He Held out for a Cross

After three years of ministry performing healings, raising the dead, feeding the thousands, and teaching the multitudes; Jesus was arrested.  He withstood six trials, contempt and mocking (Luke 23:11).  He was spat on and beaten (Matthew 26:67), and then sentence to death by the very people that received the very best of Christ ministry (Matthew 27:15-25).  After all this was said and done Pilate ordered Jesus to be “scourged” Mark 15:15 NKJV says, “This was the worst flogging and beaten that any man could have been given.  The whip was fashioned with numerous strips of leather with sharp pieces of bone and metal attached.  This was designed to rip and tear the flesh to shreds.”  This was one of the most life-threatening punishments that any man could live through.  Then they placed a crown of thorns on His head, pushing them into His skull and they mocked His royalty by placing a purple robe upon His shoulders. Through all of this, Christ stood by the strength and power of God to carry the very cross that He would embrace up the hill to Golgotha. 

Why would He do such a thing?  Christ fulfilled the prophecies of the Old Testament,’ "But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all..... He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken...... Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he has put him to grief: when you shall make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he has poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bares the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors." Isa 53:5,6,8,10-12.  "I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels. My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaves to my jaws; and you have brought me into the dust of death. For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet. I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me." Ps. 22:14-17. 

Why?  Christ did all of this so that prophecies will be fulfilled, He cancelled our debt for our sins and won us the benefits of salvation.  Romans 3:25-26 NIV says, “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished-- he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.”  Christ did it for His Father who asked Him to go to the cross so that we can have life everlasting!  

In the Cross

LJL