11-Chapter 4. The Decisive Battle On Golgotha
Chapter 4. The Decisive Battle On Golgotha
“Theologia crucis—theologia lucis” The theology of the cross is the theology of the light.—Luther. The hatred of the Pharisees brought Christ to the cross. The execution of Jesus was the greatest judicial murder in the history of the world. “It was the most cowardly murder of an ambassador, the foulest outrage that rebels at any time committed against a kind father of their fatherland.” But what did God do?
“He has turned this devilishly mean rebellion against His person into the atonement for the salvation of these rebels! He has answered this blow on His holy face with the kiss of reconciling love! We wrought the extreme of goodness toward us, and both at the same hour.” Thus at the same moment the shameful deed at the cross became by redemption the turning point of human history and of the whole drama of universal super-history.
According to the latest reckoning the crucifixion of Jesus took place most probably on the 7th April, A.D. 30. From every point of view the cross proves itself to be the victorious foundation of redemption.
[1] The Significance of the Cross for God. The cross is the greatest event in the history of salvation, greater even than the resurrection. The cross is the victory, the resurrection the triumph; But the victory is more important than the triumph, although the latter necessarily follows from it. The resurrection is the public display of the victory, the triumph of the Crucified One. But the victory itself was complete. “It is finished” (John 19:30). For God the cross is
1. The supreme evidence of the LOVE of God. For there the Lord of all life gave up unto death His most Beloved, His only begotten Son, the Mediator and Heir of creation (Colossians 1:16; Hebrews 1:2-3). Christ the Lord died on the cross, He for Whom the stars circle in the ether and for Whom every gnat dances in the sunshine (Hebrews 2:10). Truly “in this God proves his love toward us, in that Christ died for us while we were still sinners” (Romans 5:8). At the same time the cross is
2. The greatest evidence of the RIGHTEOUSNESS of God. For there the Judge of the world “as proof of his righteousness” (Romans 3:25) did not spare even His own Son (Romans 8:32). In all the centuries before Golgotha, in spite of many individual judgments (Romans 1:18 ff.), God had not at any time visited sin with a hundred per cent punishment (Acts 17:30); so that at length, because of His patience, His holiness appeared to be called in question “because of the passing over of sins done aforetime, in the forbearance of God” (Romans 3:25). Therefore only the atoning death of the Redeemer, as Divine self-justification for the past history of mankind, proves the irrefutable righteousness of the supreme Judge of the world. All the patience of the past was possible only in view of the cross (Romans 3:25), and all future forgiveness is righteous only through looking back to the cross (Romans 3:26; 1 John 1:9). Past patience (Romans 3:25), present judgment (John 12:31), and future grace meet at the cross (Romans 5:8-9). Therefore now for the first time, in a unique manner, the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel (Romans 1:17; 2 Corinthians 3:9), the righteousness of God as both a Divine attribute and also a Divine gift which comes from God and is valid before God (2 Corinthians 5:21). Precisely because of this the cross is
3. The most marvellous augmentation of the RICHES of God. “Thou was slain, and didst purchase unto God with thy blood men of every tribe and tongue, and people, and nation, and madest them to be unto our God a kingdom and priest” (Revelation 5:9). They are now acquired for God, a “people for His possession” (1 Peter 2:9), a people who are His own property (Titus 2:14). Yet it is not as if the wealth acquired by the cross meant an augmentation of the Divine glory itself—for God in Himself is infinite; yet it is true that in the church He has won an instrument, an organ for the revelation of His glory. Even now in the present the office of the church is not limited to the earth. Even now “shall be made known to the principalities and authorities in the heavenly world the manifold wisdom of God” (Ephesians 3:10-11). Brother or sister, let therefore thy spirit raise itself up out of the everyday dust! In thee should the principalities in the heavenly world learn something of the wisdom of thy God! Upwards, to meet the stars! Yes, beyond, above the stars! Let thy heart dwell by the throne of God, the Almighty, thy and my Father!
