Why the Cross?
We all deserve death and eternal separation from God, but God’s expression of unequivocal love, allowing his son to die on the cross carrying our sins, saved us and allowed God to stay faithful to his word.
Purpose: To teach someone that Jesus’ death on the cross may be hard to understand, but it was the only way for God to make it possible
for us to make it to heaven and be with God forever rather than separated from him forever. To gain appreciation for God’s/Jesus’ sacrifice and their love for us and to reinforce the fact that our behavior, good or bad, in no way makes any difference in our salvation.
becoming a disciple or a mature Christian needing to be reminded of
where he/she stands with God.
Main Study
1 Cor. 1:18-21
• We are clue-less when it comes to understanding the cross
• Historically hard for Jews, Greeks, others to believe that a powerful God, the creator would make himself weak to the point of death on a cross
• Today it is easy to become hardened reading the account of the crucifixion and not be moved; we have a hard time “connecting” with God
• VS 21, the Bible says in fact we cannot come to know God by human reasoning
Genesis 2:17 – God’s Directive
• God’s initial statement of fact; if you eat from the tree you will die- its unequivocal
• Also Romans 6:23 and Romans 3:23–all mankind has sinned and is under a death sentence
Isaiah 59:1-2—The Effect of Sin
• The effect of our sin is that it literally separates us from God; we are incapable of being in his presence. Hell indeed was experienced by Jesus on the cross because he was separated from God for bearing our sins.
Romans 5:6-10–God’s Solution
• The only way for God to stay true to his word and at the same time save us from ETERNAL separation
• God purchased our redemption
• We bring absolutely NOTHING to the table. We cannot be good enough, do enough good deeds, donate enough money, pray enough to merit ANYTHING from God.
EXAMPLE: A Christian (according to the Bible) reverts back to sinful ways, gets drunk and is killed in an auto accident. He still goes to heaven even though he died under sinful circumstances because his behavior, good or bad, has no impact on his being saved by God’s graceful gift. (This in no way is a license to sin; also, perpetual, deliberate sin can result in loss of forgiveness – Hebrews 10:26-31)
1 John 1:7-
• We need to continually be open with God and others about our sin. If we do the blood Jesus spilled on the cross will continue to purify us and renew God’s purchase of our redemption
• While it is true that we cannot do anything to merit salvation, if we don’t confess our sins and strive to live a Godly life we are essentially saying Jesus sacrifice is meaningless to us and our sin that hurts God is OK (see Romans 6:1-2).
Conclusion
Throughout history, man has failed to understand and even scoffed at the crucifixion of Jesus as unnecessary and unworthy treatment of our God. Even so, our wisdom is incapable of understanding why it had to happen this way, except to say that the Bible tells us that without Jesus taking on the sins of all humanity we would not be capable of being in God’s presence. But since God loves us and wants a relationship with us, he was willing to sacrifice his son and allow the two of them to be separated (the definition of hell: separation from God) and still live up to his word. There is absolutely nothing we can do to be with God, other than to rely TOTALLY on the redemption provided by Jesus!
