What Happened on the Cross?
Christians understand that Jesus Christ paid the penalty for their sins on the cross to provide salvation and eternal life. But surprisingly few understand what actually happened during the six hours while Jesus was on the cross, or how the work of Christ on the cross could have provided salvation. Most assume it was the physical death of Christ which provided salvation, but that is not correct. It was what He did during the several hours while He was alive on the cross, prior to His physical death, which made our salvation possible. This is one of the most misunderstood issues of the Bible, and also one of the most important, so we will start with an overview summary, then examine the details afterward.
The perfect righteousness of God the Father required punishment for sins in order to allow humans to be offered salvation. Therefore the sin issue needed to be taken out of the way since it was an impenetrable barrier between God and man, so full payment for sin was required to allow God to have an eternal relationship with any person. The physical death of Jesus after six hours on the cross could not meet such demands of the Father since it alone could not provide the actual punishment required as payment for every sin of every person who will ever live. Rather, salvation is the result of what is called the “substitutionary atonement sacrifice” of Jesus Christ on the cross, meaning the perfect God-Man substituted Himself as a sacrifice in place of sinful mankind and took on Himself the literal physical and soulish punishment for all sins in order to pay the penalty of sin required by God. The key here is punishment, since God the Father demanded full payment in the form of punishment for all sin, and salvation could not be offered apart from the punishment of an acceptable sacrifice to remove the sin issue. God could not have a relationship with man without full payment for sin, and sinful man could never make such a payment since as sinners none were qualified.
The key issue regarding what happened on the cross is how Jesus Christ was substituted as a suitable sacrifice acceptable to God and punished for sinful mankind in order to remove the sin problem between God and man. Only this could enable salvation for all who would accept the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for them. That punishment for sin took three hours on the cross, not just a moment of physical death. As 2 Corinthians 5:21 says: “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 1 Peter 2:24 says "He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed." Jesus Christ was treated by God the Father as though He had personally committed every sin of every person of all time. Jesus was judged guilty of all of those sins by the Father, and then physically and soulishly tortured for each and every one of them over a three hour period while on the cross. That three hours of torture, beyond the pain inflicted by the crucifixion itself, was the punishment which made our salvation possible. Thousands of people died on Roman crosses, and all of them suffered horribly; but only Jesus Christ was directly punished for sin by God the Father while on a cross. The physical death of Christ by itself could not have made the required payment to satisfy the demand for punishment of all sins by the Father. Jesus looked forward to His death so He could be with His Father, so it was not punishment at all. Therefore it was the last three hours on the cross when Jesus Christ was directly punished by the Father which was the sacrifice resulting in full payment for every sin of all mankind, past and future. Isaiah 53:5 says: "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." Notice the emphasis on physical punishment and even torture resulting in extreme physical and soul pain. He was our innocent substitute, deemed worthy by God the Father to make atonement, and He bore the full punishment in the form of physical and soulish torture on behalf of us who were actually guilty of those sins.
This substitutionary sacrifice for sin does not diminish the physical death of Christ since it was important for a couple reasons, even though it did not play a direct role in providing salvation. It was important to demonstrate Jesus Christ to be true humanity to the world, so the bleeding from His hands and feet, and from the scourging and crown of thorns, and also from the piercing of His side by the spear, plus His actual physical death all served to demonstrate His true humanity. God does not bleed or die. Angels do not bleed or die. Only a true human can do such things. Jesus Christ was shown to be truly human because of the cross, and His earthly ministry showed He was truly God at the same time. For this reason the physical death of Jesus Christ was a very significant issue, even though not a direct part of His salvation work.
As background for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, the Jewish leadership of Israel rejected their Messiah and demanded His execution, mainly on the false charge of blasphemy for claiming to be the Messiah prophesied about in the Scriptures. But of course, He was who He claimed to be. But God had a plan in all of this. At that time in the Roman-controlled Province of Judea crucifixion was a common form of Roman execution. By contrast, Jewish execution was done by stoning. The reason God’s plan used the Roman form of execution was to allow sufficient time for Jesus to bear the punishment required by the Father to provide full payment for the sins of all mankind. That sacrificial work would take some time, three hours to be exact. Stoning would not provide sufficient time since it only took minutes, but crucifixion generally lasted all day. Thousands of people died on Roman crosses, but there was something very unique about this one cross where Jesus Christ hung for a total of six hours before He died physically. And He did not bleed to death since that was not how crucifixion killed people. Crucifixion was a method of slow torture prior to death, and the cause of death was not due to bleeding, but rather asphyxiation (suffocation):
“Death by crucifixion was the result of the manner in which the condemned man hung from the cross and not the traumatic injury caused by nailing. Hanging from the cross resulted in a painful process of asphyxiation, in which the two sets of muscles used for breathing, the intercostal [chest] muscles and the diaphragm, became progressively weakened. In time, the condemned man expired, due to the inability to continue breathing properly.”
