We are not saved from our sins because Jesus was falsely tried by Jewish and Roman officials and sentenced by Pilate to die. Neither do we have saving because Roman persecutors thrust nails into the hands and feet of Christ and hung him on a cross. We are saved solely through the resurrection of Christ.
Let’s Talk About the Christ’s Role
Do we really think that the false judgment of men heaped upon Christ would pay the debt for all of humankind’s sin? Do we really think that a crown of thorns and whips and nails and a wooden cross and all the other facets of the crucifixion that we glamorize is powerful enough to save us?
Picture Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane before the crucifixion and resurrection. As he kneels before his Father, drops of sweat and blood fall together from his head. Why is he in such agony and pain? The answer is not because he is afraid of crucifixion. He is not trembling because of what the Roman soldiers are about to do to him.
Since that day countless men and women in the history of Christianity have died for their faith. Some of them were not just hung on crosses. They burned them there. Many of them went to their crosses singing.
One Christian in India, while they skinned him alive, looked at his persecutors and said, “I thank you for this. Tear off my old garment, for I will soon put on Christ’s garment of righteousness.”
As he prepared to head to his execution, Christopher Love wrote a note to his wife, saying, “Today they will sever me from my physical head, but they cannot sever me from my spiritual head, Christ.” As he walked to his death, his wife applauded while he sang of glory.
Did these men and women in Christian history have more courage than Christ himself? Why was he trembling in that garden, weeping and full of anguish? We can rest assured that he was not a coward about to face Roman soldiers. Instead, he was a Savior about to endure divine wrath.
The Truth of the Resurrection
Listen to his words. “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.” The “cup” is not a reference to a wooden cross. It is a reference to divine judgment. It is the cup of God’s wrath.
This is what Jesus is recoiling from in the garden. All God’s holy wrath and hatred toward sin and sinners, stored up since the beginning of the world, poured out on him. He is sweating blood at the thought of it.
What happened at the Cross was not primarily about nails being thrust into Jesus’ hands and feet. But about the wrath due to your sin and my sin thrust upon his soul, redeemed through the resurrection. In that holy moment, all the righteous wrath and justice of God due us came down rushing like a torrent on Christ himself. Some say, “God looked down and could not bear to see the suffering that the soldiers were inflicting on Jesus, so he turned away.” But this is not true. God turned away because he could not bear to see your sin and my sin on his Son.
One preacher described it as if you and I were standing a short hundred yards away from a dam of water ten thousand miles high and ten thousand miles wide. All of a sudden, that dam was breached. A torrential flood of water came crashing toward us. Right before it reached our feet, the ground in front of us opened up and swallowed it all. At the Cross, Christ drank the full cup of the wrath of God. When he had downed the last drop, he turned the cup over. He cried out, “It is finished.”
This is the gospel. The just and loving Creator of the universe has looked upon hopelessly sinful people and sent his Son, God in the flesh. He bore his wrath against sin on the cross. He showed his power over sin in the Resurrection. So there is reconciliation to God forever for all who trust in him.
David Platt, Radical, 34-36
Radical exists to equip Christians to be on mission.