[2] The Significance of the Cross for Christ For Christ and God the cross is
1. The highest acknowledgment of the authority of God; for the Son became obedient unto death, yea, the death of the cross (Php 2:8; Romans 5:19). It is
2. The highest perfection of faith in God; for He has “learned obedience by the things which He suffered” (Hebrews 5:8-9), and has thus become the “beginner” and “perfect exhibiter” of faith (Hebrews 12:2; comp. 2:13). It is
3. The most definite augmentation of the good pleasure of God; for He gave Himself an offering “to be to God a sweet smelling odour” (Ephesians 5:2); and it is
4. A ground of the eternal continuance of the love of the Father to the Son: “Therefore the Father loves me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it again” (John 10:17). As it concerns Christ personally, for Him the cross is
5. The way to the transfiguration of His position of love and power into that of Victor, from His being “in the bosom of the Father” (John 1:18) unto the sitting “at the right hand of the majesty in the heights” (Php 2:9; Hebrews 2:9; Hebrews 8:1). And further, it is
6. The way to the possession of His redeemed church, from His being “alone” as the corn of wheat, passing through death, unto victorious glorification and fruitfulness (John 12:24). Only so could the “Leader (Hebrews 2:10), and win the joy that lay before Him (Hebrews 12:2). Only so could Christ become the Firstborn among many brethren (Romans 8:29) and the Head of His members (Ephesians 1:22). Only so could He acquire His “fulness,” His “body,” that “church which is the fulness of him who fills all things in all” (Ephesians 1:23). Certainly as a Divine Person Christ has won nothing through the cross. The glorified Man in heaven possesses now no more divinity and personal glory than as the eternal Word He had before He became incarnate. He Himself said: “Glorify me, Father, by thyself with the glory which I had by thee before the world was” (John 17:5). But as the Redeemer and “last Adam” (Romans 5:12-21; 1 Corinthians 15:45) Christ has nevertheless attained a fresh exaltation, even the name which is above every name, in which every knee shall at last bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth (Php 2:9-10). And finally, as regards Christ’s relation to us, the cross is
7. The most wonderful expression of the love of the Son of God. “Christ has loved the church and given Himself up for her” (Ephesians 5:25; Galatians 2:20). He has made His agonizing death on the cross to be the source of our life, and thus has answered our gainsaying and hatred with redeeming love. Thereby Satan’s apparent victory became his most mighty and decisive overthrow, and the apparent overthrow of Jesus became His most mighty and triumphant victory.
[3] The Significance of the Cross for Us A. THE INDIVIDUAL ASPECT For the individual the cross has a double meaning: it is the basis of his justification, the putting his past in order legally; and the basis of his sanctification, the ruling of his present morally.
1. The Ground of Justification. Our sins must all be laid on the Surety (Isaiah 53:6); He must bear them as substitute for others (1 Peter 2:24; Hebrews 9:28), so that they, having died to sin, shall now live unto righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21). And as the destruction of man was occasioned by the Fall, historically one single event (Genesis 3:1-24), so must he now, in the same manner, be raised from his fall, by the Surety through one single event, the “one act of righteousness” of Golgotha (Romans 5:18) 9
Footnote 9: The Greek word dikaioma (righteous deed), which Paul uses here, in distinction from dikaiosyne (righteousness as an attribute), means a single right act. Not through the righteousness (dikaiosyne) of the holy life on earth of Jesus was salvation gained, but through the one act of righteousness, His obedience unto death. Of course, both belong together. As the nature of sin consists in the separation of the creature from the Creator, who is the Source of all life, it consists consequently in his death; and because of the necessity that sin and propitiation shall correspond; therefore must the Redeemer endure the sentence of this death, and thus through His death effect the restoration of life. “Without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Hebrews 9:22). Only through death could He take away the strength of him who had the power of death, the Devil (Hebrews 2:14). The redemption must consist in this, that death, this great enemy of men (1 Corinthians 15:56), must become the means of their salvation, and that which is the necessary continuance and punishment of sin must become the way of redemption from sin (Ephesians 2:16). But this means that the death of Christ is the death of death. 10 Compare the brazen serpent in the wilderness (Numbers 21:6; Numbers 21:8; John 3:14), and how David slew Goliath with Goliath’s own sword (1 Samuel 17:51).
Footnote 10: “At CASTLE CAMPS the following quaint epitaph upon a former rector:
Mors mortis norti nortem nisi morte dedisset, Aeternae Vitae Janua clausa foret. The translation is obviously:
Unless the Death of Death (Christ) had given death to death by His own death, the gate of eternal life had been closed.”
H. E. Norfolk’s Gleanings in Graveyards, p. 11 (1861). [Trans.] This is the logic of salvation. It stands firmly rooted and unimpeachable in God’s redeeming plan. On its compelling demonstration all proud attacks of unbelief are shattered. The hated “blood theology” of the Bible (Hebrews 9:22), with the crucified Christ as its centre (1 Corinthians 2:2; Galatians 3:1), remains nevertheless the rock of salvation: to many, indeed, a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence (1 Peter 2:8) a sign everywhere spoken against (Acts 28:22; Luke 2:34); but to the redeemed the living corner stone, chosen, costly, and most firmly grounded (1 Peter 2:4; 1 Peter 2:6; Isaiah 28:16; Psalms 118:22). It is appointed to be the falling and rising of many (like 2:34); to the one a saviour of death unto death, to the other a saviour of life unto life (2 Corinthians 2:15-16); to the Jews a stumbling-block, to the Greeks folly (1 Corinthians 1:23), but in either case the truth (Romans 15:8), the power (1 Corinthians 1:18), and the wisdom of the Most High (1 Corinthians 1:24).
