Contemplations on the Cross

(You'd better have your cup of coffee and some uninterrupted time...watch out! This one's a long one!)

I haven’t blogged in while and I can blame it mostly on Oswald. He’s been talking about the agony of the cross. And it’s hard for me to think about the agony of Calvary without wondering, “why?”. Why did it have to be the cross? Why couldn’t an all powerful God forgive our sins in a less gruesome way? Why did it have to cause Jesus so much pain and shame? Why was this the way it had to be done? Why did it have to be the sacrifice- the painful death- of an only Son? Why such heartbreak to redeem mankind from the slavery of sin?

I came across a verse in 1 Timothy 3:16 that frustrated me but rang so true:

Beyond all question the mystery of godliness is great.

God’s ways are a mystery- beyond my understanding. Yes, I knew that was true:
Isaiah 55:8-9:
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my way,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts

But for me these are almost a cop-out. To say I cannot understand the horror of the cross simply because God is not understandable? Is it my pride that keeps me from blindly accepting this? I want to know the mystery of godliness. I want to understand His ways. Why did God allow me to have this longing?

Ephesians 1:9-10
And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment- to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.

There it was: a hint, a glimpse, that God wanted me to understand his ways. It is God’s will that Christ be the way- the One, that brings God and mankind together again. And we, according to this verse, can know this.

Isaiah 53:10-11
Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer and though the Lord makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. After the suffering of his soul he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many and he will bear their iniquities.

God is all powerful. He could save the world in any way He saw fit. And He saw fit that it be the sacrifice and torture of His only Son.

1 Timothy 2:5-6
For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men.

Jesus is fully God and fully man. Mankind can look upon him and claim him as a sacrifice from humanity to God. God looks upon him and sees the holiness of Himself, sacrificed for mankind. And God and man are brought together through the perfection of this sacrifice of Jesus. Both God and man find his sacrifice an acceptable atonement for sin.

For me the agony of the cross is sufficient to move me to repentance. I look on it and am ashamed that my sin is significant enough to cause this suffering. I am truly sorry for the anguish I have caused Him. I am moved to turn from my wickedness and become totally a slave to Christ. Thank God that He knew what I needed to move me towards Him. How sorry I am that Calvary is what it took.