THE MYSTERY OF THE CROSS

Opening Assertions
The forgiveness of our sins is crucial in the gospel message, but it was not the main reason
Jesus came. According to the account of scriptures, the forgiveness of our sins was secured
before Jesus got to the cross. If therefore, the reason Jesus came was only to secure
forgiveness or remission of our sins, then He didn't need to go to the cross. According to the
scriptures, without the shedding of blood, there would be no remission of sins. We know that
Jesus bled from the terrible stripes he received from the Roman soldiers, and so shed his
blood on the way to the cross. If Jesus did not die, actually forgiveness of sins would have
already been secured. The cross was not necessary for forgiveness to take place. If what Jesus
came to do was to secure the forgiveness of our sins then the death on the cross was
superfluous.
Again, the cross was not necessary for our healing. It was the very stripes of Jesus that made
that possible. The 39 gruesome stripes that the Romans dealt to Jesus went to the root cause
of every disease and dealt a death blow to it. Today, we stand completely healed by those
stripes. All who believe this truth know by experience the healing virtue of God made possible
by those stripes. However, since this happened before the cross, then the cross wasn't for the
sake of our health.
Now we must cry to God for understanding. God must open the eyes of our understanding to
see what He has done by the cross.

Explanations
For some who may still be struggling with the above assertions, I would want to ask you to
consider them again. The blood was already shed before Golgotha:

Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged him. - (John 19:1).

Jesus received the famous and traditional Roman 39 stripes before Golgotha. You may recall
the movie 'Passion of the Christ' which came close to depicting what actually happened to my
Lord on the way to the Cross. Pilate actually did not find any fault in Him and had suggested
flogging Jesus and letting Him go, but the Jews said No, that He must be crucified. What was

it about crucifixion? Was there no other way they could have killed Him? They could have
chosen to stone Him. But, no, they insisted on crucifying Him. Jesus had already told
Nicodemus, in that famous third chapter of John, verses 14 & 15:

Just as Moses lifted up the [bronze] serpent in the desert [on a pole], so must the Son of Man
be lifted up [on the cross], so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life [after physical
death, and will actually live forever].

So going to the cross was a must for Jesus. It was His destiny and events would later lead Him
there. The question is: if his blood that guarantees the forgiveness of our sins was already
shed before the cross, and He had received the stripes that made us whole still before the
cross, why did He still go to the cross?

Let's consider Galatians 3:13:

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.

This scripture is a reference to Deuteronomy 21:18-23 that talks about a rebellious son who
has defied correction. The parents were to bring him to the elders and hand him over to be
killed, either by stoning to death or crucifixion. If He is crucified then the body must be taken
down that same day because he is cursed.

If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or
the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them:
Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his
city, and unto the gate of his place; And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son
is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard. And all
the men of his city shall stone him with stones that he die: so shalt thou put evil away from
among you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear. And if a man have committed a sin worthy of
death, and he be to be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree: His body shall not remain
all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is

accursed of God;) that thy land be not defiled, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an
inheritance.

The Pharisees applied this exact scripture to the case of Jesus. As far as they were concerned,
Jesus was extremely rebellious, claiming to be God and has desecrated everything they
considered holy and sacred, especially saying He would destroy the temple and rebuild it in
three days. The only thing that must be done to him is death and death on the cross. It is very
crucial for us to note that the Jews were not arbitrary in their decision and in the methods
they used to kill Jesus. Note what they told Pilate:

The Jews answered him, we have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made
himself the Son of God. (John 19:7)

Even though they had earlier said it wasnt lawful that they should put any man to death:

Pilate then went out unto them, and said, what accusation bring ye against this man? They
answered and said unto him, if he were not a malefactor, we would not have delivered him up
unto thee. Then said Pilate unto them, Take ye him, and judge him according to your law. The
Jews therefore said unto him, It is not lawful for us to put any man to death: That the saying
of Jesus might be fulfilled, which he spake, signifying what death he should die. (Joh 18:2932)

Here, they werent referring to their own law, but to the Roman law. Pilate understood this.
At this time, Israel was not a sovereign nation, they were under the dictatorship of Rome and
so they had no legal rights to execute anyone.

The question however is: was it Jesus that was really rebellious? What was it that qualified
Jesus for the cross from God's point of view? Whose stubbornness took Jesus to the cross?
What happened to Jesus, who knew no sin, to now become such a rebellious son that
deserved death on the cross? We find the answer in Isaiah 53: 5, 6 and 2 Corinthians 5:21.

But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The
chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned, every one, to his own way; and
the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the
righteousness of God in him. (2Co 5:21)

The Living Bible Translation captures this truth thus:

For God took the sinless Christ and poured into him our sins. Then, in exchange, he poured
Gods goodness into us.

