Please explain to me what the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ really means? (The stripes, the thorns they put on His head, nailed down to the cross.) Please help me to get an understanding.
For every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, the cross is where Jesus took our place in death and judgment so that we could be saved from the penalty of our sins. Here are FIVE verses that every believer should memorize that focus on THE CROSS:
1) “For THE PREACHING OF THE CROSS is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved it is the power of God” (1st Corinthians 1:18). The “preaching of the cross” SAVES! Every believer should have full confidence in the “message of the cross,” for “it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16).
2) “He (Jesus) humbled Himself and became OBEDIENT UNTO DEATH, even THE DEATH OF THE CROSS” (Philippians 2:8). Christ’s “obedience in His life” could not save us. The Father commanded Him to lay down His life to save us. Jesus said, “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down My life…No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself…This commandment have I received of My Father” (John 10:17-18).
3) “Looking unto Jesus…who for the joy that was set before Him ENDURED THE CROSS” (Hebrews 2:12). Jesus looked forward to the joy of having saved sinners with Him in heaven and this caused Him to “endure the cross.” There are TWO KINDS OF SUFFERING that took place on the cross:
*He SUFFERED FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS SAKE at the hands of men. The PHYSICAL SUFFERINGS that Jesus endured…the scourging, the crown of thorns, the spitting on his face and plucking off His beard, and the crucifixion (see Matthew 27:26-35; Isaiah 50:6; 52:14 and Psalm 22:14-17), did NOT take away our sins. These sufferings were the result of man’s hatred of Him for telling them the truth (see Psalm 69:4; John 3:19-20; 15:18-25). In these sufferings He has “left us an example” (see 1st Peter 19-23).
*He SUFFERED FOR SINS at the Hand of God. Sin has a TWO-FOLD PENALTY: Death and Judgment (see Romans 6:23 and Hebrews 9:27). When our sins were laid on Christ, He was punished by God for those sins (see 1st Peter 2:24; 3:18; Isaiah 53:5-6, 10 and 2nd Corinthians 5:21). After He exhausted God’s wrath, He then “bowed His head, and gave up the ghost” (John 19:30). As we saw, no man took His life from Him; He willingly laid it down by the Father’s command. One more thing needed to be done, which we read of in John 19:34, “One of the soldiers with a spear pierced His side, and forthwith came there out BLOOD and water.” The “shedding of His blood” proved that He had really died. Thus He truly endured DEATH and JUDGMENT and the believer can say, “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1st John 1:7).
4) “Having MADE PEACE THROUGH THE BLOOD OF HIS CROSS” (Colossians 1:20). We were at “war with God” but now we have “peace with God” through the blood of His cross (see Romans 5:1, 10).
5) “But God forbid that I should BOAST, save IN THE CROSS OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST” (Galatians 6:14). We can never boast of our so-called works (Ephesians 2:8-9), but we can and should boast now and forever “IN THE CROSS of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (405.1) (DO)