Chapter 5
Cross
If God had placed His most sincere and most core nature in the crucifixion of Yeshua HaMessiach, then it needs to be (is) the most important consideration of every human being on this planet. This takes us back to basics of Christian faith and places on them the most influential and most supreme necessity. The “baby food” of the faith is now the meat, and the meat of the faith is now immaterial and minor.
In Isaiah 53, we are given a prophetic scene that was spoken of hundreds of years before Jesus’ death. In order to rightly comment on this text, we must first start in the previous chapter of Isaiah 52:
13 See, my servant will act wisely;
he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted.
14 Just as there were many who were appalled at him—
his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being
and his form marred beyond human likeness—
15 so he will sprinkle many nations,
and kings will shut their mouths because of him.
For what they were not told, they will see,
and what they have not heard, they will understand.
Notice that we have in verse 13 that He will be raised up and exalted. This is both figurative and literal. There will be a literal lifting up and exalting upon that cross. But there is a figurative language that He will be exalted above every name and by no other name shall we be saved. But we know from the context of verse 14 that this is the literal crucifixion. Like Moses lifted the snake in the desert that men might turn to it and be saved, so too was Jesus raised up upon that cross that men might turn to Him and be saved.
Later in Isaiah 53 we will find the verse that speaks of how He will have no beauty or comeliness. There will be nothing that would bring our attraction. However, this Messiah is to be like David. David was ruddy and handsome. We see from the context of verse 14 that this verse is to be understood as the crucifixion. He will be marred. His face will be disfigured beyond that of any human being. And in this act of death, He shall so sprinkle many nations. This is obviously a reference to the sprinkling of the blood of the sacrifices. That sprinkling brings justice to God. But this sprinkling does more than bring justice. Where the blood of goats and bulls could not atone for sin and make a man sinless, this blood does just that.
Later in this chapter I’ll address more thoroughly the idea of Him having no comeliness that we would desire Him. Paul states that to the Jew the Gospel is a stumbling block, and to the Greek it is foolishness, but to those whom believe it is the power of God unto salvation. In the very place that we despise and desire to not look upon, we find our salvation and our purpose in life. It is in Christ crucified that we have all hope and glory. Yet, it is also in Christ crucified that we repel if not converted.
Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by mankind,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
This suffering servant is one that is hidden. Who has believed this message? To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? The very question seems to beg the response: not many. Who has appropriately considered? Who has turned aside to see this burning bush? In His rejection and shame among His own people, He was despised and rejected. His life was familiar with pain. His rejection and crucifixion was not the only experience of trauma and suffering that He felt. His entire life was marked with rejection and suffering. His own family didn’t believe in Him. Many times He was an offense to others. Though He spoke the words of life, He was held in low esteem.
4 Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
To this day, many Jews consider that Jesus was punished by God and stricken by God. The very words the prophet spoke are true. “Yet we considered…” Before Jesus was to come as a majestic king in glory and power, He was to come as a suffering servant. Before He comes in the clouds (Daniel 7), He comes meek and lowly on a donkey (Zechariah 9:9). He was pierced for our transgressions. His death was a priestly atonement for sin. We know from Malachi that there is healing in His wings. And in the prayer shawl, there are tassels that are called the “wings.” Upon these did the woman with the issue of blood grasp and find healing (Luke 8:43-48).
It was by His wounds that we are healed. Once again, this goes back to the very statement that we just viewed. There is no other name by which we are saved. Nothing but the blood of Jesus brings salvation and healing. Even though we have all turned away from our God and followed other idols, God laid upon Him the iniquity of us all. Is it because of our merit that God does this? Never. It is solely based upon the mercy of God that we receive salvation. “It is by grace that ye are saved.”
7 He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
for the transgression of my people he was punished.
9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.
This is one of those passages that gets me every time. “Yet He did not open His mouth…” When the accusations were brought against Him, He didn’t respond. When asked about His response, the only words He gave were, “It is as you have said.” When upon that cross, He spoke nothing but “Father forgive them,” and in that final breath: It is finished! Who among us would have remained silent in this time? I wouldn’t have. I would have been one that screams, “Don’t you dumb dumbs understand? Can’t you see that I’m trying to save you? Why don’t you get it, you spiritual nincompoops?”
He spoke nothing of the such. Like a lamb led to the slaughter, he kept silent. We know that this has more meaning than just allegory. He was a Lamb led to the slaughter. And who of His generation protested? There is nothing within our New Testaments to cause us to believe that anyone spoke up for Him. There are hints and outside sources that tell us this might have been so, but all we see in Scripture is the crowd that yells, “Crucify him!”
He was assigned a grave with the wicked. Crucified as a criminal alongside of two thieves. He was taken outside the city to the garbage dump. Yet what was His crime?
10 Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
and though the LORD makes his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.
11 After he has suffered,
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.
