Unless you understand the depths of truth in the cross, you will not be able to comprehend the power or working of Jesus’ resurrection. The more we understand the multiple aspects of Jesus’ crucifixion, the more we can fathom the miracle and challenge of his resurrection. Therefore, in this early chapter and throughout the book we will also dive into the mystery of the crucifixion of God the Son.
I have not cried as much while writing any of my other books as much as this one. Especially on the revelation of the cross. When you see the truth which is behind the scenes of the cross, you will become saturated with an understanding of his overwhelming love and be wrecked for life. Then no condemnation will be able to get its ugly hooks in you. You will be able to hear correction without pain and pride, examine your mistakes without condemnation, and so your growth in wisdom will accelerate. Freedom from negative guilt is an awesome liberty, empowering your relationship with God. It frees you to be able to engage in constructive processing of real guilt and so be cleansed and sanctified at a proper healthy pace.
If most of you are not crying while reading this book then I would have failed. However, whenever I have shared this in churches, many do cry! Weeping is often a sign that our spirits are opened up to great sparks of revelation releasing the Holy Spirit to do deep regeneration of our souls and emotions. It is his work that is most important. A few hours of weeping in the Spirit, due to the renewal by the power of God is life transforming. The knowledge of his love at a deeper level, burns in us the desire to passionately serve our awesome Lord more faithfully and fully. We are going deep for this purpose.
"From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land." (Mat 27:45)
This physical darkness parallels the spiritual darkness that Jesus encountered. His torture and crucifixion of the first three hours, seems to have taken him to a place of total human weakness so that then he could be tried, oppressed, made sin, carry the weight of the fall and face unimaginable emotional torture from the wrath of God and oppression of the enemy with no physical strength to help. It is these last three hours of his life that we will focus on.
He took the sin of the whole world in his body in this time. Let’s think about some of what that included: the murder of well over a billion babies in our generation through abortion; the killings of over a hundred million people dying in wars in the last century mostly due to Japanize and Nazi lust for world domination; and the guilt and perversion of the hundreds of millions of rape pornographic clips presently watched by the youth each week. All this evil he bore, IN his body, that close. It is unimaginable! He was the ‘most guilty’ person ever in history, due to the sin of the world. He did not even complain, or get irritated!
Martin Luther, the prominent Protestant reformer, in his commentary on Galatians (as reflected in the 1838 edition), taught that the prophets of the Old Testament foretold “that Christ should become the greatest transgressor, murderer, adulterer, thief, rebel, and blasphemer, that ever was or could be in the world.” Jesus was a lamb without blemish in his spirit, but he really carried the sin of the world in his body before a holy God, who dealt with him on that basis, so as to acquit us.
His sacrifice was so great that it demands our total devotion in response. We see him taking on himself the very sins which he hated and did not yield a milli-meter towards in his life. We willingly stand for him, losing our jobs, careers, our family; we do not faulter in the face of millions of pounds of fines or imprisonment. We willingly give away: our houses; our savings; and our very lives; as these are only a miniscule fraction of what he is worthy of receiving, in the light of his cross.
Exchanging Wisdom For Foolishness
Why did Jesus ask the father on the cross why he had forsaken him? (Mat 27:46). Surely Jesus knew all the doctrines of the cross through his almost 30-year study of the scriptures? He knew that the Father had to punish, judge and forsake him completely. He was not acting. He really had lost his clarity.
When Jesus bore the sin of the world, he bore all its consequences as well, as we shall see.
"For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. {22} Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools" (Rom 1:21-22)
Jesus’ mind was darkened on the cross by our sin. Jesus bore our foolishness to give us his wisdom. In this foolishness he could no longer understand his predicament. And hence asked the famous cry from the cross: “Why?” He received the mind of man so that we could receive the mind of Christ. Being confused is not a sin. He was really confused so that we could be guaranteed clarity! As we grow in him, our path and heavenly assignment becomes clearer and clearer.
When Stephen debated with the Jews “they could not stand up against his wisdom” (Act 6:10). We also need to study the evils of our time in our nations and culture. These include the Marxist ideology with its deceptive fake eutopia, radical terrorism in the name of fake peaceful religion, perverted new sexual norms and the deception that horses, eagles and man all developed naturally from a culture of bacteria: Darwinian evolution. When debating these issues and the gospel, we can have a superior wisdom due to Christ taking our foolishness on the cross. The opposition may get a clap, but you can get a louder clap! All believers should be able to defend their faith and influence others in a convincing manner with the wisdom that comes from Christ giving up his wisdom. You want more divine wisdom? It’s yours in abundance through the cross.
