The Procession of the Cross

Far too many people ask, What does the Cross have to do with me. While there should certainly not be a Christian anywhere in the world or in history who would need to ask this question, there certainly are and have been many over time who never made the connection. The main reason behind this is because most “Christians” today are nominal in their faith and understanding (that is to say they are ignorantly idle) thanks to the normalization of Christianity under the Roman Emperor Constantine in the year 325 A.D. From that time until today being Christian was, for the majority of professing Christians, no longer about following a risen Savior but rather it became about following a popular (and occasionally mandated) trend.

There are others, however, who are not Christians and who would have a much stronger argument and basis for asking this question. In the following paragraphs you will see how it has everything to do with everyone no matter who they are. Furthermore, what was the purpose and reason for everything that occurred from the crucifixion to the death, resurrection, and ascension?

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

-John 3:16 (KJV)

To begin, there are some who believe in what’s called “Limited Atonement.” I won’t spend any time on it here because I reject the notion that God the Creator would have created everything and everyone He created and then gone through all that He had gone through for only a select few while the rest were created simply for the purpose of perishing. While in an eternal sense this is more or less what ultimately takes place (comparatively speaking), it conflicts with God’s nature when we place the emphasis on His doing rather than individual human choice. That does not seem very sensible or coalescent with God’s character or any of His attributes to me, so I won’t spend any more time on it but I do encourage any reader to take the time to learn about this doctrine on their own and through their own impartial research.

Therefore, assuming what I’ve just stated is true, then Jesus Christ came to Earth and lived and died according to the strict biblical narrative, which includes dying on the Cross for every soul He will have ever made. So in one plain (yet well-renowned) verse as shown above, the idea that Jesus did not die on the Cross for Atheists, Muslims, Pagans, etc. is proven simply false. Numerous other New Testament citations can attest to how Jesus came for the Jew first and the Gentile second or they could teach that there is this idea of a certain “Elect” group of people, and while these verses do to one degree or another truthfully convey who will ultimately be saved, they do not disqualify presently unsaved people from eventually becoming saved. Instead they simply speak to the finality of a collective soteriology.

There is a website called unclaimed.org. You may go there and submit your name to see if there are any unclaimed legal payouts that you have in your name that you may not know about. You may file a claim to any of them that seem as though they truly belong to you and some time after filing you’ll receive a decision. The Cross offers somewhat of the same opportunity for any person except there’s no wait and no rejection for those truly willing to give themselves over to Christ. While the Cross happened about 2,000 years ago, it’s available to any person to claim today. All you have to do is “visit” and submit your name to see if there’s a claim awaiting your response. The good news is that this Cross has always had your name tied to it and has just been waiting for you to “file your claim” as a follower of Christ. The payout, salvation, is yours to take.

So next the question becomes, why was all this necessary. In one man, Adam, sin was imputed to all people. Therefore, we are a fallen race and as a result have sin, and therefore we must eventually die. With God’s justice being perfect, it would also follow that through one Man’s righteousness we must eventually live. That One was Christ Jesus. God is perfectly holy and cannot even be in the presence of sin. Therefore, if we are to avoid the condemnation that our sins require (Rom 6:23), we must appear without blemish before God. This is something we cannot possibly do on our own so we simply need someone else to do it for us. 

But why should someone do it and why should that act be imputed to us? The answer to both questions is found in the same verse above, John 3:16. God chose to love us and to therefore save us. For this reason, if we choose to love Him, we will have acted according to the new covenant principle that we accept Jesus for who He is: The Son of God (among numerous other names and descriptions). We choose to accept his sacrifice as the unblemished lamb to serve as a propitiation of our sins. He who had no sin, and therefore was not required to die, did die anyway. He chose to do it even though He didn’t have to like the rest of us. He could have lived forever and reigned on Earth, but He knew that if He saved Himself that He would be condemning us all. As the old saying goes, He could have saved Himself and lost us all or lost His own life and gained us all.

Instead He chose to die so that we all might live. By Him dying on the Cross, God’s wrath was satisfied and God’s wrath needs to be satisfied because He is perfectly just and cannot be in the presence of sin. This is why it’s written: For the wages of sin is death… (Rom 6:23). If we die with any sin whatsoever, our judgment is as a blemished sinner who cannot be in the presence of the Lord. With Christ’s sacrifice imputed to us, we bear His righteousness and are judged free from sin, thereby being saved. Our place is actually on that cross for all the sins we have committed, but since Jesus did it for us and in light of the fact that He didn’t have to, we get a pass as long as we claim Him as our Savior.

So Jesus went to the Cross and was crucified, which became a sacrifice that I can claim as my own, and therefore died. As we saw above, the wages of sin is death and so Jesus had to suffer that penalty in order for it to be complete. 1 Peter 3:18-20 describes how Jesus went to preach to the spirits in “prison,” which is not to be misunderstood as additional or increased punishment. Nor is my choice of the word complete to be misconstrued as implying that His work on the Cross was unfinished. He did descend to Hades to announce His finished work to those who attempted to usurp Him prior to the days of the deluge, which marked the end of the height of their rebellion.

Still, in this time, while wrath and justice were appeased, the fact remained that Jesus, who was righteous, died when He shouldn’t have. So how does God right this wrong? How does He correct the evil? -He undoes it. The resurrection was a crowning moment to show the victory over death, which is the final arbiter in the wages of sin; the last enemy to defeat. By being raised from the dead as the righteous Son of God, He defeated death. Once again God’s justice, wisdom, and perfection prevail.

Jesus is risen and He is walking upon the Earth, finalizing His ministerial work. He is in a glorified body. He is performing more miracles and stunning more people than ever before. He does all these things in fewer than 2 months. He then ascends into Heaven right before everyone’s eyes. He is exalted at the right hand of God, where He rules forever without end, without contest. 

To Recap:

1. Jesus died to fill the need for sins to be punished

2. We enter into this covenant by confessing that He’s our Savior

3. We are therefore redeemed and not required to pay our own sin debt

4. Jesus goes to Hades proclaiming victory and is then raised from the dead

5. In being resurrected, He shows that death has no dominion over Him as it does others

6. In losing control over someone’s death, death itself is defeated

7. Jesus proclaims this victory to the objects of His work

8. Jesus ascends, occupying His rightful place as sovereign Ruler

Once again, what does this have to do with me? It was FOR you and me. You and I belong on that cross for the sins that we’ve committed, not Jesus. He, in fact, is the one and only person who never deserved it. Without His sacrifice, there would be no point in going on in life because it would all end in the vapor of death irrespective of how many good works we accomplish. If you have not yet called on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I implore you to do so now. It is a free gift of God to be saved by His grace (Eph 2:8-9).