12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,
and he will divide the spoils with the strong,
because he poured out his life unto death,
and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.
Here we see that it was the Lord’s will to crush Him. There is something being expressed within the very nature of God. Something is happening. Something is taking place that is very deep and profound. We are seeing God as God. Though the Lord makes His life an offering for sin, He will prolong the days of His offspring. We know that in the next chapter of Isaiah that the same Hebrew word is used to call Israel a seed (or children/offspring) of snakes. Obviously this isn’t necessary to take absolutely literally.
His offspring are those that do His will. The Lord will cause them to prosper. And how will this be so? It will be in the same manner in which the next verse speaks of Jesus’ prosperity. After His suffering, He will see the light of life and be satisfied. How can this be so? After His death, He will see life. This is a clear indication of resurrection. How do we see prosperity? It is through the resurrection of Jesus and the glory of God raising us up by that same power.
It is by this suffering that He will justify many. He will bear their iniquities. Therefore, He is given a name above every name. He is exalted above every other person, angel, and created being. It is because He has poured out His life unto death that He receives this reward. But note that it isn’t simply that this reward follows that commitment. The reason God grants the reward is because of the Servant’s willingness. He didn’t retain. He didn’t draw back. He didn’t recoil. He took all of the due punishment for sin and when He turned over that cup of God’s wrath, there was not one drop left to drink. It is because of His willingness to take upon Himself the sin of us all that He was the intercessor for us all.
This is a deep and profound expression of intercession. If we desire to intercede, we too must take up their sins. We too must be willing to go down unto death for their sake. We must in some degree also suffer for their benefit. This is what it takes to receive the resurrection. This is what it takes to receive exultation. And it is from this view that we can turn and examine the character and nature of God expressed through the cross.
The Cross and the Nature of God
What does the cross tell us about the nature of God? It takes us all the way back to the beginning of this writing. We looked at the Spirit of God hovering over the waters. In Hebrew, there is the term Hebrew Parallelism. Hebrew Parallelism basically goes as follows. If I want to draw emphasis, I would repeat a statement 2 different ways. They might be similar statements, or they might be opposites.
In Genesis 1:2, we have Hebrew parallelism. It talks about the darkness upon the face of the deep. Then it says that the Spirit hovered over the waters. In this statement, we find that the darkness is being compared to the Spirit, and the depths are being compared to the waters. The word for depths is used in other places as a synonym for sheol. Sheol is the Hebrew concept of the underworld. You can find the description of it in Luke 16 with the parable of Lazarus and the rich man.
So lets dive into this. The question immediately asked is whether we’re calling these two statements synonyms or opposites. Is the description being given to draw us to understanding the first statement by antonyms? This can’t be. The second statement doesn’t bring that kind of detail. How can we gain more insight to what the darkness and the depths represent if the Spirit and the waters are the opposites? The problem really comes down to the deep being opposite of the waters. The watery chaos that the Spirit hovers over has all practical implications of being synonymous with the depths.
If that is true, then the Spirit and the darkness are being used as synonyms. But that doesn’t make sense, does it? How can these two things be synonyms? God is Light. In Him there is no darkness.
In Genesis 15, darkness comes over Abram before the Lord appears to him as a brazen lamp and burning fire. God sent darkness that can be felt upon Egypt. In Exodus 20:21, Moses approaches the darkness “where God was…” God upon Sinai is described in Deuteronomy 4:11 as black clouds and thick darkness. In Deuteronomy 5:11, God speaks out of the thick darkness. 2 Samuel 22:12 claims, “God made darkness His canopy around Him.” In Psalm 18, God makes darkness His garment; in Psalm 97, clouds and thick darkness surround Him. What is interesting about Psalm 97 is that it is another parallel. The clouds and thick darkness are compared with righteousness and justice.
I know that there are many references to darkness being a curse and a bad thing. I don’t reject that. What I’m fascinated with is that there is any connection at all to God and darkness. I have thought of God as being the one who separates the light from the darkness, not the one who is surrounded in darkness. Why would God reveal Himself in the midst of clouds and darkness? The references to clouds reminds me of Jesus who is coming on the clouds.
These things represent sorrow and suffering. The clouds are sorrow or bereavement. The thick darkness is a suffering and tribulation. They represent a death of some sort. There must be an absolute stripping if there is to be an absolute filling. There must be an absolute death if there is to be an absolute resurrection. And maybe this is why we can claim that God is light; we are children of the resurrection. For those who have passed from death to life, we can behold God in His fullness.
