The cross itself - that is the two pieces of wood that made the cross did not atone for our sin. JESUS CHRIST, sinless and undefiled, God clothed with flesh, took the wrath WE were ordained to suffer on that cross FOR us. It was at the cross- on the cross – our sins were atoned for through Jesus Christ.

Jesus drank the cup of wrath on that cross so we would not have to.

What cup of wrath you ask? It is the cup the wicked must drink.

“For a cup is in the hand of the LORD, and the wine foams; It is well mixed, and He pours out of this; surely all the wicked of the earth must drain and drink down its dregs.” Psalm 75:8 NASB

The verse below clearly shows us the need for a perfect and sinless sacrifice. This could only be God Himself. We see the need for the cross right here in Proverbs. It says:

He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the Lord. Proverbs 17:15 ESV

Do you see the problem? God  COULD NOT go against His own word, justify you and me (the wicked) and condemn Christ (the righteous)! The only way a sinner could be justified is if that sinner was forgiven and his legal standing/status before God was changed. Justification is our right legal standing before God Almighty. Through Christ's sacrifice, His death on the cross and resurrection, when we put our trust in Him we are forgiven and justified. 

Three days after Jesus hung on the cross, died and was buried, He rose again and was seen by more than 500 people.

Paul writes: For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep; 1 Corinthians 15:3-7 NASB

Our forgiveness was accomplished on the cross, and it is through Christ's death and resurrection that believers are saved. Let us rejoice together this Easter Sunday!

He is risen. He is risen indeed! Hallelujah!