Jesus' sacrifice on the cross

A Holy God, The Creator, came down from Heaven to be beat, spit on and violently murdered by the created who He loves, just so they have a means to spend eternity with Him. Sounds like a pretty hefty sacrifice to me. Don't look at it as our earthly children, they are a separate entity from us. God the Father, God the Son, and the Holy Spirit are ONE. Hard for our finite minds to grasp.

 

From Phil. 2, ESV

5Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

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A significant part of it was his humbling from the privileges of divinity to the suffering of one despised and rejected.

 

You must understand that on the cross Jesus Christ, God the Son, perfect in righteousness and holiness took upon himself the sins of the world. The Apostle Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Now you and I being sinful men cannot really understand the righteousness of God. Therefore, we cannot fully understand the real sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

 

Crucifixion is the worst of all deaths. The Romans had perfected the "art" of making people suffer as long as possible before death. The person was placed naked on the cross (he was humiliated in front of all men and women), the nails were driven between the two bones in the forearm ("hand" in the Greek can mean everything below the elbow) piercing a nerve that sent waves of excruciating pain through their shoulders, similar nail through the ankle (no broken bones), the man was lifted up and the cross set in place. As the man slumped down, his airway was cut off, not allowing him to breathe. He had to push himself up in order to take a breath. Waves of excruciating pain through his legs. As long as he remained up, he could breathe. He was exposed to the sun and the elements and birds and insects. Some men could last several days before their legs became so exhausted, they could no longer push themselves up, and they sufficated.

Added to this, Jesus bore our sins on the cross. We cannot imagine how repulsive sin is to God, and yet Jesus bore it all. He endured the wrath of God the Father who poured out His wrath upon Christ.

Jesus was fully human and suffered as any man would. He was fully God and endured wrath that only God could endure. He was perfect and sinless and had a place of perfect Glory in heaven, but allowed himself to be humiliated in the eyes of his earthly mother and friends, and died a "slaves death", which was what crucifixion was.

While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Why we were still rebellious toward God, Christ suffered in our place. While we were the enemies of God, Christ reconciled us through His blood.

That is no small sacrifice.

 

Jesus was:

tempted
humiliated
betrayed
rejected
hated
threatened to be stoned
falsely accused
mocked
scourged
hit
spit on
nailed to the cross
endured thrist on the cross
stabbed


And after he suffered all of this (and more), he died on that cross and took on all our sins. His sacrifice was God's salvation plan for us. Jesus suffered more that we could ever know and ever will. Yet, he loved us and asked us to give him our burdens for His yoke is light (Matt. 11:30).

 

you just have to keep this in mind. The one who died on that cross is not just a man who loved us and was worthy enough to die for our sins in our place... He was GOD almighty. god who did not have to die but chose to become a substitute. All sin must be paid in death (romans 6:23). We deserve to die for our sin agianst a holy God. Jesus died, God died on the cross that we would not have to taste eternal hell fire (the second death). He suffered bitterly for our sins. Do not focus just on the death but on the devotion that the God of the universe cared enough about you that he become human, prone to feeling all pain as we feel it and took brutal lashes and died. I suggest watching the passion of the Christ to see just how far in pain he went for our sins. Very descriptive movie.