3 Things Nailed to the Cross of Jesus
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· 449 viewsThrough the death of Christ, our sins can be wiped out completely before God.
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And when you were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive with him and forgave us all our trespasses.
He erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it away by nailing it to the cross.
Introduction: The geographical heart of London is Charing Cross. All distances are measured from it. This spot is referred to simply as the cross.
A lost child was one day picked up by a London bobby. The child was unable to tell where he lived. Finally, in response to the repeated questions of the bobby, and amid sobs and tears, the little fellow said, If you will take me to the cross I think I can find my way from there.
In fact the Cross of Christ is the only place where lost sinners can find their way home. Have you been to the cross? (Pastor Stephen Caswell)
I want to take you to the cross today. Specifically, to see the three things that were nailed to the cross of Christ.
The cross, an instrument of torture and death, has become for us a symbol of hope. We see it on church buildings, hospitals, and sometimes on schools. People wear it around their necks as Jewelry. You see it in cemeteries adorning graves. You also see it on the roadside marking the place where a loved on has lost their life.
A cross by itself really has no hope. In fact, it is death. But it becomes a symbol of hope when we look to the three things that were nailed there.
Two of these things are pretty obvious. The last one, not so obvious but no less important. Lets look at the three things nailed to the cross together today.
The Sinless Savior
The Sinless Savior
King David the Psalmist wrote prophetically of the coming crucifixion of Jesus in Psalm 22...
For dogs have surrounded me; a gang of evildoers has closed in on me; they pierced my hands and my feet.
This one has to be the most obvious of the three: Christ was nailed to the cross. But, who nailed him there? Was it the Romans? Was it the Jews? Was it you and I?
But it was the Lord’s good plan to crush him and cause him grief. Yet when his life is made an offering for sin, he will have many descendants. He will enjoy a long life, and the Lord’s good plan will prosper in his hands.
While God used the hands of sinful men, ultimately it was the Father in heaven that nailed Jesus to the cross. God was the one offering His son as a sin offering on the altar of the cross. This offering was planned and executed from the foundation of the world according to Revelation 13:8.
Now you and I were the reason for the crucifixion.
Our sin necessitated the cross.
Paul describes the spiritual condition of people who don’t have Jesus as being, “dead in trespasses.” He is not referring to physical death but rather being spiritually dead.
Spiritual Death here points to the state of being separated from God.
Pastor Stephen Cole puts it this way: “To be spiritually dead means to be separated from the living God, the author and giver of all life. If we die physically while we are still spiritually dead, we will be eternally separated from God, under His wrath, which would be the most horrible existence imaginable.”
But Christ came to make us alive again through the cross. We were not just spiritually sick in need of a doctor, we were dead in need of a Savior!
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree; so that, having died to sins, we might live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
For you know that you were redeemed from your empty way of life inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold,
but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of an unblemished and spotless lamb.
The Sign
The Sign
Pilate also had a sign made and put on the cross. It said: Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.
Many of the Jews read this sign, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic, Latin, and Greek.
So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Don’t write, ‘The king of the Jews,’ but that he said, ‘I am the king of the Jews.’ ”
Pilate replied, “What I have written, I have written.”
The sign nailed above the head of Jesus declared that Jesus was the King of the Jews - the long awaited Messiah.
The Bible says that...
He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.
Despite the overwhelming evidence that Christ was the long awaited Messiah, the religious leaders rejected him as their rightful King.
Why was that? because he didn’t do what the Jewish leaders thought he ought to do.
They expected him to come and free them from the oppression of the Roman occupation. The expected the messiah to restore Israel and set up a kingdom where they would be the rulers.
Even some of His disciples held this expectation.
And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.”
And he said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?”
And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.”
However, they discovered that Jesus wasn’t coming into Jerusalem to establish an earthly throne…he was coming to conquer a greater enemy than Rome - he was coming to destroy the works of the devil and to conquer sin and the grave.
To them, Jesus was a threat to their power. Therefore, he had to be eliminated.
