Entering Into God’s Presence

Knowing God Through His Nature & Character

Jesus Crucified (A Personal Attribute of God’s Nature)

To Study and Ponder:

• The greatest act of love in the history of the human race happened about two thousand years ago on a wooden cross. What were the implications of this act of love? How should we respond to such love shown by both Father and Son? What does the cross mean for us today? The sufferings of Christ, the purpose of the cross and how we live “crucified with Christ” will be the focus of this unit.

• Take time to read & watch one or two of the four Gospel accounts of the crucifixion, asking God to prepare your heart for the unit. (Matt.26:47- 27:61; Mk.14:53-15:47; Lu.22:47-23:56; Jn.18-19) Consider what Jesus physically suffered in his trials and death.

• As we see the Father’s longing that our relationship with him be restored, and what it cost him, our understanding of his immense love deepens ... our hearts respond back to Him with love. Hebrews speaks of how God has spoken to us through his son(Ch.1:2) and of how Jesus crucified is the perfect sacrifice, once and for all, that enables us to come into God’s presence! (Ch.9:9 -10:22)

• Paul wrote to the Corinthians about that which he considered to be of first importance: the death of Christ! “I passed on to you what was most important...: Christ died for our sins just as the Scriptures said.”1 Cor.15:3. Paul saw pictures of the cross, the suffering and death of Jesus in the Old Testament scriptures – written hundreds of years prior to it actually happening!

• Isaiah 53; Psalm 22:1-18; 69:21; Zechariah 12:10

• Exodus 12 (the Passover lamb being slain)

• Numbers 21:4-9 (bronze snake lifted up as Jesus was–John 3:14)

• Paul also writes, “I decided that while I was with you I would forget everything except Jesus
  Christ, the one who was crucified” 1Co 2:2. “When [Jesus] was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing” Gal 3:13. God “made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross” Col 1:20. “The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved
  know it is the very power of God” 1Co 1:18. Peter adds, “He never sinned, nor ever deceived anyone. He did not retaliate when he was insulted, nor threaten revenge when he suffered. He left his case in the hands of God, who always judges fairly. He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you are healed” 1Pe 2:22-24.

• In his letter to the Philippians Paul adds depth to our understanding of the love expressed in Jesus crucified, and speaks of his resurrection to a place of honor. “...he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.” ch.2:8. Meditate on the whole passage (ch.2:5-11). NB the resurrection was always preached alongside the cross Acts 2:32; 4:10; 1Co.15:3-4

• We should approach the cross in worshipful response. Read and reflect upon some of the amazing hymns of the church that speak of the cross:- I will Sing the Wondrous Story (Francis H. Rowley), When I Survey the Wondrous Cross (Isaac Watts), Amazing Love (Charles Wesley)

• Much has been written on the cross because it is at the very heart of the gospel. Two great books to consider reading are: The Atonement, by Albert Barnes; Evidence that Demands a Verdict, by Josh McDowell. Both are available for free on the internet.

• Ponder quotes from others about the cross and the great love of God (at the end of Meditation pdf)

• As followers of Jesus we are called to walk the way of the cross:-

• Paul wrote “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me.” Gal. 2:20. (See also Galatians 5:24; 6:14; Colossians 3:1-6)

• Jesus said “if any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me.” Matt 16:24 (Luke 9:23, Mark 8:34)

Meditation/Memory:

Lower Grades: He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right.  1Peter 2:24  (NLT) 

Who then will condemn us? No one – for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting at the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us. Romans 8:34 (NLT)

He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves, instead they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them. 2 Corinthians 5:15 (NLT)

Middle Grades: When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. Therefore God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all names. Philippians 2:8-9  (NLT)

We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin.  Romans 6:6-7 (NLT)

Let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne. Hebrews 12:1b-2 (NLT)

Upper Grades:  I passed on to you what was most important and what has been also passed on to me: Christ died for our sins just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 (NLT)

My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Galatians 2:20 (NLT)

But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. All of us like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all. Isaiah 53:5-6 (NLT) 

Quotes about the Cross and the Great Love of God

“The riddle of Christ is to be found in His sacrificial spirit culminating in His cross. To understand this is to understand Christ, to understand Christ is to understand God, and to understand God is to understand the meaning of the universe and of life. The cross, then, is the key. If I loose this key, I fumble. The universe will not open to me. But with the key in my hand and heart I know I hold it’s secret.” –E. Stanley Jones

“The Psalm of the Cross begins with “My God, my God why hast Thou forsaken me?’ and ends, according to some, in the original ‘it is finished.’ For plaintive expressions uprising from unutterable depths of woe we may say of this Psalm, “there is none like it.’ It is the photograph of our Lord’s saddest hours, the record of His dying words, the lachrymatory of His last tears, the memorial of His expiring joys. David and his afflictions may be here in a modified sense, but as the star is concealed by the light of the sun, he who sees Jesus will probably neither see or care to see David. Before us we have a description both of the darkness and of the glory of the cross, the sufferings of Christ and the glory which shall follow. Oh for grace to draw near and see this great sight! We should read reverently, putting off our shoes from our feet as Moses did at the burning bush, for if there be holy ground anywhere in scripture it is in this psalm.”                                Charles H. Spurgeon

“We point to the cross of Christ. It is our Cross and we take its conquest. Reveal the cross through the name of Jesus. Oh, open the heavens. Descend upon us now. Tear open our hearts -tear- give us such a sight of Calvary that our hearts may be broken. Reveal the Cross for the sake of Jesus – the Cross that is to conquer the world. Place us under the blood. Forbid that we should think of what men may say of us.”    

