Why the Cross?
As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. John 3:14 ESV
Be lifted up – “Houston, we have a problem.” Yeshua’s death on the cross does not meet the requirements for a sacrifice for intentional sin. Scripture tells us what those requirements must be. The sacrifice must be made at the altar. The blood must be sprinkled. The slaughter must be carried out in specific ways. Furthermore, Scripture tells us that the Lamb was slain before the foundation of the world. So Yeshua’s sacrifice, the sacrifice that provides forgiveness for sin, occurred before Adam, before Abraham, before David and before you and me. The means of forgiveness has always been this sacrifice. There is no distinction between “Old Testament” sacrifice and “New Testament” grace. They are one and the same.
But what does that mean for the cross? This question forces us to re-examine our typical assertion, “Jesus died on the cross for the forgiveness of sin.” When we pay attention to the text, we find that Yeshua Himself points us toward another interpretation. He directs us to look toward an ancient typology found in an event in the wilderness. Consider the context of Yeshua’s statement. “No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven” opens the discussion. This is not about forgiveness. It is about power and glory. Only the One who comes down has the right to go back up. Origin determines authority. How will men know that this claim is true? They will see the sign of Moses. They will see the power and glory of the Son of Man lifted up, both on the cross and in the ascension. The cross is the gateway to return to heaven. Death is the vehicle that transports the Son of Man from earthly Messiah to heavenly Lord.
Yeshua goes on. “Whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.” When the Son of Man is lifted up, those who believe may find eternal life. Believe what? Obviously not simply the fact that He is lifted up. Every crucified man was lifted up. What a witness must believe is that this is the sign of Yeshua’s exaltation as Lord and Ruler. A witness must believe that Yeshua now reigns over all the earth. And this means that Yeshua rules over me! The importance of the cross isn’t about forgiveness. It’s about power and authority. Where the world sees defeat, God sees victory!
John’s gospel uses the Greek verbs hypsoo and dei (must be lifted up). The first verb means both “to lift up” and “to exalt.” In the LXX it is often used for the exaltation of God (e.g., Isaiah 52:13). The word shows up in John 3:14, 8:28 and 12:32 as descriptions of the exalted Christ. To be lifted up on the cross is a sign of exaltation and of death. Through death He becomes Ruler and Lord. In this act, death is completely transformed, from a power that holds sway over any real meaning in life to a sign of the ultimate supremacy of the Lord’s anointed. On the cross, death dies!
Think about this in relation to the event in the wilderness. Tomorrow we will look at the Hebrew background.
Topical Index: cross, lifted up, hypsoo dei, forgiveness, exaltation, John 3:14
NOTE: Please be patient. We will have a lot more to research on this topic before we’re done.
Thanks for writing about this. I am looking forward to more on this topic. I was thinking about the cross in light of 2 Kings 18:4. The Israelites made an idol out of the bronze serpent and Hezekiah had it destroyed. It seems that there are so many songs we sing about the cross that place more emphasis on the ‘cross’ itself and less on Yeshua and the true purpose of the cross. Have we made an idol of it?
I would agree that IT (the cross) is referred to with the adoration that belongs only to Christ. At times, it sounds as if “the cross” was the vehicle of salvation, rather than being merely the “mode of transportation” Yeshua used. Another inanimate object could have been used, but NO ONE else could have been the sacrifice!
I am very interested to hear Skip’s understanding of this topic. I wonder if it has anything to do with trees used as objects to craft idols?
Regarding trees and craft idols ….
“The Lottery” is a short story by Shirley Jackson, first published in the June 26, 1948 issue of The New Yorker.