Isn’t this typical? People on both sides of our political spectrum seem to think that their candidate is the one who can solve our greatest problems as a society. Oh, if we could just get so-in-so into the White House.
We live in a time when some people have rejected Christ because he did not meet their expectations.
In their minds, Jesus is like a life insurance salesman giving away eternal fire insurance policies. Get of of hell free cards.
Others perceive Jesus as some kind of kindly old grandfather who laughs at their misbehavior while filling their bellies with cake and ice cream.
A number of people believe that Jesus is a flag-waving, constitution-quoting, America-loving Republican.
Others perceive him as a veggie-eating, Birkenstock-wearing, woke social justice warrior who votes Democrat.
Jesus is Lord… and he didn’t have to campaign and win an election to get there.
Truly, he is Lord, but is he YOUR Lord?
Have you submitted to his rule in your life? Is he your King?
There is coming a day when every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords to the Glory of the father.
You can bow before him now as your Savior, Lord and Friend - or you can bow before him then as your judge. Your choice.
Your Sin Debt
Your Sin Debt
The third thing that was nailed to the cross was your sin debt.
He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.
Not only has God canceled the sin debt of those who believe, he destroyed the document on which the debt was recorded.
Paul uses a word here that is similar to our idea of an I.O.U. An I.O.U. is a note written in one’s own hand as proof of obligation.
Your debt was discharged the moment you repented and believed the gospel. And the note was ripped up - no longer legally binding upon you.
The Greek word used for cancel means that He obliterated any evidence that the note ever existed.
illus. Whenever a person is condemned to death for a capital offence, a death warrant is signed by the governor of the state. It is an official state document that reflects a court has adjudicated someone guilty of a serious crime and has sentenced that person to death. The death warrant then compels the prison warden to carry out the sentence and ensure the execution is carried out. As sinners, each one of us received a guilty adjudication from God and He signed death warrants for each us. But then God nailed those warrants to the cross of Jesus and Jesus paid the penalty, not us. We were set free. (Pastor Rich Schnieders)
For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.
Now Jesus never, ever sinned in word or deed. Yet, God treated him as if he did. He treated Jesus as if he were you and I.
When you trust in Jesus, he takes your sin and shame and nails it to his cross and then he credits us with his perfect righteousness. We call this the Great Exchange.
When the reformer Martin Luther spoke of the state of a Christian, he used the Latin phrase “simul justus et peccator.” This statement means “at the same time righteous and sinner.”
This refers to the Christian’s position before God. Justified, yet a sinner. How does a person receive this standing?
Recognize...
Our Sin Problem (Rom 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”)
Sin Carries a Penalty (Rom 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”)
God’s Provision (Rom 5:8 “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”)
Our Personal Response (Romans 10:9-10 “because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”)
Closing: A story is told of Governor Nash of the State of Ohio in years gone by. A young man had murdered his sweetheart because she would not marry him. After much pleading by the young man’s mother, the governor promised her that he would call on her son who had been sentenced to death. Finally the governor stood before the convicted man, dressed in a Prince Albert coat causing the man to think that he was a preacher.
The governor, calling him by name, said, “I have come to talk with you.” The prisoner replied, “I do not feel like talking,” and then turned his back.
The governor replied, “I am sure you would talk if you knew who I am and why I have come.”
The young man said, “Please go out, for I do not feel like talking.”
The governor turned and went out. The warden entered and said, “How did you make out with the governor?”
He said, “Governor—what governor?”
“Why Governor Nash, that was the governor, himself.”
“Oh,” said the man, “if I had only known with whom I was talking!”
One who is greater than Governor Nash is here talking to you. He wants to give you life—eternal life.
See to it that you do not reject the one who speaks. For if they did not escape when they rejected him who warned them on earth, even less will we if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven.
Christ Jesus has the power to pardon you from all your sins. Will you turn your back on him this hour? or will you turn toward him?
Billy Apostolon, Fifty-Two Invitation Illustrations, Preaching Helps Series (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1972), 34–35.