This ideology includes and eclipses the idea that clouds and darkness are there because no one can see God in His full glory. It embraces it, but then says that unless there are clouds and darkness we cannot see God in His fullness and glory. It is in the times of darkness being upon the face of the deep that the Spirit of God is hovering over our own lives. We won’t be able to know God as He in fact is until we are willing to undergo suffering and bearing our crosses. In bearing our own cross, the cross of Christ becomes all the more clear as to the glory that God displayed there. As we suffer death and suffering in our own lives and prides, we start to see what the resurrection truly is. It takes a certain kind of suffering to strip us of all the vanity that we so easily cling to. But once it’s gone, we don’t miss it at all. We realize how much the vanity and entertainment actually got in the way of God instead of leading us to Him.
This is one reason why I’m against established religion. So many times you don’t even need to bring a Bible to church. It is all on the screen, it is all in the notes, and it is altogether unnecessary. Our worship songs are more to catch the attention of people so that they might be able to bear sitting for half an hour, and the messages are littered with forms of entertainment like jokes, videos, and emotional stories. What happened to the glory of God? What happened to the captivating glory that caused for all Israel to fall on their faces and cry out, “The Lord – He is God! The Lord – He is God!”?
We have missed it because we are pampered. We are taught that suffering isn’t needed. We are taught a baby food Christianity that goes nowhere. We are taught to be tolerant, and maybe that is why people scoff and laugh at the Bible. “It says that if someone blasphemes the name of God that we should stone them! Who’s first?” “It says that homosexuality is a sin, but then says that adultery is a worse sin. Maybe you Christianity who commit adultery ought to kill yourselves instead of gay bashing!” Atheists, homosexuals, scientists, teachers, philosophers, and society and culture everywhere are taking the Bible and using it as a tool to mock and proclaim that we are all narrow-minded bigots.
If you look at history, you’ll know that 10 years before the Nazis systematically exterminated the Jews, there were cartoons and other forms of media that mocked them and gave way for the people to think that they were lesser. They were doing god a service for killing them. You mark my words: because we have played games with the holy things of God, we will also be killed.
But what is that to us? The implications of the cross of Christ are that He was willing to endure suffering. He didn’t cast it aside. He wasn’t afraid to die. That is heresy. The same Jesus that made a whip out of cords and drove out the moneychangers is now afraid? The same Jesus that was nearly pushed off of a cliff and yet walked right through the crowd is now afraid? The same Jesus that told His disciples not to be afraid of the Jews because they can’t cast your soul into hell is now suddenly afraid? That isn’t what was happening in the garden of Gethsemane.
God died. On a cross, He bore our sins. He didn’t hold back. He didn’t whimper. God willingly endured the suffering and the torture for all of mankind. It is His very nature. And the implications for you and I are that we ought not to be afraid of our suffering or trial. It is in the darkness that we find God. It is in the clouds that we see Him as He is. If you look at any time where God is revealed ultimately, it comes just after tribulation, suffering, death, and terror.
God sent plagues upon Egypt before He revealed Himself at Sinai. God sent a flood before making a covenant with Noah. God devastated Israel through a famine before sending fire upon Elijah’s sacrifice in 1 Kings 18. God sent severe circumstances and exile before He brought redemption in the times of Nehemiah. Herod killed all of the children 2 and under in Bethlehem before Jesus grew into maturity. Even the start of Jesus’ ministry began with Him going down into the Jordan to be baptized by John. At the end of the age, before Jesus returns, there will be great Tribulation – such as the world has never seen up to then.
Darkness reveals God. When the clouds and darkness gloom over us, we should continue to endure to the end. At the end, there is glory. God was not a coward. He endured to the end. Jesus’ death upon that cross was not a one time event, but an ultimatum. It was the conglomeration of all of God’s events. Every moment is a cross for God. He bears His cross moment by moment. He suffers with us. He didn’t suffer once and for all and now we are left on our own. In every moment that God is present, there is a suffering before there is a glory. That is the very nature of God.
It is for this reason that Jesus rebuked those on the road to Emmaus, “Foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter His glory?” Is it not the pattern of God to bring darkness and suffering before there is a glory?
Why would God choose that? Why not just make a glory? It is to reveal to us His deepest inner nature. We are the beneficiaries. In Him taking up and enduring suffering for the betterment of we the creation, we are given a vision of God that we would have otherwise not seen. This is why the cross matters. This is why God would point to His Son dying upon the cross as His own name. God endures suffering willingly, but never enjoys suffering. This isn’t a masochistic Christ that desires pain and suffering. It is a God that is willing to suffer in order to achieve the higher glory.
When we apply this to our own lives, it makes sense now as to why we undergo pain and torment. Life itself brings these moments. People die. We all lose a loved one at least once in life. It is in this moment of pain and bereavement that we have the opportunity to find God in a powerful way or to reject Him in a powerful way. The choice is ours. But just because we are given times when we suffer does not mean that we are to continue in an unnecessary suffering. The kind of suffering that is brought about by anxiety and wringing of the hands is unnecessary. To place trauma upon self by worry, doubt, fear, and lack of hope is antichrist. Christ brings the opposite of these things. He brings victory over these things. We ought not to deceive ourselves into thinking that suffering is normative and thus continue to blight the character of God.
