Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13

The old rugged cross was a symbol of the Roman empire’s prestige, power and position. It is shameful to be crucified as the Scriptures say that cursed be the man that hangs on a tree. The cross was a human invention of the most wicked scheme of punishment to his fellow; yet just as the human mind intended it for evil, Jesus took it over and changed the very meaning of the cross so that to this day we look at it as the means of redemption, deliverance and restoration instead of consternation, contempt and shame. This redemption did not come at an easy price. It was not taken from the blood of bulls or lambs, goats or pigeons. The blood used to purchase our freedom was from the King of glory, the owner of the whole universe! Even just one drop of His blood is much more precious than all the riches of this world combined together.

The world’s gold and silver will not be enough to purchase even a drop of the blood of Jesus. This was the price of our restoration so that we can be reconnected to our precious Lord and Savior. No wonder the writer of Hebrews warns, “Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?” (Hebrews 10:28-29). This means that a much sorer punishment awaits those who have rejected the offer of grace to them. To reject God’s offering of grace means to willfully sin in spite of the knowledge that we have known. Another form of rejection is unbelief of what Jesus did on the cross for us. Even if Jesus died for every one of us, He requires one thing from us, and that is to believe in Him as the Father has sent Him.

There is a great difference between believing with our minds and believing with our hearts. Paul therefore strongly emphasized to the Romans, “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved; for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation” (Romans 10:9-10). The mouth of confession brings possession of the very core of our beings to that which we believe for whatever we confess will ultimately be formed in our hearts. The product of true faith is no doubt, righteousness and when one believes in the Lord, it opens the door for the Kingdom to come upon his life. Once the door is open, the King enters in so that we can have fellowship with Him, this is what it means to “dine and sup with Him” (John 21:12; Rev. 3:20). We will walk in such intimacy as we partake of Him so that He indwells us. This radical transformation in the believer’s life is so new and so true that it can only be described as being “born again.” This is how the Kingdom of God comes, not by sight or by observation but by faith.

Those who have faith can change their land, their destiny and bring heaven on earth. They are now fully connected to the greatest resource and power this earth will ever see and experience, the Holy Spirit of God. There is however constant danger to these radicals of faith, they are often repelled, persecuted and repudiated by those who have become diseased with lukewarmness. Many of these were also partakers of the divine revelation of intimacy with God but left their first estate by having focused on the people instead of the Lord who would rather have all of us focused on Him as the greatest work we will ever do than doing something for Him. Many of these have forgotten their first love and need to repent but some justifies their hardness of heart by comparing themselves to one another rather than imitating Christ, the fullness of the revelation of man in the image of God. When we do likewise, the Scriptures tell us that we are fools who compare themselves with one another.

The measuring rod is not our neighbor, it will always be His image because we were created for the purpose of bearing Christ’s image. Jesus is the rod of God to afflict those who are disobedient and He also is the flower that bud in Aaron’s staff to shower with grace and blessings those who are obedient. Let us therefore labor with God until Christ be formed in us and in others (Galatians 4:19). When one humble believer stands for all that God has for him, we will all be changed and affected. When there were just handful men who withstood against the greatest empire on earth, they changed the course of history by not retreating but kept on advancing the cause of Christ on earth. When one man believed that he could prove the world to be round, by faith, he charted the harsh and treacherous seas to find new routes and establish the world as round. When a humble monk stood against the greatest powers of his day by nailing a simple scrap of paper, he sent the greatest shockwaves that reformed, reformulated and restructured the ages to come. This is the power of the ordinary believer because Jesus has come to indwell and empower us so that we can continue His work today.

The power of the cross

Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him,  and by His scourging we are healed. Isaiah 53:4-5

He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed. 1 Peter 2:24

Though the cross became the symbol of Christianity, it has no power by itself without the shedding of the blood of Jesus. It was because Jesus bled to death that there is power in the cross. What the cross ultimately accomplished for us is the atonement of Christ to bring complete sacrifice and redemption for humanity. Because without the shedding of the blood there is no forgiveness of sins, His cross accomplished much to bring us nearer to God. Let us take a brief look on each of the accomplishments of Jesus by His death on the cross. Indeed the blood of Jesus speaks better things than that of Abel because of the following:

1. Atonement

The death of Jesus on the cross was prophesied long before it took place through foreshadows of things to come like the Jewish practice of atonement for sins. In Leviticus 16:3-10 it says, “Aaron shall enter the holy place with this: with a bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. “He shall put on the holy linen tunic, and the linen undergarments shall be next to his body, and he shall be girded with the linen sash and attired with the linen turban (these are holy garments). Then he shall bathe his body in water and put them on. “He shall take from the congregation of the sons of Israel two male goats for a sin offering and one ram for a burnt offering. “Then Aaron shall offer the bull for the sin offering which is for himself, that he may make atonement for himself and for his household. “He shall take the two goats and present them before the LORD at the doorway of the tent of meeting.“Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats, one lot for the LORD and the other lot for the scapegoat. “Then Aaron shall offer the goat on which the lot for the LORD fell, and make it a sin offering.“But the goat on which the lot for the scapegoat fell shall be presented alive before the LORD, to make atonement upon it, to send it into the wilderness as the scapegoat.”