-Prayer of Evan Roberts during the Welsh revival

                                  There is no gain but by loss,

        You cannot save but by a cross

                                   The corn of wheat to multiply

        Must fall into the ground and die.

                                   Wherever you ripe fields behold, 

                                   Waving to God their sheaves of gold,

 Be sure some corn of wheat has died-

 Some soul has there been crucified;

 Someone has wrestled, wept and prayed,

 And fought hell’s legions undismayed.

                  Unknown

“It is wonderful to observe how full Paul’s epistles generally are of the suffering and death of Christ. He enlarges on the subject constantly. He returns to it continually. It is the golden thread that runs through all of his doctrinal teaching and practical exhortation. He seems to think that even the most advanced Christian can never hear too much of the Cross.

-J.C. Ryle

Lord when I am weary of toiling,

And burdensome seem Thy commands,

If my load should lead to complaining,

Lord, show me Thy hands,-

Thy nail pierced hands, Thy cross-torn hands

My Saviour, show me Thy hands.

Christ, if ever my footsteps should falter,

And I be prepared for retreat,

If desert or thorn cause lamenting,

Lord, show me Thy feet,-

     Thy bleeding Feet, Thy nail-scarred Feet,-

My Jesus, show me Thy feet.

    O God, dare I show Thee

    My hands and My feet.”

-Brenton Thoburn Badley

From prayer that asks that I may be 

Sheltered from winds that beat on Thee, 

From fearing when I should aspire, 

From faltering when I should climb higher, 

From silken self, O Captain, free 

Thy soldier who would follow Thee. 

From subtle love of softening things, 

From easy choices, weakenings, 

Not thus are spirits fortified; 

Not this way went the Crucified. 

From all that dims Thy Calvary, 

O Lamb of God, deliver me.

Amy Carmichael

None of Self

Oh, the bitter shame and sorrow

    That a time could ever be

When I when I let the Saviour’s pity

Plead in vain, and proudly answered:

    All of self and none of Thee!

Yet He found me; I beheld Him

    Bleeding on th’ accursed tree,

Heard Him pray: Forgive them , Father;

And my wistful heart said faintly:

    Some of self and some of Thee!

Day by day His tender mercy,

    Healing, helping, full and free,

Sweet and strong and, ah! So patient,

Brought me lower, while I whispered:

    Less of self and more of Thee!

Higher than the highest heaven,

    Deeper than the deepest sea,

Lord, Thy love at last has conquered;

Grant me now my spirit’s longing:                  

    None of self and all of Thee!

                                        -Theo Monod

The inner knowledge of the Cross can never be grasped by the intellect. The death of Christ at Calvary was something so awesome and terribly real, that only they who enter experimentally into that death can get even a glimpse into it. The message of the Cross can never merely be a “doctrine”, for it was something more than that to Christ. 

Jesse Penn-Lewis

The believer’s death with Christ upon His Cross therefore means being crucified to the world in all of its aspects. Not to be a miserable, joyless person, but one filled with the joy and glory of another world. It is not the ‘cross’ that makes us miserable, but the absence of it. It is a delivering Cross-a cross that liberates you to have the very foretaste of heaven in you, as already shares of the power of the age to come.

Jessie Penn-Lewis

You cannot love Jesus with impunity; you cannot meet the cross with impunity; whether you accept it or shirk it, the encounter leaves a wound.” -unknown

"The new cross does not slay the sinner; it redirects him. It gears him into a cleaner and jollier way of living and saves his self-respect. To the self-assertive it says, 'Come assert yourself for Christ.' To the egoist it says, 'Come and do your boasting in the Lord.' To the thrill-seeker it says, 'Come and enjoy the thrill of the abundant Christian life.

The idea behind this kind of thing may be sincere, but this kind of sincerity does not save it from being false. It misses completely the whole message of the cross. The cross is a symbol of death. It stands for the abrupt, violent end of a person. God salvages the individual by liquidating him and then raising him to newness of life.

This false teaching of "The New Cross" has wreaked havoc all across our nation. This message seeks to comfort rather than convict. People are told, "Just say this sinner's prayer and accept God's forgiveness and grace." There is one major element missing from this message. What must we do to be saved? - REPENT! Any message that does not require repentance from sin and a resulting outward change is a Cross-less message and is false.”

          A.W. Tozer (The old Cross and the New)

"Hast thou no scar? 

No hidden scar on foot or side or hand? 

I hear thee sung as mighty in the land. 

I hear them hail thy bright ascendant star. 

Hast thou no scar?

Hast thou no wound?

Yet I was wounded by the archers, spent, 

leaned Me against a tree to die, and rent  

by ravening beasts that compassed Me. 

I swooned. 

Hast thou no wound? 

No wound? No scar? 

Yet as the master must the servant be,

 and pierced are the feet that follow Me, 

but thine are whole. 

Can he have followed far who has no wound or scar?"

Amy Carmichael