So what is the matter here? What are we labouring to touch in these passages? We are
seeking to see what happened at the cross; what Jesus went to the cross to do.
At the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed a very passionate prayer so much so that the
sweat that came from him were like drops of blood. In that place of prayer, the bible records:
Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples,
Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder. And he took with him Peter and the two sons of
Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy. Then saith he unto them, my soul is
exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me. And he went a little
further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup
pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt. And he cometh unto the disciples,
and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour?
Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is
weak. He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may
not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done. And he came and found them
asleep again: for their eyes were heavy. And he left them, and went away again, and prayed
the third time, saying the same words. Then cometh he to his disciples, and saith unto them,
Sleep on now, and take your rest: behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of man is betrayed
into the hands of sinners. (Mat 26:36-45)

When they came to arrest him after this intense moments of prayer, the bible records thus:

Then Simon Peter having a sword drew it, and smote the high priest's servant, and cut off his
right ear. The servant's name was Malchus. Then said Jesus unto Peter, Put up thy sword into
the sheath: the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it? (Joh 18:10-11)

So, which cup was Jesus talking about? We already answered it in the passages in Isaiah 53
and 2 Corinthians 5:21. Jesus drank the iniquity of us all. God laid it on him. God poured into
Jesus our iniquity, our sinful nature. Please note that the King James Version stated that: He
who knew no sin became sin. It does not say he became a sinner. Jesus literally became sin.

The nature of sin that made it impossible for man to obey God was laid on Jesus, for no matter
how hard the natural man tries to obey God, he will never be able to do so. The natural man,
the man or nature we carried from our mothers womb, is irreparable and untameable. No
matter how many altar calls he answers, and no matter how many times he cries that he
would never commit that sin, the truth is that he cant stop sinning. Resolutions, no matter
how good they may appear, and no matter how loudly you make them, and no matter the
punishment you subject yourself to, cannot help a man who is still carrying the natural man
about.

Actually what man needs is not just the forgiveness of his sins for what use is forgiveness if
he still has to go back to committing the same sins. The only way out is that the natural man
must be put to death. He has to die. He has to go to the cross. If he doesnt die, there is no
way man would ever be able to serve God acceptably. Note that the Law was good and
perfect. The problem with the law was that the Law was being applied to a man that could
never obey it.

For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son
in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: (Rom 8:3)

You see that the Law was weak through the flesh. It was the flesh, the natural man, the sinful
nature we inherited from our parents that weakened the Law and made it ineffective.
For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. (Rom 7:14)

Jesus went to the cross to put to death, once and for all, the old man who would never be
able to obey God. Jesus carried him to the cross. When Jesus died, that old man died with
him. This is the real issue between God and man. Man had become rebellious; man can invent
all kind of sins. God knew that if He didnt deal decisively with this nature which always leads
us to sin, then we would never serve Him acceptably. Without this death on the cross, man
would never make it to heaven. The plan of God on the earth will remain forever frustrated
as long as the natural man is allowed to live. So being born again, the truth which Jesus
presented to Nicodemus, is only possible when we see Jesus on the cross bearing our iniquity.
It operates on the age old principle of faith. Faith which comes from a revelation of Gods
Word. Until a man sees this truth he cannot be saved.

Because we have not heard this truth presented to us, we have so many folks who say they
are born again, but when you ask them on what basis they make such claims, they are clueless.
For me it is pitiable for a preacher to spend 45 minutes talking about all sorts of things selfhelp principles, business principles, money principles, etc., and then to ease his conscience,
he now says: This message will not benefit you until you surrender your life to Jesus. If you
are going to be a partaker of these things, you need to accept Jesus today as your Lord and
Saviour. Is there anyone here who is yet to give his life to Christ, put your hands on your chest
and say after me? You see this action may seem like something has happened, but actually
nothing happened. The preacher has not presented the gospel. If the gospel, which clearly
states what Jesus did on the cross, has not been presented, nobody can ever be born again.
Hear what Brother Paul said to the Galatians:
Oh, foolish Galatians! What magician has hypnotized you and cast an evil spell upon you? For
you used to see the meaning of Jesus Christs death as clearly as though I had waved a
placard before you with a picture on it of Christ dying on the cross.

This, my friend, is what the Gospel is. A preacher must so labour in the place of prayer and
teaching until sinners see Christ dying on the cross; until they grasp the profound meaning of
that death.
So let me ask you, have you seen Jesus on the cross bearing your sin? Do you know that He
went to the cross to crucify your sinful nature, that natural you who have struggled to live a
holy life to no avail? Today, I ask you to pray and ask him to open your eyes to see.
In the wilderness, when Moses lifted up the serpent on a pole, it was only those who saw and
continued looking at the serpent that lived. To just hear that Moses lifted up the serpent was
not going to save anyone. The man needed to get to the exact location where the serpent
was lifted and behold the serpent, for him to live. So its not enough to hear that Jesus died,
you must, by the Holy Spirits inner working, behold Jesus on the cross by faith. You must see
the sinless son of God on that cross bearing your own very sinful nature on the cross. Until a
man sees this by faith, he cannot be saved.