In saying that the suffering of God is normative we even disfigure God’s nature. There was no suffering in the Garden of Eden. Suffering was not God’s original intention. Suffering and tribulation is and now being used by God to bring resurrection and glory. There is a huge difference. God, in His infinite power, foreknew all possibilities from the foundations of the world. He, knowing the possibility of Adam sinning and what that would bring, had already established and embraced the suffering that must come from disobedience.
In a sense, God foreknew that He would suffer before He even started to create. In another sense, God also foreknew that He might not have to suffer. Adam had the choice. He didn’t have to take of that forbidden fruit. When He chose to eat, God had at that point placed in effect the cosmic redemption of all things. God knew what would happen if Adam chose to not eat that fruit. God isn’t limited to knowing what will happen and thus we are automatons just playing out history according to how God wrote it. God knows all the possible outcomes and where it will lead, and judges accordingly.
In His judgment, He does not forsake suffering, but embraces it. This is the point. He has all right to leave us in our sin. But there is something within Him that would not allow that. There is something within the core nature of God that cannot allow sin to continue, but instead places Himself under the same curse in order to give freedom to humanity. If you desire to forsake that freedom, the choice is yours. God does not desire that anyone should perish. So He has made a way for freedom by enduring suffering both with and for the betterment of creation. Notice I didn’t say humanity. God can see the ultimate benefit for all of the cosmos – not just humanity. The cross was an ultimate act of salvation to the whole cosmos – not just the people that live on this planet.
The Cross and the Powers
What are the principalities and powers? They are the demonic forces at work throughout the earth. They are invisible, but present over all areas of government and system. Where there is some form of government outside of the government of God, there you will find these invisible forces that manipulate and influence. It might be government as we know it, or it might be a church that has established their leadership like a company. When there is room for them to sneak in unnoticed, they will.
And what is it that is represented at the cross that so exposes them? Nothing more grants us access into an understanding of how they operate like the cross of Jesus Christ. The actual scenario stems back to the garden of Gethsemane. They torment and taunt. It is the voice of the devil to accuse, blame, manipulate, and slander. It was the voice of the serpent that tempted Eve. By telling her the truth and correctly explaining what God had said, he deceived her.
But there are a couple things to look at. The first thing to acknowledge is their presence and their principles. From there we can better unpack what it is that took place at the cross that disarmed them.
It is in Ephesians that I desire to expound the first topic. In Ephesians chapter 2 we have our first mention of these powers (at least in this epistle). Paul states, “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of the world and the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.”
What does he mean, “ruler of the kingdom of the air?” Is Satan somehow “in the air?” Is he above us somewhere? I think that we have a phrase that better explains this. When we say something is up, we say, “It is in the air.” There is even a song that sings, “Love is in the air everywhere I look around.” This kind of phrase isn’t outside of what we presently view and understand. Paul equates that with the demonic forces. There are real and tangible beings that are influencing and manipulating emotion, thought, and action from those who are given over to his kingdom through their disobedience.
You don’t have to be a Satanist in order to be lead by him. The voice that would nudge us to take or to do or to act in a manner that is contrary to the way of God is this very presence. And these powers brood over cities, nations, and areas. From town to town you have different characteristics. Some towns here around me are wholly given over to mediocrity. Other towns seem to be completely driven mad with sexual passions. Other places seem to be dumbstruck with the need to buy and be seen with luxury. These powers influence and pressure mankind into further disobedience by a rejection of God and a filling of the void with useless vanity.
Paul continues, “All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgression – it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.”
We see that Paul immediately relates that the power of the enemy to taunt and to force others into disobedience has been crushed by the power of the resurrection. But we still haven’t truly examined what this means. We still need to probe deeper into what it means to be under the rule of Satan, and therefore under his power.
We find later in Ephesians 2 that Paul starts expressing how we are one in Christ. We are united to the other parts of the Body. He speaks about how we were once divided, but now we’re unified. We were once alienated and afar off from God, but have been brought near. Why were we alienated? The reason that Paul gives is that we are Gentiles. We aren’t Jews. This is why we haven’t been a part of the kingdom of God. But God has brought us to Himself by breaking down the dividing wall of hostility. We are now all one under of God. We have been grafted into Israel. There is neither Jew nor Gentile.
It is this unity that expressly marks the kingdom of God. It is by our love for one another that people ought to recognize that we are Christ’s. If that is true, then could the opposite also be true? The kingdom of darkness is marked by disunity. It is marked by enmity and pride. All of the things that people practice in the world are stemmed from these demonic principles. And this is how they rule over them.
There are some, who believe that we are enslaved to Satan, and there is no freewill, and then when we come