It is not for naught that we come to see, even as Christ saw, that the cross was God's wisdom. Wisdom is that faculty which makes the highest and best application of knowledge. Wisdom ensures that the cross of Christ was, in the fore-knowledge of God, a perfect and complete application of that knowledge. On Calvary's hill, God's intention, the salvation of His entire creation, was accomplished. Thus God, the Source of all, becomes the Saviour of all.
The Son of God, the Firstborn of every creature, through Whom all else came into being, coming as the sacrificial Lamb of God, also has the title 'Saviour,' as His name implies. Jesus is the Greek form of His Jewish name, Joshua, which means 'Saviour', as scripture records: "And you shall be calling His name Jesus, for He shall be saving His people from their sins." (Matt. 1:21)
Crucifixion was a degrading and agonising death by which the Romans eliminated the worst types of criminal (and others as expedient). Christ's cross differed, in that, whereas the ones crucified with Him had diced with death and had lost, He was taking upon Himself the irreverences and injustices of all time: that horrendous barrier of sin that God's creatures would erect between themselves and the Father. Hence, Christ, too, would be separated from the Father for the space of three long hours, as all alone, He suffered for us, and through which we are bought and become His!
Our Lord's trust and obedience to the will of His Father is the more wonderful when we recall His familiarity with the scriptures. Had He not read: "I am poured our like water and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels." (Psalm 22:14) The same Psalm begins: "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?" That knowledge of the scriptures accounts also for the words that were wrung from the lips of the Lord: "My God, My God, why didst Thou forsake Me!"
Those words, uttered as the three hours of darkness over the land ended and He again felt the Father's consoling presence, all, no doubt, will understand. It was not a question. Now, realising that Gods' wisdom had triumphed, He cried out in a loud voice, "It is accomplished!" Then, committing His spirit into His Father's care, He expired. He had committed it firmly believing that His Father would, after three days raise Him also. Christ, first in everything, is also the Inaugurator of faith!
Paul went to great lengths to show that the need for Christ to be roused was paramount. "Now, if Christ has not been roused, vain is your faith —you are still in your sins. Consequently, those also, who are put to repose in Christ, perished! If we are having an expectation in Christ in this life only, more forlorn than all men are we. Yet now Christ has been roused from among the dead (Paul had seen and spoken with Him) —the Firstfruit of those who are reposing. For since, in fact, through a man came death, through a Man, also, comes the resurrection of the dead. For even as, in Adam, all are dying, thus also, in Christ, shall all be vivified." (1 Cor. 15:17-22).
"Through a man came death...." Through the ages men have sought an elixir of life, for they believe that there must be one. Yet men continue to be born, and sin, and die. Readers of God's scriptures need not be misled. Read it anew. "For since, in fact, through a man came death, through a Man also, comes the resurrection of the dead. For even as in Adam, all are dying, thus also, in Christ, shall all be vivified. Yet each in his own class: the Firstfruit, Christ; thereupon those who are Christ's in His presence; thereafter the consummation.." (1 Cor.15:21-24). Between the second class and the last, is another long eon!
Our legacy from Adam is a dying body, a weakened body which unaided cannot resist temptation. That we are slaves of sin —and "sin reigns in death" is a universal and devastating truth. Yet in the three hours, through a man, the sinless One, God has shown that death is merely incidental to His purpose, and is subject to Him!
We know from the Scriptures that the above was always God's intention: "The precious blood of Christ, as of a flawless and unspotted lamb —foreknown indeed, before the disruption of the world." (1 Peter 1:21-24) And again we read, "The scroll of life of the Lambkin slain from the disruption of the world." (Rv.13:8). This confirms yet again the wonderful wisdom of all God's counsel and purpose, for if there was a better application of His foreknowledge would He not be purposing that?
These few paragraphs have merely touched on the might and wisdom and wonder of God and His beloved Son. In the light of the scriptures quoted, may we who are believing, see in our salvation, a complete achievement of God! There is no deficiency to fill up by what we, or any other, may say we should do. (The Galatians made that mistake.) Nothing is left in which WE may boast, except in the Lord —in the only and wise God.
