Saturday, March 8, 2025
WHY THE CROSS?
Gal 3:13
13 Christ hath
redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is
written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:
As Palm Sunday, Good
Friday, and Easter rapidly approach the question of the cross once again needs to be asked.
Why the cross? The common method of execution used by the Jews was stoning, yet
throughout the Old Testament the Jews hanged dead enemies from trees or pieces
of wood, not by their neck but by their hands, as a means of dishonoring them.
Joshua did this with several kings he had defeated and then placed their bodies
in a cave and covered the opening of the cave with stones!
Regarding Jesus and
the cross, one commentary lists the following. “The Jews, in contempt, call Him
'the hanged one' [tolwiy], and Christians, 'worshippers of the hanged one;' and
make it their great objection that He died the accursed death (Trypho, in
Justin Martyr, p. 249; 1 Peter 2:24).
(From Jamieson,
Fausset, and Brown Commentary.)
Pastor Paul Gabriel gives these
thoughts on Jesus and the cross of wood.
1. The Lord deemed
that those who died on a "tree" would be cursed.
2. The cross fulfills the physical acts of swiping blood on the doorposts and
top piece of a doorway at the Passover.
3. The cross fulfills the physical act of holding up Moses' hands while
4. The cross fulfills the symbolic act of making a brazen serpent on a pole.
5. Crucifixion allowed for a slower, more painful, and more bloody death than
any other, demonstrating what God thinks of sin.
6. The atonement on a "tree" made up for the sin that came from the
original tree in
Dear Lord, thank you
for taking my curse and replacing it with your blessing, for taking my sin and
replacing it with your righteousness, and for taking my sentence of death and
replacing it with eternal life! AMEN
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