Jesus Christ Our Passover: Part 6
Estimated reading time: 8 minutes
The Meaning of the Cross
With Trish Barbera
The word “cross” in English comes from a Latin word, crux. In the Greek New Testament, two words are translated as “cross.” One word, stauros, meant an upright stake to which criminals were nailed for execution. It was a log or timber, dead wood, as opposed to a living tree. In ancient Greek literature, it was an ordinary pole or stake or a single piece of lumber. The modern view of a cross made of two pieces of wood comes from ancient traditions that predate Christianity.
The true meaning of the cross has been shrouded spiritually. Why? Because of its incredible significance. It is significant right now, today, in our own lives and hearts. The image has been put in our faces and has distracted us from what was actually accomplished through the cross.
There are three basic usages of the word cross in the Bible.
1. The literal wooden cross that Simon of Cyrene carried and upon which Jesus Christ was crucified.
2. A figurative usage in which taking up or bearing one’s cross refers to a commitment, a voluntary willingness, and acceptance in carrying out a responsibility.
Luke 9:23 KJV:
And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.
We are not burdened down Christians carrying our cross; we are children of God with power and clothed in righteousness.
3. A figure of speech, double metonymy, stands for His death and crucifixion, but also that which He accomplished by the shedding of His blood on the cross.
You can read three accounts of what happened with Jesus Christ in Matthew 27, Mark 15, and Luke 23. Those three accounts show clearly that Simon of Cyrene carried the cross for Jesus.
John 19:16 KJV:
16 Then delivered he [Pilate] him [Jesus] therefore unto them to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led [dragged] him away. 17 And he [Jesus] bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha:
John seems to imply that Jesus Himself carried the wooden cross and that tradition is widely taught and believed. But we know from closer examination that Jesus couldn’t possibly carry anything; they had to carry Him because he was so badly beaten and injured. A cohort of 400–600 aggressive soldiers tortured Him for a day and a half. It’s amazing that He even lived through the torture.
What does it mean when it says, “bearing his cross?” What he bore was a spiritual cross composed of our sins and transgressions, our sicknesses and mental burdens, our spiritual burdens, judgment, the bondage of the law, and everything that separated us from God.
Because of what Jesus Christ accomplished, our separation from God was abolished, obliterated, taken away. The figure of speech double metonymy highlights two deeper levels of meaning.
Genesis 19:8 KJV:
Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof.
In this verse, the roof represents the whole house. The house represents the protection that it provides. So, the important point was not the roof; it was the protection.
The emphasis of the cross of Christ is not the cross; neither is it the death and crucifixion. The emphasis is on what He accomplished by it.
What good would it have done for Him to carry the wooden cross? What would that have accomplished?
Colossians 2:14 KJV:
Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;
There is an Orientalism or Hebrew idiom in which a person unable to pay his debt would go before the elders of the city at the city gate and give a full account of his debts. It would be recorded on a parchment or skin with the person’s name on it. It would be posted at the city gate. The only way it could be repaid is if someone else, a benefactor, came and paid it for him. When someone fully paid the debt for him, the elders would double it over or fold it in half, write the former debtor’s name on it, and nail it to the city gate. That indicated that the debt was fully resolved and completely gone.
Isaiah 40:2 KJV:
Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD’S hand double for all her sins.
That’s the picture in Colossians 2:14, when the ordinances against us were blotted out, removed, and nailed to the cross. That handwriting made the Old Testament law a personal debt for each individual, but no one could fulfill the whole law. Jesus Christ paid that price in full and released us from the bondage of the law.
Colossians 2:13–15 KJV:
13 And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; 14 Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; 15 And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.
Jesus Christ redeemed us from the law and the curse of the law (see Deuteronomy 27).
Galatians 2:19–21 KJV:
19 For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. 20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. 21 I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
Galatians 3:10–14 KJV:
10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. 11 But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith. 12 And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them. 13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: 14 That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
2 Corinthians 5:21 KJV:
For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
1 Corinthians 1:17–18 KJV:
17 For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. 18 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.
This is talking about what Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross.
Hebrews 5:7 KJV:
Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;
Philippians 2:8 KJV:
And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
Hebrews 12:2 KJV:
Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Where it says “endured the cross,” is referring to the entire time of his suffering, not just on the cross itself.
Galatians 5:1 KJV:
Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
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