"New Analysis of the Crucified Man" by Hershel Shanks, Biblical Archaeology Review, November/December 1985.
It was a long, slow method of execution taking all day, and sometimes more than a day. But the cross did not cause the physical death of Jesus Christ at all. As we will see He simply dismissed His soul and spirit after salvation was accomplished, while He was still capable of living quite a while longer. The two thieves crucified alongside Jesus were alive long after Jesus had given up His soul and spirit on His own initiative. The thieves were actually killed by the Roman soldiers since Passover was about to begin, and the Jews did not want Jesus or them hanging there during Passover, so the thieves did not even die from the crucifixion itself, and certainly not from bleeding to death.
The time line for the cross started with an initial nailing of Jesus to the wooden cross and elevating Him into position at 9 AM. For the first three hours Jesus had interactions with those on the ground, including giving instructions for caring for His mother, talking with the thieves being crucified on both sides of Him, one of whom believed in Jesus as the Messiah, and there was also much ridicule and taunting from those on the ground who sent Him to the cross:
“In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him among themselves. "He saved others," they said, "but he can't save himself! Let this Messiah, this king of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe. Those crucified with him also heaped insults on him.” (Mark 15:31-32).
“Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, "Woman, here is your son," and to the disciple, "Here is your mother." From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.” (John 19:25-27)
The first three hours did not provide salvation for mankind. This was a time when Jesus continued to fulfill prophesies from the Old Testament, witnessed to the two thieves, and took care of other matters. It was only the last three hours on the cross from noon until 3 PM which provided the substitutionary atonement sacrifice for removal of the sin barrier between God and man, but did not include His actual physical death which occurred after the three hours of salvation work were completed. 1 John 2:2 says "He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world." Jesus was sinless humanity and therefore qualified to be the substitute for sinful mankind, just as the Old Testament Levitical offerings showed with the sacrifice of an innocent, spotless lamb. God the Father declared Jesus guilty of every sin ever committed by mankind (past and future) then literally tortured Jesus in the full amount required as punishment for each and every sin of all time. This torture was body, soul and spirit pain, the most intense ever encountered in history, and it lasted for three hours. Therefore it was the three hours of continuous physical, soul, and spirit torture which satisfied the demands of the Father for payment for the sins of all mankind, which in turn allowed God to offer mankind salvation by a simple act of faith in Christ, the only one who could remove the sin barrier.
During the last three hours the area around the cross was covered in supernatural darkness to prevent anyone from seeing Jesus or interfering with what would happen next. Satan was also excluded by the darkness, and he desperately wanted to interfere. Darkness is used as chains for angels as in the demon jail called the Abyss, since their bodies are made of something resembling light. So this darkness was a barrier to Satan as well as a screen from humans. “At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon” (Mark 15:33). During these three hours Jesus screamed continually. “And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?" (which means "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?").” (Mark 15:34)
It was during these final three hours with the cross shrouded in darkness when God the Father had to forsake His Son Jesus Christ and punish Him as the substitute sacrifice for all sins of all time. The cross was an altar and Jesus Christ was the innocent sacrificial lamb, nailed to that altar for the purpose of taking the punishment for the sins of the world which He did not deserve. During the judgment period of the cross the Father had to treat Jesus Christ as though He was personally responsible for each and every sin ever committed in human history and punish Him for those sins. As 2 Corinthians 5:21 says: “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” While on the cross Jesus Christ remained personally sinless and perfect, and never lost His human spirit or His deity. He was a substitute sacrifice for sins, and therefore He was not personally guilty of any of them. But the Father could have no relationship with the humanity of Jesus while He was being punished as the substitute sacrifice for sin, hence the "forsaking" of Christ during those three hours. At the end of the three hours Jesus yelled out quoting Psalm 22:1 “why have you forsaken me” as a sign that He had been tortured for our sins by God the Father for three continuous hours. And the remainder of that same Bible passage from Psalm 22 goes on to provide the answer to the rhetorical question by continuing with “you are enthroned as the Holy One” meaning the Father needed to forsake Christ while being judged for sin because God the Father had to remain separated from sin itself while judging it in Christ. Jesus knew why He was being forsaken and punished since He willingly accepted the awful task of paying for sins, knowing it was the only way to bring God and sinful man into an eternal relationship. This forsaking and judging of Jesus Christ during the final three hours of the cross was the "sacrificial death" which provided salvation for all mankind. And it is this sacrificial death which the Bible discusses in numerous passages, whereby Jesus was made a substitute sacrifice and "died" for the sins of all mankind. He was forsaken and judged by the Father, while dying a sacrificial death but not a physical death during those three hours of judgment. But after the three hours of punishment, the Father ended the forsaking, and the relationship was re-established, as shown when Jesus again addressed Him as "Father". During the forsaking period Jesus addressed Him as "my God". Although this time of forsaking and punishment has sometimes been referred to as a "spiritual death", that is defined as losing the human spirit, and Jesus never lost His human spirit, on the cross or otherwise. A better phrase would be "sacrificial death" which shows the extreme degree of punishment endured by Jesus Christ while bearing the punishment for sin, during which time He continued to remain entirely perfect.