These two goats spoken here is symbolic of the life of Christ and the life of the believer. The first time that Christ came to earth, he was made an atonement or a sacrifice for our sin, therefore giving life and mercy to the sinner which is symbolized by the scapegoat that was allowed to live. It is through this practice of atonement that the sins of many are forgiven by the sprinkling of the blood of bulls and goats in the holy of holies. Aaron takes the blood of the sin sacrifice and sprinkles them in the holy place and on the tent of meeting and on the altar to cleanse and consecrate the people before the Lord because of their defilements.

Because even this foreshadow or a copy of things to come can actually cleanse the conscience and sin of a person, of how much more is the shed blood of Christ do for you? “For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Hebrews 9:13-14). This is only made possible because through the blood, there is atonement for the soul (see Leviticus 17:11).

2. Forgiveness, cleansing and redemption

In effect because of the shed blood of Jesus Christ we were made debt free and sin free. We have been offered new life, new way of living and we are completely made new. The significance of this cannot be emphasized enough but to those who are conscious of their sins, to those who have been burdened by their evil ways, those who have been in bondage, they knew next to none, that the forgiveness of God and a clean slate provided for them transforms their perspective of the world around them. They who have been unworthy were made worthy again and they who have been paupers, they who have been wretched and poor were given eternal salvation and inheritance beyond description. This is what it means when Christ appeared for the salvation of mankind becoming our High Priest and Mediator who brought His own blood and presented it before the Judge, His Father in the high court of heaven, the payment for our treason. The writer of Hebrews speaking of this said,

“But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation;
and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? For this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.” Hebrews 9:11-15

“Without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” Hebrews 9:22

Because of Adam’s transgression, all men have sinned (see Romans 3:23; 1 Corinthians 15:21-22). The only way to be redeemed from this curse is by the shedding of the blood which is prophetically typified by the sin sacrifice done every year in the Jewish atonement. Now this practice can cleanse men of their sins and defilements that is why the Jews under the Old Covenant were saved through the cleansing of the blood of bulls and goats but this is not good enough just as this is performed yearly because it is not able to completely do away with sin no matter how many blood sacrifice is performed. Therefore, the Lord has planned that until the fullness of time, until the arrival of the Lamb of God, everything will be performed just as was being done under the Law in order to point all men through this yearly practice to the redeemer that is coming. When finally Christ appeared as the author of the Better Covenant, having better things to say, He gave His life as a ransom for many to cleanse our conscience from dead works and serve the living God.

3) Mediatorship and reconciliation

As a result of the death of Christ having become fully the Savior of all men, He also became our mediator for the reason that He died as a man being also fully divine, He understood what it means to be man and at the same time as God. To be a mediator, one must be able to identify on both sides and therefore has the authority to be an arbitrator or umpire. Is this not what was said of Jesus? “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). Jesus has torn apart the great divide between God and man and has reconciled us both through the cross. His blood which He brought inside the veil and presented to the Father as a payment, a counter price to our sin has fully realized His right to be our mediator. It was only Jesus in all of history who claimed to be the Son of God and the Son of Man, making Him indeed as the only real mediator between God and man, “But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises” (Hebrews 8:6).

These better promises that the author is speaking about is the promise of salvation and restoration to all by the grace of God released through the shed blood of Jesus Christ, “For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony borne at the proper time” (1 Timothy 2:5-6). Just as the Lord died for all, so that any man who is in Christ becomes a new creature and the old things are passed away and behold, new things have come, these were promises only made possible because He “reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation” (see 2 Corinthians 5:17-19).

4) Covering from curse, sickness and death

It is written that curse is the man that hangs on a tree, and indeed, Jesus has become the curse, the sin for us so that instead of us being hanged on a tree, He gave Himself so that we become the righteousness of God.  “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us — for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree” — in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith” (Galatians 3:13-14). Just as Abraham was blessed of God because he obeyed God in all things, by the obedience of one Man, we received also the rewards promised by God to Abraham.

We have access to these promises of the Lord to Abraham through Christ. We who were once afar from God were made near by virtue of the shed blood of Jesus on the cross. What were these promises to Abraham? In Genesis 17:4-7 the Lord talked to Abraham about the promise of a covenant, He said, “As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you will be the father of a multitude of nations. “No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I will make you the father of a multitude of nations. “I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings will come forth from you. “I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you.”

