The cross is the most distinctive symbol of Christianity. It reminds us of the great sacrifice that Jesus, the Son of God, made in allowing himself to be killed in such a cruel and painful way. On the cross Jesus took the punishment that each of us deserved for our sins… and he did it out of love. Through Jesus’ death on the cross, God gave us the opportunity to access eternal life with him.
What does the cross represent?
It is thought that it was not until the fourth century that the cross began to be used as a symbol of Christianity. Within the culture of the first Christians, the cross had a negative connotation, it was the symbol of the execution of the worst criminals. Christians used other symbols such as a picture of a fish to recognize and identify themselves.
Today there are people who like to wear a cross on a pendant as a protection or amulet. However, the cross is just a symbol of something powerful that happened to her. The cross has no power in itself. Its power and relevance come from Jesus, God incarnate, his death on the cross, and his resurrection.
Let’s look at some of the things that the cross represents. Let us receive encouragement and give thanks to God for his immense love in giving his life on the cross for you and me.
1. The immense love of God for us
Indeed, since we were unable to save ourselves, at the appointed time Christ died for the wicked. Hardly anyone will die for a just person, although there may be someone who dares to die for a good person. But God demonstrates his love for us in this: that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
(Romans 5:6-8)
When man sinned in the Garden of Eden a barrier was created between him and God. Gone are the friendship and fellowship they had enjoyed before sin entered the world. But the love of God for the human being was so great that he could not let everything stay like this forever.
God decided to provide himself the way to restore that friendship. Thanks to Jesus we can be saved and we will dwell eternally with him. The human being, due to sin, would never have been able to repair the damage done. The only completely pure and acceptable sacrifice before God was the one that he himself provided: Jesus Christ, God made man, who died and rose again so that we can have eternal life.
2. The punishment we deserved
…for all have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God, but by his grace they are freely justified through the redemption that Christ Jesus effected. God offered him as a sacrifice of atonement that is received by faith in his blood, in order to demonstrate his righteousness.
(Romans 3:23-25a)
We are all born with the sinful nature and although we think we are pretty good, we must recognize that we have a tendency to sin. A lie here, an angry reaction there… We deserved to be punished for our sins, that’s fair: if you do something wrong you have to pay for it.
However, God decided to be gracious to us, he freely gave us something that we did not deserve. And what was it that he did? He justified our sins (he made us innocent) through redemption through the blood of Jesus. Someone had to pay the price for the sins committed. Someone had to take the punishment for us to be freed from the slavery of sin. Jesus paid the price and took the punishment for us by dying on the cross.
3. The sign of the new covenant
He also took bread and, after giving thanks, he broke it, gave it to them and said:
—This bread is my body, given for you; do this in memory of me.
In the same way he took the cup after supper, and said:
“This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.
(Luke 22:19-20)
During Jesus’ last supper with his disciples he told them something very important. He made it clear to them that his sacrifice on the cross would mark the beginning of the new covenant between God and men. He used bread and wine to explain it, symbols that they understood since the Passover meal had (and still has) great symbolism for the Jewish people. During that festival they remember the liberation of the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt (Exodus 12).
The blood that Jesus shed on the cross of Calvary marked a new beginning, a new pact between God and men. Through his broken (broken) body and his own shed blood we obtain cleansing from our sins. He was the perfect and spotless Lamb who came to take away the sin of the world (John 1:29; Isaiah 53:7). And when we accept Jesus as Lord and Savior of our lives we receive cleansing and forgiveness of our sins. By grace…
4. Jesus’ conquest over sin and death
For we know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, can no longer die again; death no longer has dominion over him. As for his death, he died to sin once for all; As for his life, he lives for God. In the same way, you also consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
(Romans 6:9-11)
Christ died for all mankind and then rose from the dead. He defeated death and lives forever! When we receive him as Lord of our lives, that victory becomes our inheritance. Even if our physical body dies, we will have eternal life together with it, we will live for God for all eternity.
But Jesus not only got us victory over death. Thanks to his sacrifice we also receive the power to overcome sin. We are no longer slaves to sin. It is one of the freedoms we have in it. God fills us with his Holy Spirit and gives us the strength to overcome day after day the temptations that are presented to us. Christ lives in us and as we put our faith in him and let ourselves be guided by him, we experience victory over the power of sin. We live for the glory of him!
5. Jesus defeated the devil and the power of darkness
Therefore, since they are flesh and blood, he also shared that human nature to annul, through death, the one who has the dominion of death —that is, the devil—, and free all those who for fear of death were enslaved throughout life.
(Hebrews 2:14-15)
When Jesus died on the cross he showed once and for all that God reigns over everything, including the devil and spiritual darkness. Nothing and no one has more power than God. At the moment that Jesus died the whole earth shook, the veil of the temple was rent, the rocks split and the tombs were opened (Matthew 27:50-54). Nothing was indifferent! At that precise moment a new beginning was marked in the spiritual realm. It was the moment when Jesus gained our access to eternal life and defeated the enemy of our souls.
Surprising details of the crucifixion of Jesus
Other verses to meditate on the power of Jesus and the cross:
Hebrews 10:19-20
Galatians 3:13-14
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.” This is how it happened, so that, through Christ Jesus, the blessing promised to Abraham might reach the nations, and so that by faith we might receive the Spirit according to the promise.
(Galatians 3:13-14)
Romans 6:6-7
We know that our old nature was crucified with him so that our sinful body would lose its power so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; because he who dies is freed from sin.
(Romans 6:6-7)
Colossians 2: 13-15
Before you received that circumcision, you were dead in your sins. However, God gave us life in union with Christ, by forgiving us all our sins and canceling the debt that we owed due to the requirements of the law. He annulled that debt that was adverse to us, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the powers and authorities, and through Christ publicly humbled them by displaying them in his triumphal parade.
(Colossians 2:13-15)
1 Peter 2:24
He himself, in his body, carried our sins to the tree, so that we die to sin and live for justice. By his wounds you have been healed.
(1 Peter 2:24)
Matthew 16:24
Then Jesus said to his disciples: “If anyone wants to be my disciple, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.
(Matthew 16:24)
1 John 1:7
But if we live in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of his Son Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.
(1 John 1:7)
Philippians 2:5-9
Your attitude should be like that of Christ Jesus, who, being God by nature, did not consider equality with God something to cling to. On the contrary, he voluntarily lowered himself, taking on the nature of a servant and making himself similar to human beings. And, by manifesting himself as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, and death on a cross! That is why God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name.
(Philippians 2:5-9)
Revelation 5:9-10
And they sang this new song: “You are worthy to receive the written scroll and to break its seals, because you were sacrificed, and with your blood you bought for God people of every race, language, people and nation. Of them you made a kingdom; You made them priests in the service of our God, and they will reign on earth.”
(Revelation 5:9-10)
1 Corinthians 15:55-57
“Where is, oh die, your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thank God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!
(1 Corinthians 15:55-57)
The 7 words of Jesus on the cross