Note on Substitution. So deeply was the thought of substitution impressed in advance on the Old Testament that sometimes it uses one and the same word for sin and sin offering (Heb. chata-ah). In Exodus 34:7 and 1 Samuel 2:17 this word means sin; in Numbers 32:23 and Isaiah 5:18, the punishment of sin; and Leviticus 6:18; Leviticus 6:23 and Ezekiel 40:39 the sin offering. Thus also Christ, Who knew no sin, was “made sin for us,” that is was caused to be the sin offering (2 Corinthians 5:21). indeed, He himself testified to this truth of substitution. It was not first taught by Paul, whom unbelief slanders as the “falsifier” of Christianity. for in Matthew 20:28 Christ says Himself that He gives His life “a ransom price instead of many,” where for “instead of” the original text uses anti. It cannot be denied that this word has here the sense of “in place of;” for when, for example, at Genesis 22:13 the Greek Old Testament says that Abraham offered the ram “for” (Gk. anti) his son; or when in the catalogue of the kings it says that the son became king “for” (anti) his deceased father (Genesis 36:33-35; etc.) it is plain that anti has the meaning “instead of.” Thus Paul drew from Christ Himself his right to describe the self-offering of the Lord as a “ransom price instead of all” (anti-lutron, 1 Timothy 2:6). For the saved the cross is then
2. The Basis of Sanctification. Christ the lord died on the cross that we might be saved from the cross. That for us is the excluding, judicial side of His death, the release provided by Golgotha. Nevertheless, in spite of this, Christ died there on the cross in order that we should come on the cross together with Him. This for us is the including, moral side of His death, the obligation of Golgotha. We are “planted together” with the Crucified One and associated organically with “the likeness of his death” (Romans 6:5). We are followers, cross-bearers (Matthew 10:38), corns of wheat as He was, who only through death really live (John 12:24-25). We are called to share in the character of the indeed dark, but none the less precious foundation of our own redemption. We have been “crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20). For us
(a) The world around is dead through the Crucified One. Through the cross it is “crucified” for us and we to the world (Galatians 6:14).
(b) The world within us is likewise with us on the cross, “Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him ... that we should no more serve sin” (Romans 6:6; Romans 6:11).
(c) The world beneath us is completely conquered through the cross; for “after that Christ had disarmed the powers and authorities, he set them publicly in the pillory and through the cross triumphed over them” (Colossians 2:15; Genesis 3:15). And finally through the cross
(d) The world above us is, for us, grace and blessing; for the curse of the law is done away (Galatians 3:13). The indictment contained in its commandments, which testified against us, is cancelled and nailed to the cross (Colossians 2:14). God’s glance can no longer fall on it without at the same time falling on the cross. It likewise has died together and been crucified with Him: “I through the law died to the law, that I might live unto God” (Galatians 2:19). The law of God had suspended death over the sinner (Galatians 3:10), and Christ has borne this in his place. Thus Christ also has died “through” the law. But thereby the law has lost any further valid claim against Him, even as by means of the execution the man condemned to death passes out of the relation of a subject to the authority that executes him. Thus Christ also is now dead to the law. Now what Christ experienced the believer in Him experienced together with Him (Romans 6:5-11). Thus is he also dead as regards the law, and lives now in the liberty of the One raised from the dead (Romans 7:4).
B. THE CORPORATE ASPECT For mankind corporately also there has been introduced through the cross a completely new order, in three respects: inwardly—by removal of the law; outwardly—by admission of all nations to salvation; in general—by the universal triumph of the Crucified.
1. The Removal of the Law. As to the inner life the cross signifies the fulfilment and therefore the abolition of all Levitical sacrifices (Hebrews 10:10-14), and therewith the annulment of the Levitical law in general (Hebrews 7:18); for the sacrifices were the basis of the priesthood, and the priesthood was the foundation of that law (Hebrews 7:11). But thus Christ through the cross has become “the end of the law” (Romans 10:4), and also the surety of a better covenant (Hebrews 7:22), even the new covenant (Matthew 26:28), through which “the called receive the promise of eternal inheritance” (Hebrews 9:15-17). But inasmuch as the Levitical priesthood is dissolved the “former tabernacle” is gone (Hebrews 9:8), the veil of the temple is rent (Matthew 27:51), the way into the most holy place is free (Hebrews 9:8; Hebrews 10:19-22), and the whole people of God is now a kingdom of priests (1 Peter 2:9; Revelation 1:6).