David’s Three Choices
The bible gives us many stories in the Old Testament which help us to grasp the intensity of Jesus’ suffering and his amazing steadfastness in the midst of it. The Jewish kings were meant to rely on God in every war and not on the size of their armies so when King David counted the number of fighting men, he had the wrath of the Lord come against him (1 Chron 21:1-14). However, the Lord sent the prophet Gad to give him three choices as to how the wrath of God should come. He could have three years of famine, three months of his enemies pursuing him or three days of plague and terrible sickness (1 Chr 21:11-12). Can you see the justice of God in this? All three punishments were equal. The least severe was the famine so that had to last the longest – three years. The most intense was disease so that had to be the briefest- three days. However, the total number who would die and the devastation to the nation was decreed to be the same in all three. We learn from this that time alone does not determine the degree of a punishment but also the intensity of the wrath. The shorter the time the more intense God’s wrath had to be to satisfy his justice. Jesus did not suffer the wrath of God for three years or months or days but three hours! How intense must his final three hours on the cross have been! It was all packed into such a short time that I do not think we will be able to grasp how terrifying it was, even in eternity. How was Jesus’ reaction at this time? We shall now see.
Hezekiah’s Ultimate Test
Hezekiah was the most faithful King in the Old Testament. "Hezekiah trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him" (2 Ki 18:5). However, after years of his great success he became proud but later was led into a fragile humility. "But Hezekiah's heart was proud and he did not respond to the kindness shown him; therefore, the Lord's wrath was on him and on Judah and Jerusalem. {26} Then Hezekiah repented of the pride of his heart, as did the people of Jerusalem; therefore, the Lord's wrath did not come upon them during the days of Hezekiah" (2 Chr 32:25-26).
After some time, the Lord wanted to test Hezekiah to see if he had really repented of his pride. How did he do this? God arranged for envoys from Babylon to come to see Hezekiah. After their business was over God was watching carefully to see whether Hezekiah would start boasting again in pride. God took one more essential step so that he could really test Hezekiah: "But when envoys were sent by the rulers of Babylon to ask him about the miraculous sign that had occurred in the land, God left him to test him and to know everything that was in his heart" (2 Chr 32:31). While God’s power and the feelings of his presence are upon us, it is fairly easy to resist temptation. That is why real growth in character often occurs in times of great distress and pain, when we do not feel God at all. (Now God will never leave us or forsake us, but it often feels that way.) God had to leave Hezekiah to see what was really in his heart. What did Hezekiah do? His pride came up again. He did not resist showing all of his vast wealth and possessions to the official foreign visitors in pride. "Hezekiah received the messengers and showed them all that was in his storehouses--the silver, the gold, the spices and the fine oil--his armory and everything found among his treasures. There was nothing in his palace or in all his kingdom that Hezekiah did not show them" (2 Ki 20:13). He failed this final test in his life and throughout eternity his position and reward will be adjusted accordingly. Now if God had filled him with the Spirit of humility just before the visitors came, undoubtedly he would not have shown off all his wealth. However, God is not interested in forced righteousness or even just goodness in easy times, but that which comes from human hearts despite the temptations and pressures. God sometimes lifts the feelings of his Spirit to give us the opportunity to hold fast to what is right even when the pressure is on. He will hold spiritual babies up but there comes a time when they must walk by themselves.
This was why he had to leave Jesus to really test him. From noon until 3pm there was darkness at Calvary. God left Jesus to test what was in his heart. God had forsaken him and removed the Holy Spirit from him. Now Jesus was really alone, all the encouragement from the Spirit and God was over. Now what was really in his heart would come out. He was under unbelievable pressure, intense wrath and oppression of the enemy. Temptation was at its maximum from the leader of hell and his cohorts. However, Jesus did not give in. He did not buckle under pressure like Hezekiah had done. He stayed the same even after God had left him. His character was proved genuine and flawless. He overcame the greatest ever temptations with the least help. This showed that right down inside Jesus, was pure, un-wavering innocence! He was totally good even when it seemed he had no hope and he was being condemned. Every other person in the worst darkness had buckled, except the Lord! He did not waver even though alone, in confusion, darkness and despair. What a beautiful Savior, totally deserving of our eternal service and adoration!
Sacrificing Isaac: “Now I Know…”
God is eternal, which means he is out of time. In first Corinthians Paul talks about God’s work “before time began” (1 Cor 2:7) and repeatedly the bible talks about time beginning (Gen 1.1, John 1.1). Since time began or had a beginning, it means that God, who is uncreated and eternal is not subject to time but he himself created time and therefore is outside time. He knows the end from the beginning.