After the three hours of continuous torture, Jesus showed that His sacrificial work was completed, and that salvation by faith was now possible since all necessary salvation work had been fully accomplished: “Later, knowing that everything had now been finished…. Jesus said, "It is finished." With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” (John 19:28-30) Note the phrase “everything had now been finished”, which means salvation was a completed task while Jesus was still alive. This shows that Jesus did not die physically to provide salvation since everything was finished prior to His physical death, rather than because of it.
His continuing to speak and even shout after the salvation work was accomplished shows He was not close to asphyxiation, nor was He about to die from bleeding. Someone about to die from asphyxiation or bleeding would not be able to speak and shout, and then immediately expire. Remember what Mark 15 said “And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?" Note the "loud voice" which means Jesus was not close to dying from asphyxiation, yet He would be dead within a couple minutes. He also said after that "I thirst" and drank from a reed offered to Him. Then He said "It is finished" meaning salvation was accomplished, and finally "Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last.". All of this shows His death was not a result of the cross itself, since He could still shout and talk in full sentences, but rather once His sacrificial work was done (the three hours of torture), there was nothing left for Him to accomplish on earth so He simply left His body behind and departed it of His own free will. Jesus said “The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life--only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father” (John 10: 17-18). His physical death was not something Jesus wanted to avoid or found punishing. It was merely the proper time since His work on earth was fully accomplished.
Jesus was nailed to the cross in his hands and feet, but this did not cause Him to bleed to death. References to the “blood of Christ” in the Bible are not about His literal blood but rather they tie in the animal blood sacrifices of the Old Testament, which represented by analogy the sacrificial work of the future Messiah on the cross. The literal blood of the animals was therefore an analogy to the sacrificial death of Jesus as He was tortured for three hours on the cross. The animal blood sacrifices were analogies which looked forward to the substitutionary atonement sacrifice of the Messiah who would be judged for the sins of all mankind. These sacrifices were used to teach salvation principles to the Jews before the Bible was completed. The cross was an alter upon which Jesus Christ was sacrificed for all mankind, and He was nailed to it just as the animal sacrifices were tied down to the sacrificial alters during Old Testament times, followed by sacrificing them by shedding their blood. And just as the animals being sacrificed were not guilty of any wrongdoing, they represented the perfect and sinless Messiah, the God-Man Jesus Christ who would become our substitute sacrifice for sin. Jesus Christ took our punishment on Himself and was tortured, and the blood of Christ refers to the three hours of judgment as payment for the sins of mankind when Christ was physically tortured for each and every sin in the amount required by the Father as full payment. As 1 Peter 2:24 says "He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed." Hebrews 10:8-10 says: “First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them”—though they were offered in accordance with the law. 9 Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. 10 And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” Ephesians 2:15 “by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations.” Isaiah 53:4 says “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... 12 For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” Note the emphasis in these verses on the flesh, body, pain and suffering of Jesus Christ which shows the torture was physical and extended from there to create agony in His soul and human spirit, a total suffering experience far beyond what any human ever experienced before or since. And it was not merely the pain of crucifixion, since that was nothing compared to the torture from the Father for the sins of mankind. This was the payment for sin which only Jesus Christ the perfect sacrifice could accomplish. Simply bleeding was not torture and could not satisfy the requirement for punishment from God the Father, and it was also not the cause of His death, since crucifixion did not cause people to die from blood loss. Jesus had a strong voice and was fully conscious and alert right up to the point of death, showing His death was not from loss of blood or asphyxiation since weakness from either of those would not have allowed Him to be strong and alert until the end. And after Jesus was dead, when pierced by the Roman soldiers' spear there was still a lot of blood in His upper body showing He did not bleed to death. John 19:24 says: "Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus' side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water." Bleeding to death would have drained such a quantity of blood and fluids. As mentioned earlier, crucifixion did not kill people by bleeding, but by asphyxiation. Jesus did not die from either cause, but rather He departed His body of His own will after His salvation work was completed.