“The Lottery in Babylon” (or “The Babylon Lottery”; original Spanish “La Lotería en Babilonia”) is a fantasy short story by Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges”
Hi Mary,
In my first year at college, in English 101, we read the Lottery, in which there is a contemporary reenactment of an ancient ritual
As I recall, and I was never very clear on the historical subtext, they used to dance around a Maypole tree and then sacrifice someone in the group
The sacrifice in the Winter was supposed to “fertilize the ground” and magically ensure that the crops would be “reborn” in the Spring
Hence the Pagan holidays a little bit like Xmas and Easter; but frankly, I always had a hard time believing people ever acted like Pagans 🙂
Hi Michael, there are a number of “pagan” customs involving worship of items contained in nature and trees have been exactly that. Many claim Jeremiah chapter 10 as reference to Christmas trees, however, it seems to me to be an example of worship of trees as idols….
Not quite the same as decorating a tree for a birthday that’s not observed on the birthday…
” The Israelites made an idol out of the bronze serpent and Hezekiah had it destroyed.”
Hi Willow,
That’s very interesting, apparently Moses made that idol
So I guess Hezekiah has a stricter view of monotheism than Moses
It also says that He cut down the poles that were being worshiped
Maybe that’s where the Maypoles and Xmas trees came from 🙂
Close, but no cigar! The message of the cross of Christ is “all of the above!” And brothers.. sisters.. we (who are His) need to get “the word” out! It is an old message, but one that will remain, even after we are long dead and gone. The message is short,sweet and sure: “Jesus saves.”
In the beginning.. (that is -a long time ago…) was the logos.. (word, thought, idea). Yes, before Adam ever was, God knew the cross would have to be.. God knew Adam would sin as He does know the end (Omega) from the beginning (Alpha)- and everything in between. The mind of God has no limits. He (always) knows. Never play chess with God, He knows your next move!. He is Sovereign. But praise His Name, He wants us to win!-(He is compassionate!) and we (all) live by dying.
My identity? When He died, “I” died. May my English professor forgive me, but “I” is dead. Is this all? Do “I” remain, there in the grave? Friend, did He? Buddha died and he is dead. Mohammed died and he remains- dead. Confucious? Long gone. There is only ONE, the only ONE, the Anointed ONE who has risen. And His Name is? And when He did come up out of that borrowed tomb, (He only needed it for a few days) who (all) was defeated on that day? Did He defeat death by dying? Yes. Did He defeat hasatan, and show/reveal His complete,total,final authority over all? Yes sir, yes m’am. Completely. ~ O death, where is your victory.. (now?) Gone. He now holds the keys, “all” of them. The keys of death and of life. “All” authority, dominion, power has been given unto Him, including a Name which above every name..
And as He (now) stands in Victory, sins’ curse has lost it’s grip on me.. for I am His and He is mine, (I’m) washed in the precious blood of Christ..
~ and beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself ~ (Luke 24.27)
One more time.. (this time with feeling!) The Bible is our “Him-Book!” The Master’s Theme of tHis Book remains: ~ Behold, -the Lamb of God which takes away the sins of the world ~
and friends, please know this.. Jesus saves, “completely”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwZqhx8eSN4
EZEKIEL
21:18 The word of the LORD came to me: 19 “Son of man, mark out two roads for the sword of the king of Babylon to take, both starting from the same country. Make a signpost where the road branches off to the city
22:1 The word of the LORD came to me: 2 “Son of man, will you judge her? Will you judge this city of bloodshed? Then confront her with all her detestable practices 3 and say: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: O city that brings on herself doom by shedding blood in her midst and defiles herself by making idols
It’s interesting to me that the Lord refers to Ezekiel “at the crossroads” as “Son of man”
And Jesus who dies on the “cross” also refers to himself as the Son of man
And the last letter (22) in the Hebrew alphabet is Tav, which signifies “Cross”
Tav has a numerical value of 400 and a cross is a quadrant with 4 spaces
Dalet has a numerical value of 4 and signifies a “Door”
Skip, seeing that the sacrifices were always for unintentional sin, and that for intentional sin man always had only repentance before God, how does that relate to Yeshua as our sacrifice? This question only came up in my mind when I noticed that where the sacrifices are described, it was only for unintentional sin. Thanks
You’re right about unintentional sins. Yeshua’s sacrifice is of a different order, as Hebrews makes clear. More thinking is required.