So why then was God sorry that he had made man in the time of Noah (Gen 6:6) and why did he regret making Saul king (1 Sam 15:11)? Didn’t he know that these things would happen in his foreknowledge being out of time? Yes, but he seems to sometimes not look! He fully operates within time as well as out of time. It’s a mystery.
[Angels and man are subject to time even in heaven (‘years’ and feast dates: Zech 14:16-19, ‘months’ Rev 22.2 ‘ages’: Rev 20, Eph 2.7)]He knew Hezekiah would fail this test but he still wanted to take him through it for the sake of Hezekiah’s understanding and humility.
In the same way the bible records an amazing reaction of God to Abraham’s ultimate sacrifice:
(Gen 22:11-12 NIV) "But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, "Abraham! Abraham!" "Here I am," he replied. {12} "Do not lay a hand on the boy," he said. "Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.""
He saw that Abraham was willing to lose his ultimate promise, his only child, despite being too old to have another one. Again, he was fully embracing the ‘in-time’ perspective in his reaction: “Now I know that you fear me.”
Jesus did not sin at all despite the millions of billions of sins on him, six millennia’s wrath of God, facing all death, all temptation and every devil; he did not blame or complain, get irritated or lose faith. Therefore, God the Father declared: “Jesus, now I know that you fear me!” and exalted him to the highest place and entrusted him with the entire salvation package for every man!
Propitiation
Jesus’ suffering was diverse and terrible; even losing the presence of his Father like a lazy, un-spiritual Christian. However, the single worst experience of Jesus on the cross was not the lack of love and fellowship of the Father but what was coming in its place: The Wrath of God! Better to have all of hell against you than God himself. All the problems of this world constitute a huge but finite evil, but God is infinite and in a way, his wrath demands an eternal punishment: hell. Jesus had to face all of that in just those few hours on the cross. Worse than all the temptations, physical punishment, guilt feelings, was the wrath of Almighty God who saw in one moment all the wickedness of man and the nature which promoted it somehow in Jesus. God poured out his anger for sin on Jesus; so never believe the lie of the enemy that God is angry with you, if you are walking humbly, confessing sin and genuinely desiring to change. Mercy is real as wrath is real. Some people don’t believe God judges today. If wrath is not real, mercy is meaningless.
God was not only turning away from Jesus in a neutrality, but actively pouring out his wrath on him. The total number of references to the wrath of God in the Old Testament is 580! It is a major subject. Jesus did not come on the scene and immediately apologize for all that his Father did, the God of the Old Testament. "And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world" (1 John 2:2 KJV). Some modern translations deny the removal of God’s wrath in the compromise of typical lukewarm, western Christianity, oversimplifying salvation by equating propitiation and atonement thus losing half the truth.
In the Old Testament, it often describes God as ‘storing up his wrath’ to pour it out at a later appointed time. The primary appointed time was at the cross.
In God’s anger the bible says that he cursed his son: "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree" (Gal 3:13). Curse does not come automatically but is initiated by God. He warned again and again in the Old Testament that he would curse those in who sin was found. The Father had earlier said, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased,” but now he was saying, “This is my cursed Son with whom I am very angry.” Selah.
It was just as hard for the Father as it was for the Son. He did not desire to do all this to Jesus but his justice and love for us compelled him. The whole purpose of Jesus carrying all the sins was so that he could be a propitiation for our sins (Rom 3.25 and 1 John 4.10 KJV), which means to face and endure the wrath of God on our behalf. This means that the Almighty would pour out all his righteous indignation which he had stored up in himself when he saw all the sins of the past and the future. He allowed his infinite being to consider all these acts of rebellion against his supreme authority and from his throne his holy anger was released in judgment upon the guilty culprit: Jesus. This was the cup that he did not want to drink. Though he had accepted it, prepared for it, even taught it, when it came, he could not even understand it: “Why have you forsaken me…” and asked for it to be removed “If it is possible, take this cup from me…” It was not possible. (See also ‘cup of wrath’ in Rev 14:9,10 Isaiah 54:7,8)
Peter and Paul both knew when their times had come to die but neither of them asked to be spared like Jesus did. Neither did Daniel’s three Hebrew friends ask for the cup to be removed before the fiery furnace ordeal. Were these all more committed compared to Jesus? No. Jesus knew the cross was something infinitely more than ‘just’ thorns and nails: it was the wrath of God. That’s why he asked for it to be taken away, unlike the saints.
