The Big Story: Jesus Is Crucified


God's Big Story has a climax.  This climax is Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection.  Everything that happened before these prepared the way for them.  Everything that happened after was built on them. 

What was happening when Jesus was crucified?  That's a question theologians have pondered for thousands of years?  None of us can comprehend all that was going on in those hours.  Jesus' followers didn't understand at the time.  They would begin to understand only after the resurrection.

Two key words the New Testament uses to tell about what was going on when Jesus died on the cross are "redemption" and "reconciliation."

In Romans 3:22b-26, the apostle Paul says that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by the redemption that came by his grace in Christ.  "Justified" means to be declared "not guilty."  "Redemption" is to be freed of a debt.  

In the ancient world, your creditor could put you in prison to force you to repay a debt.  Most people were in prison because they couldn't pay.  If they were blessed, someone who loved them would pay their debt for them.  They called that person a "redeemer."  

Our sin is like a debt we owe God.  Jesus was our redeemer who paid our debt for us by his death on the cross.  

In 2 Corinthians 5:18-21, Paul wrote that God reconciled himself with us to himself through Christ.  He made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so we could be the righteousness of God.  We all know what reconciliation means.  It's what happens when parties who have a broken relationships mend them.  The breach between humanity and God goes back to the Garden of Eden.  God mended that breach through Jesus' death on the cross.

God provided for our redemption and reconciliation through Jesus' death on the cross.  But for us to be redeemed and reconciled, we must receive them by faith.  We have to respond by putting our faith in Jesus as God's unique Son who died for us on the cross and rose from the dead.

If you've never received this gift for yourself, we join with the apostle Paul in saying, "We implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God!"

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