Many Christians see Christ’s crucifixion in terms of his death purchasing the forgiveness of our sins. The transaction for forgiveness did happen on the cross, but it happened fairly early on in the day. Luke was the only one of the Gospel writers who recorded the words that dealt with the unbelief that had enslaved the human race since Satan’s deception in the Garden of Eden. Listen to Christ’s words found in Luke 23:34, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” Christ hit the nail on the head. From the time that Adam and Eve were conned into letting go of God–they did not know what they were doing–to the crucifixion, the human race was separated from the truth of God’s absolute love by the dividing wall Satan had constructed through his deception. All the sin, all the evil that the human race has participated in, came because humans did not understand God’s absolute love and thus, did not understand their own actions.

     Since Christ asked God to forgive the human race, the question becomes did God answer Christ’s prayer? Back when Christ was at the tomb of Mary and Martha’s brother, Christ spoke these words to God, “Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I know that thou hearest me always…” (John 11:41-42). On the basis of Christ’s assertion that led to the raising of Lazarus, we can indeed infer that God did answer Christ as he hung on the cross and that the human race was forgiven at that point.

     Somehow, the Christian faith has given the impression that we, as the “sinners,” determine whether God forgives us or not by accepting the gift of salvation. The ones who have sinned have no say in the matter of forgiveness–it is totally in the purview of the one who is sinned against. When God answered Christ’s prayer, the human race was forgiven of its unbelief , period. Through Christ’s prayer for forgiveness for the human race, God took care of the unbelief that would prohibit them from benefitting from what was about to happen next.

     Let’s look at Proverbs 12:28  again, “In the way of righteousness is life; and in the pathway thereof there is no death.” Christ had the spirit of his Father–the spirit of righteousness–within his physical body. Because he had never let go of God, his righteousness was in full-force and it kept him from death. In fact, the only way Christ could die was if he let go of God and let go of life. That was the something that was about to happen. Let’s watch the action.

     When the time was right and he was ready to die, Christ spoke, “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit” (Luke 23:46). At that point, Christ gave back to God the righteousness that made him the Son of God. Now, the question becomes what happened then? Remember when we talked about God creating an alternative to Himself? Since that point, only two choices have existed–life, good, love, light, and spirit or death, evil, hate, darkness, and physicality. Christ had lived his earthly life in the first choice, so if he let go of that choice, wouldn’t the second choice rush in? Or, to put in simpler terms, wouldn’t sin rush in? Listen to his cry after he gave up his righteousness, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). That, my friends, was the cry of unbelief, of sin. As II Corinthians 5:21 says, the one who knew no sin became sin. God did not turn from Christ–in fact, Christ did exactly what God wanted him to do. Christ let go of God and he let go of life, good, love, light, and spirit.

     Hebrews 12:3 encourages us to “…consider him (Christ) that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself…” The one whose joy was to be one with his Father had to let go of his Father and in doing so pleased his Father. What a contradiction! Not only that, but also the one, who spoke of being the Living Water that would totally quench the thirst of the human race (John 4:14) , thirsted and was given sour vinegar to drink (John 19:28). What a contradiction!

     Now, while Christ was dying, Satan and his kingdom were watching and seeing the result of their conniving–the light of the world was being extinguished and darkness was overtaking the surroundings. Then, Christ finally physically died as he spoke the words, “It is finished,” (John 19:30), and behind Satan’s back, a tremendous noise shook the foundations of the kingdom of evil. The veil in the temple was ripped from top to bottom, or to put it in the analogy I’ve been using, the dividing wall was obliterated. When Christ died, unbelief (sin) died, too! It was as if Christ took the hugest sledgehammer ever and bashed the wall into smithereens. Satan’s ability to keep the human race from cleaving to God was forever destroyed (Hebrews 2:14).

     God’s absolute love won! This is the good news–nothing stands between us and God, nothing! Through Christ, we have the right that God’s forgiveness and Christ’s triumphant crucifixion has given us–we have the right and the power to cleave to God and to have life! As we proceed on, we are going to dig into the outcomes and the benefits that Christ’s crucifixion has brought to the human race.

    As always, please feel free to comment–just be respectful!

 

     ©2009-2010 by Patricia Zell. All rights reserved.