Praise God that his anger has been turned away from us through the wrath quenching cross! We can always answer the lies of the accuser: God is for me not against me, his displeasure over my repented sin, has already been fully expressed on Jesus, his burning love is all that remains towards me. This is great!
However, "If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, {27} but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God." (Heb 10:26-27) ‘Deliberate’ means with no prayer or confession or effort to change. God always longs to forgive but if we continuously refuse to come to him humbly for mercy, he has to act as Judge.
Reconciliation
Jesus had been separated from the Father for the last three hours on the cross so that we could be united with the Father. He was forsaken on our behalf. He was pushed away so we could be brought near. This is part of the cross’ divine exchange. The bible calls this reconciliation. He was cut off from God so that we could be joined to the Lord forever.
“…when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son…” (Rom 5:10)
Some may ask the question: how could just three hours of the Son of God being separated from the Father, qualify all of us to be joined with him forever? The answer: the same way that the death of the Son leads to the eternal life of us all. The sin of just one man, Adam, led to the death of all. The oppression of the second Adam, led to the freedom of all men. The raising of Jesus led to the resurrection of everyone. Jesus is so significant that whatever happened to him affects everyone. Even if he had committed a small sin, just swore at one of his younger brothers or sisters once, it would have led to all of us being lost. In the same way, a short time of the Son being separated from the Omnipotent One, had mammoth ramifications!
Satan took Jesus and lost everything else, instantly! Don’t mess with God. How much hung on Jesus’ every move! He was absolutely perfect! Hallelujah!
An Impossible Task
To understand what Jesus’ resurrection really was we are first trying to understand what his last condition was when he died upon the cross. When we really see what happened to him there, it will help us to see the great challenge Jesus had, to escape from hell. The main problem was not his physical resurrection; that was the easy part! He was trapped in the grave on his own, bound with the sin of the world, having just faced the wrath of God, imprisoned by the entire sum of the earth’s corruption, which he had voluntarily carried. In this book we will look at these more carefully and then see how Jesus, step by step overcame each one in his resurrection. The resurrection is the divine reversal of all the negatives that happened to Jesus on the cross.
Jesus bore all the sins of the world; he was not acting. That made him the biggest sinner in history! Think of all the terrorist bombs that have deliberately been planted to blow up bus-loads of children. Jesus was guilty for that. Think of all the violent rapes ever, Jesus took the blame. Think of the millions of people’s murder that was in Jesus’ account before God. He was responsible for all the selfish terrible wars. He took all of Hitler’s war crimes and Stalin and Mao’s genocides. In God’s sight he was the worst ever and most perverse adulterer since he bore everyone’s fornication. It is impossible even to imagine what a state Jesus was in on the cross. However, inwardly he maintained his total righteousness.
“You did this for me Lord personally, like a shepherd going after just one sheep, I love you!”
Since the Lord sacrificed so much, we should: sacrifice a high standard of living for a high standard of giving; and spend evening after evening waiting on the Master rather than episode after episode of watching the serials. We embrace the constant struggle to be in the spirit rather than unauthorized entertainment in the name of resting. It is a huge battle to maintain self-control, most don’t even seem to try but just bow down to satan’s ingenious end-times distracting media menace.
His spirit was NOT corrupted. The sin was ‘in his body’ i.e., oppressing or upon his soul. Temptation and fiery darts of the enemy are not sin. Jesus was temped in the wilderness with terrible evil feelings and thoughts but that did not make him sinful. It was the same on the cross.
Job’s Two Levels Of Testing
The enemy came to God to incite him to withdraw his protection from Job, twice. The first time Job lost his cattle and his children. The second test was much more severe: physical pain on his own body through soars and sickness.
This parallels the two stages of Jesus’ trial on the cross. The first three hours was the pain of crucifixion but the second three hours were much more severe, when “darkness came over all the land” (Mat 27.45).
God turned the lights off for the whole nation to show that this period was really dark for Jesus as we have seen. A solar eclipse could not black out such a large area. Even in the worst clouds, it does not become ‘dark’ like this. This was a supernatural event to show us the gravity of Jesus suffering, well beyond the physical torture of the cross.
Ruth
Let’s now examine the book of Ruth which reveals an amazing aspect of Jesus’ willingness to endure the cross.