To further explain the blood of Christ as referring to the salvation work of Jesus Christ on the cross, the Bible outlines three specific parts of the salvation work of Christ, which are propitiation, redemption, and reconciliation, and these three combined are referred to as the substitutionary atonement sacrifice. The animal sacrifices represented these three components of salvation. Propitiation means satisfaction, and God the Father’s perfect righteousness needed to be satisfied by punishing all sins before He could offer salvation to man. Redemption means Christ paid off all the debts due for sin, and also resolved the original sin of Adam which was handed down to all mankind. As 1 Corinthians 15:22 says “For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.” Therefore the sacrifice of Jesus Christ bought or "redeemed" mankind out of its debt to sin. And finally reconciliation means God and man were brought back together or "reconciled" since Jesus Christ resolved the sin issue to the satisfaction of the Father, allowing a personal relationship to exist once again between God and man through Jesus Christ. These three complex issues of satisfying God while paying for the sins of all mankind, namely propitiation, redemption, and reconciliation, are tied together into the substitutionary atonement sacrifice, and are collectively referred to in the Bible as the “blood of Christ”, since each of these three issues hearken back to the animal sacrifices and also could not be individually explained every time the subject is mentioned. The “blood of Christ” is therefore a phrase used to cover the entirety of the salvation work of Jesus Christ on the cross, which was the three hours of torture which provided our salvation.
By His work on the cross Jesus Christ provided reconciliation of mankind to God, and allowed God to offer salvation to every person who would ever live in all human history. The act of faith by each person is a recognition that we are not able to overcome our own sins, but rather we accept the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on behalf of us. But each person must accept the free gift of salvation provided by Jesus Christ, or else stand on their own merits at the Last Judgment. No one who refuses to believe in Jesus Christ as Savior will be acceptable to God since they will have rejected the only way of salvation offered by God the Father through Jesus Christ. Jesus said “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) Those who reject Jesus Christ’s substitutionary payment will stand before Him at the Last Judgment asking to be accepted based on their own works, but that will never be enough to satisfy God’s requirements for a relationship with Him. The key is that when a person accepts the work of Jesus Christ on their behalf they are saved by God imputing perfect righteousness to them, something otherwise unattainable by any person. This does not mean we stop sinning, but rather it means God sees us as acceptable to Him from then on since Jesus Christ shares His own righteousness with each believer, no matter what happens after that. Even though believers continue to sin all their lives, they will spend eternity with God since they have accepted the righteousness of God through Jesus Christ. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)
Therefore sin is no longer the issue as the result of Jesus Christ’s full payment for all sins on the cross. His sacrifice satisfied the righteousness of God and provided for reconciliation between God and mankind, allowing salvation to be offered as a free gift to all who will accept the work of the Savior instead of their own inadequate works and unacceptable human self-righteousness. The issue of sin as a barrier between God and man was removed by the Savior. This is why the Temple curtain was ripped from top to bottom at the exact time Christ finished His work of salvation on the cross, since the curtain represented a barrier between God inside the Holy of Holies (Heaven) and man outside. The barrier of sin was removed providing reconciliation between God and man, so the 18 inch thick curtain was ripped wide open as a symbol that the sin barrier was indeed gone. Hebrews 9:26 says “But he [Jesus Christ] has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27 Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, 28 so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many.” God the Father has been satisfied by the full payment for sin accomplished by Jesus Christ on the cross, but each person during their lifetime must accept the free gift, which act of acceptance is required for a person to actually receive salvation. Rejection of the free gift means eternal condemnation since the only way of salvation is by accepting the work of Jesus Christ who resolved the sin issue. Rejection of the free gift offered only through Jesus Christ means the person will attempt to prove himself worthy apart from Christ, which is impossible and always results in eternal condemnation. God provided the only way for salvation, and the cost to Him was beyond measure and humanly unfathomable. To reject the free gift of salvation results in an equally unfathomable eternal punishment.
Jesus Christ as the perfect God-Man did what no one else could when He took on Himself the guilt for all sins of all time and paid for every one of those sins during three hours of the most intense torture while on the cross. We could never have paid for our own sins, and must not try, especially since the issue has been resolved by Jesus Christ for us. Salvation is only by accepting what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross since it is the only thing which satisfies God, namely His own work and plan for salvation offered to mankind as a free gift by grace. “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)
Salvation is only free to man because Jesus Christ paid such a high price. And although we do not normally think of God Himself suffering, God the Father personally suffered by punishing to the last extraction of retribution His innocent Son whom He loved eternally. God the Father needed to torture His innocent Son for something He did not do in order to be able to offer salvation freely to guilty mankind. It was the only way salvation could be made available to mankind. So salvation was not free. God suffered for man, and now man can have a free gift of salvation from God through Jesus Christ. And it is the only way.