Here it is promised that Abraham shall receive three promises a) new name b) fruitfulness and c) covenant with God sealed by circumcision. In the New Covenant these were, a changed nature, fruitfulness abounding through the Spirit of Christ, and a new heart. As the prophet wrote, “Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them, “declares the Lord. “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. “And they shall not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the Lord, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more” (Jeremiah 31:31-34). Rather than always being led astray and coming into bondage, the New Covenant was made possible only because of the provision of Christ’s shed blood.

Within this New Covenant provision is the release of a new nature that is provided by Christ through His Spirit living in man. While this was not only impossible in the Old Covenant but also improbable under the law, it is only realized by writing a better one and superseding the Old Covenant in glory and splendor as a result. Therefore, we should not take lightly so great a salvation and so great an inheritance we have received from the Lord by sealing us with the Holy Spirit of Promise (Ephesians 1:13). He has delivered us from every speakable bondage, curse, sickness and death by becoming our Passover, “For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed” (1 Corinthians 5:7).

5) Transformed life and clean conscience

There could be no transformation possible within man had it not been by the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus on the holy place, the tent of meeting and the altar. This has been expressed in Hebrews, “But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Hebrews 9:11-14). All of these parts of tabernacle typify also the different parts of man that needs to be submitted to the Lord as we are the temple of God.

The outer tabernacle which consists of the tent of meeting is symbolic of the mind of man, his soul while the altar is symbolic of his heart and the most holy place that of his spirit. When man is saved, he is automatically regenerated in his spirit. This spirit of man is reconciled to God or reconnected to God while his heart which is the altar and his soul which primarily is made up of his emotions, will and mind, needs to be continually renewed by the Word of God so that it is washed and cleansed by His Word which can regenerate us (Ephesians 5:25). Therefore we are to “ lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:1-3).

6) Justification by Faith

As Jesus Christ was being thrown a barrage of accusations and criticisms, the two thieves who were crucified with Him took sides. Notice how the Son of God is shown by the views of these two people. The people then said mockingly, “and the people stood by, looking on. And even the rulers were sneering at Him, saying, “He saved others; let Him save Himself if this is the Christ of God, His Chosen One.” And the soldiers also mocked Him, coming up to Him, offering Him sour wine, and saying, “If You are the King of the Jews, save Yourself!” (Luke 23:35-37). If one would have been transported into that scene, the burden of the accusations of the people only added pain and torment to the wounds and sufferings of the Lord. As the skies begun to gather with dark clouds and great darkness looms on the horizon, one of the criminals who hung blasphemed Him, saying, “are You not the Christ? Save Yourself and us!” But the other answered, and rebuking him said, “Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? “And we indeed justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong” (Luke 23:39-41).

This act of blasphemy by one of the thieves show us our corrupt nature that is beyond cure, that we are prone to judge others by what we see and what we hear. We easily fall to accusing each other and 2000 years ago it was not any different. We still hang others on the cross not by nails but by our tongues and hatred. These two thieves represent two diametrically opposing attitudes of our time, one is pride and the other is humility. We mask our pride by such things as afflict us, we are high minded unable to come to terms with the view of others without feeling hurt, unable to take a lowly task or bear the burden of others or to even help one in need. We pray “help us do your will” but we refuse our fellows when God directs them to our paths.

We pray, “help me cloth the naked and feed the poor” but when the storms come and the flood rage against our neighbor we give them eyes that stare with suspicion instead of concern and service. But such shallow religious exercises are soon shown to be a farce by those who follow the Lamb of God wherever He goes. They have no other constitution than to serve God and humanity first before they think of themselves. Truly it can be said of them that they have the mind of Christ Jesus. “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant” (Philippians 2:5-7). They emptied themselves by giving all that they have for the work of the gospel and the advancement of the Kingdom, nothing of expense that heaven gave them remains to their account because they used it for the furtherance of the Kingdom.

These are those who prayed, Lord “help me do your will” and when they saw a poor child without cloth running in the streets, they adopted him and put him into school considering such as a valuable soul for the work of the Kingdom. These are those who prayed, “Lord strengthen my faith” and when the storms of life came and great lies and accusation were told them, they remained firm believers of the truth refusing to have a hand on gossips and lies that hurt others. Therefore, only those who walk in humble admission that they need God will also be the ones who would receive the light of His revelation.

By putting his faith on the Lord, the other thief received eternal life the moment he believed in Him so that Jesus simply said, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise” (v.43). Until now the Lord is still in the business of snatching people from the fire just as He did with the thief. To be justified by faith not only means we are forgiven, but also we are clothed by the majesty of Christ as we have been adopted into sonship in the family of God. All because Jesus gave His life as a ransom in our place, therefore we were justified, and declared without sin. Like Paul we can cry out to God and say, “I have been crucified with Christ: and I myself no longer live, but Christ lives in me. And the real life I now have within this body is a result of my trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20 TLB).