Who was the angel of the Lord spoken of in the foundational old covenant? Look carefully at these few verses for the answer:
(Judg 6:12-14 NIV) "When the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, "The LORD is with you, mighty warrior." {13} "But sir," Gideon replied, "if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us… " {14} The LORD turned to him and said, "Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian's hand. Am I not sending you?""
Verse 12 says the angel of the Lord spoke to Gideon, but verse 14 says that it was the LORD (Hebrew: Jehovah). The angel of the Lord was the LORD himself. The Lord is not just an angel. However, just as God delighted to come in human format to fellowship with man, it seems that he manifested himself in the form of a special angel to fellowship with angels from the time of their creation up until the incarnation. God is friendly.
A Jewish family had left Israel during the time of severe famine, to Moab where their sons married foreign girls. However, by the time the famine ended, over ten years later, the father and two sons had died. The Mother, Naomi, together with just one of her daughters-in-law, Ruth, returned to Israel to Boaz a wealthy relative who realised his Jewish obligation to marry the widow Ruth. However, Naomi had a closer relative who legally had the first right to buy (redeem) her late husband’s land and marry Ruth. (Ruth 3:12)
Lev 25:25 “If one of your fellow Israelites falls into poverty and is forced to sell some family land, then a close relative should buy it back for him.”
Let’s pick up the story of Boaz’s meeting with this closer relative: (called the ‘family redeemer’)
3 And Boaz said to the family redeemer, "You know Naomi, who came back from Moab. She is selling the land that belonged to our relative Elimelech. 4 I thought I should speak to you about it so that you can redeem it if you wish. If you want the land, then buy it here in the presence of these witnesses. But if you don't want it, let me know right away, because I am next in line to redeem it after you." The man replied, "All right, I'll redeem it." 5 Then Boaz told him, "Of course, your purchase of the land from Naomi also requires that you marry Ruth, the Moabite widow. That way she can have children who will carry on her husband's name and keep the land in the family." 6 "Then I can't redeem it," the family redeemer replied, "because this might endanger my own estate. You redeem the land; I cannot do it." (Ruth 4.3-6 NLT)
The closest relative was not willing to redeem Naomi’s property or family. So, Boaz did instead. Why is this strange book in the bible? Marrying foreigners? Love story of Boaz and Ruth?
God the Father asked a question in heaven one day:
(Isa 6:8) "Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?"
I imagine most of the angels putting their hands up. The Father explains the mission step by step. He explains that a perfect being has to go to the earth to rescue and help fallen mankind, to heal all their sick and teach them the ways of God. Even more angels, perhaps all, put their hands up saying, “Send me, I’ll go” with angelic enthusiasm. God had to ask the angels first as they are a closer relative to man compared to God himself, as the book of Ruth had prophesied. The angels are the first family redeemers. Then the Father continues with a few more details of the mission: “You will have your memory wiped, be born as a baby, and after healing and teaching the multitudes, you will be arrested, beaten, and tortured more severely than anyone else in history so that you barely look human.” Some of the angels slowly put their hands down. “Then you will be put to a slow painful death during which I will supernaturally put all the murder, theft, rape, rage, fear of the entire world throughout all history on you and you will be punished accordingly.” Then most of even the high-ranking angels put their hands down realizing that they were not willing to take on all the sin of man. “After this you will be made sin itself, feeling like the worst ever backslider, you will be oppressed by all the darkness of hell, the entire evil horde will have access to you due to the sin.” Now even the previously resolute and loyal Cherubim and Seraphim shudder and their hands come down. “It’s ok if you don’t volunteer, I understand,” the Father continues with only a handful of angels still with their hands raised, “And finally, I will have to pour out all my wrath upon you for all the evil of the earth in propitiation”. The last few archangels, Gabriel and Michael, nervously stare at the Father in holy fear and withdraw their applications. The angels look around at each other, shocked at the gravity of the assignment and see that everyone has put their hands down, except one angel: the angel of the Lord is resolutely looking at his Father’s face with his hand still high!
“Father, Here I am, I will go, send me!” The Father weeps. Despite knowing the full extent of the agony oppression and sacrifice which was going to be involved, he volunteered willingly even though the angels, the closest possible redeemers were not willing:
5 "Therefore, when Christ came into the world… 7 "Then I said, 'Here I am--it is written about me in the scroll-- I have come to do your will, O God.'" (Heb 10:5,7)
Every time I think about this scene I also weep.
…
With this refresh into some aspects of the cross complete, we are now ready to dive into revelations concerning the resurrection! I have divided this book into sections and put the key scriptures at the start of each one. Please slowly read them so that they will be echoing in your mind as you journey with me, to take new ground…