Skip, do you know of any scriptural reference in the Tanakh that says that the Promised One will atone for our sins? If I read Ezekiel 33 it says a man can repentance that can bring righteousness. This is so confusing in light of the NT scriptures. I praise YHWH for the testimony in my heart of how my life was changed through Yeshua more than 30 years ago, I am just trying to understand WHERE in the Tanakh it describes what happened to me. There is SUCH a disconnect between the Tanakh and the NT.
Skip, please clarify. Do you believe that in order to be forgiven of intentional sin that we must still sacrifice animals on an altar? Or do you believe that we can receive forgiveness by asking Jesus to forgive our intentional sin through prayer alone?
Both questions have problems. First, there is no sacrifice provided in the Levitical model for the forgiveness of INTENTIONAL sin (I have written about this before). Neusner’ variation makes some sense from a Jewish perspective, but Leviticus is pretty clear that unintentional sin is the primary focus of sacrifices of this type. There are, however, other sacrifices that would still be in place if the Temple existed. Intentional sin is still a problem. I believe Isaiah addresses this with the suggestion that God Himself will offer the sacrifice.
The second question is also problematic. I see no place where prayer and petition ALONE provide forgiveness. Yeshua’s parable of the great debt suggests that one must show himself worthy of the forgiveness for it to be effective. I believe that hesed provides the same lesson. So, unless petition and prayer are accompanied by faithful loyalty as a result, I do not think forgiveness is granted. Where the line really is I cannot determine (fortunately), but one without the other seems to me to be contrary to biblical Hebraic thinking.
I have heard this before that the Levitical model only provided for unintentional sin. But what about Lev 6:2 and 3 for example? That seems to me to be intentional. Lying to keep something for yourself is not unintentional.
Hi Skip,
“Scripture tells us that the Lamb was slain before the foundation of the world.”
I have been trying to get some clarity on this, and for the past week it’s really been on my heart.
This is what I have so far;
בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָֽרֶץ׃ Gen1:1
This is usually translated “in the beginning” but there is no “the” in the Hebrew, so it says “in beginnings”. This means that there were other beginnings and endings before this particular beginning. When the Lamb was slain before the foundation of the world, he conquered death, to begin anew.
Question: Was the “light” that was manifested by the Word, His first appearance?
That light was the beginning of creation. The Word brought His light into the darkness, order to chaos, and life where there had been no life.
The rabbis treat the opening word, without the definite article, as “when God began,” a rather idiomatic expression, instead of the usual biblical translation which inserts the definite article. The insertion of the definite article is based on verses from the prophets, but clearly not part of the thinking of the culture in the time of Moses.
I am not sure if you can draw the conclusion that there are multiple beginnings.
Absolutely profound Skip!!! Twisted, twisted, twisted!!! The enemy take everything that is of truth and twists it! The same exact thing is happening with the Arab-Israel Conflict. The truth is hidden. The whole world believes the lie! Only lovers of the truth and those who are willing to dig as the Spirit prompts will EVER know truth. It is Yah’s own way of ‘encoding’ his plans so the spurious and treacherous cannot have access. In a more pleasant way of looking at it – it is the reason Yeshua spoke in parables.
Thank you Skip for all the hard work you do to help us to see. No wonder you feel under attack. The Enemy HATES what you are doing, and like Israel you are being drawn into a battle. How can it be otherwise. In the final analysis YAH brings victory, but His intervention is on HIS terms and only AFTER He has accomplished the purpose for which He allowed the fight. That you may be strengthened!! Hold tight… Trust Him in the fire, He is faithful! Much blessing on your head!!
Ezekiel 33:11
Complete Jewish Bible (CJB)
11 Say to them, ‘As I live,’ swears Adonai Elohim, ‘I take no pleasure in having the wicked person die, but in having the wicked person turn from his way and live. So repent! Turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, house of Isra’el?’
Hi Skip,
If I’m not mistaken
You have mentioned the absence of opportunities for the atonement of intentional sin in Judaism
But it seems to me that the ancient Jews did all sorts of horrifying things (wicked)
And God still offered them an opportunity to return to His way