Focus on Jesus EVEN THE DEATH OF THE CROSS
He humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Phil. 2:8.
Today's text is the same as yesterday's, but we are not finished with it yet.
In the days of Christ, crucifixion was used by the Romans as a deterrent from crime. Criminals were crucified in a most public place, where many people would see them. There was no cloth draped gracefully around their bodies, as the artist pictures.
There is evidence that, in some cases at least, the victims were placed on the cross sideways, and huge spike was driven through both heels, just in front of the Achilles' tendon. It was driven into the cross with such force that in some cases archeologists have discovered buried in the casket, with the body, large hunks of wood that came loose when the bodies were torn from the cross.
After the soldiers had nailed the victims securely sideways through the heels, they twisted them around, and nailed their arms tightly through the wrists. You will discover that if you try standing against the wall in that twisted position for just a little while, your muscles begin retching. And as though that weren't enough, some sadist would then drive a spike through the private parts of the individual as well.
Then they would drop the cross into the hole prepared, and the teeming throng of people would walk by and stare. Can you picture Jesus hanging there? Jesus, the One who had created the people who crucified Him?
But something else is heavier. We are told that so great was the anguish that Jesus went through because of the burden and weight of the sins of the world, that the physical pain was hardly felt. The sense of separation from His Father's presence was more than He could bear, and it broke His heart.
As we look upon the cross of Christ, and get a glimpse of the price paid for our salvation, we "begin to comprehend something of the righteousness of Christ, and exclaim, 'What is sin, that it should require such a sacrifice for the redemption of its victim?'...A knowledge of the plan of salvation will lead him [the sinner] to the foot of the cross in repentance for his sins, which have caused the sufferings of God's dear Son."--Steps to Christ, p. 27.
He humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Phil. 2:8.
Today's text is the same as yesterday's, but we are not finished with it yet.
In the days of Christ, crucifixion was used by the Romans as a deterrent from crime. Criminals were crucified in a most public place, where many people would see them. There was no cloth draped gracefully around their bodies, as the artist pictures.
There is evidence that, in some cases at least, the victims were placed on the cross sideways, and huge spike was driven through both heels, just in front of the Achilles' tendon. It was driven into the cross with such force that in some cases archeologists have discovered buried in the casket, with the body, large hunks of wood that came loose when the bodies were torn from the cross.
After the soldiers had nailed the victims securely sideways through the heels, they twisted them around, and nailed their arms tightly through the wrists. You will discover that if you try standing against the wall in that twisted position for just a little while, your muscles begin retching. And as though that weren't enough, some sadist would then drive a spike through the private parts of the individual as well.
Then they would drop the cross into the hole prepared, and the teeming throng of people would walk by and stare. Can you picture Jesus hanging there? Jesus, the One who had created the people who crucified Him?
But something else is heavier. We are told that so great was the anguish that Jesus went through because of the burden and weight of the sins of the world, that the physical pain was hardly felt. The sense of separation from His Father's presence was more than He could bear, and it broke His heart.
As we look upon the cross of Christ, and get a glimpse of the price paid for our salvation, we "begin to comprehend something of the righteousness of Christ, and exclaim, 'What is sin, that it should require such a sacrifice for the redemption of its victim?'...A knowledge of the plan of salvation will lead him [the sinner] to the foot of the cross in repentance for his sins, which have caused the sufferings of God's dear Son."--Steps to Christ, p. 27.
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