2. The Admission of all Nations to Salvation. But as the law is done away inwardly it must also have been done away outwardly. Until the cross the law, as Israel’s “tutor unto Christ” (Galatians 3:24), was the “hedge” that separated the Jewish people from the peoples of the world (Ephesians 2:14). The nations were “without law” (Romans 2:12), and “aliens as regards the covenants of the promise” (Ephesians 2:12). There existed a tension between the two, a kind of “enmity” in the annals of salvation (Ephesians 2:15), which did not permit those “far off” and those “near” to come together. But now Christ is “our peace.” By the fulfilment of the law He has removed “the middle wall of partition,” and both, Jews and Gentiles, in the one body of His church, He has reconciled to one another, as well as to God, through the cross (Ephesians 2:13-16).
Therefore the fulfilment of the law through the death of Christ signified that “the promise to Abraham had broken through the bounds of the Mosaic law” (comp. Genesis 12:3; Galatians 3:13-14). This further meant the enlargement of salvation beyond Israel to the peoples of the world, and the way, by the extreme straitness of the cross, out into all-embracing breadth, and so the passing from the nationalism of preparation into the universalism of fulfilment (John 11:52). “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all to me” (John 12:32).
3. The Universal Triumph of the Crucified. “Now is the [or, as R.V. mgn, a] judgment of this world. Now shall the prince of this world be cast out” (John 12:31). It was through the cross that the dying One triumphed (Revelation 5:5-6). It was through the cross that He robbed the principalities of their armour (Colossians 2:14-15). It was through His death that He took away the might of him who had the power of death, the Devil (:Hebrews 2:14). Hence His victorious cry “It is finished” (John 19:30). The casting out of Satan as to its power—it is based on Golgotha (John 12:31); as to its realization—it comes about gradually (Matthew 12:29); as to its final result—it will in sue time be complete (Revelation 20:10).
Therefore the double sense in Scripture of the expression “uplifted” (John 3:14; John 8:28; John 12:32; Php 2:9). For the being “lifted up” on the cross and the being “exalted” to the throne of heaven belong together, and in Greek the one word is used for both events. The Crucified One is the Crowned One (Php 2:8-11; Hebrews 2:9); and therefore must the old prince of this world be cast out, because the new, the rightful Prince will enter.
Therefore the earth shook at the death of the Lord (Matthew 27:12), and the sun lost its light (Luke 23:44-45). For the cross of Christ is the great NO of God to every display of sin (John 12:31). Therefore in the day of the world’s destruction the earth will be convulsed (Haggai 2:6; Hebrews 12:26-27) and the sun be covered with shame (Isaiah 24:23); the moon will no more shine, the stars will grow pale, and heaven and earth will flee from before the great white throne (Revelation 20:11). But then, indeed, out of the old world, by the transfiguration of its basic elements, which had been dissolved by fiery heat, there will emerge a new and glorious world; and as at the end of the time the universe must experience its death, its “Golgotha,” so also, immediately after, on the basis of the cross, it will experience its resurrection and Easter morning through the transfiguring power of God. This is the prophetic meaning of the darkening of the sun and of the quaking of the earth in the moment of the death on Golgotha.
4. Christ the Corn of Wheat. Through all these experiences “Christ became the corn of wheat whose world-redeeming love laid Him in the earth on Good Friday; the corn of wheat which on Easter Sunday broke through the soil and began to grow towards heaven; the corn of wheat whose golden stalk ascended to heaven on Ascension Day; the corn of wheat whose ears, rich with myriads of grains, bent to the earth on Pentecost and scattered the seeds out of which the church should be born” (John 12:24).
5. The Cross from Eternity to Eternity. Thus we see the cross everywhere: the cross in eternity—the Lamb foreknown before the foundation of the world; the cross in the past—Gethsemane, Gabbatha, Golgotha; the cross in the present—the crucified Christ as the living foundation theme of our own proper proclamation (1 Corinthians 2:2); the cross in the future—the Saviour formerly humbled as then King of the manifested Messianic kingdom (Php 2:8-11); and the cross in the glory—the message that the Lamb is the precious stone which is the foundation of the heavenly city (Revelation 21:14), and, in the midst of the throne, the Lamb Himself as the object of worship of the blessed spirits (Revelation 5:6-10).