A Survey of the Wondrous Cross

1 Corinthians 15:1–3 ESV

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,

The Apostle Paul opens up chapter 15 with a subject change—Moving from the gifts (tongues and prophecy/how they fit in the church) to the resurrection of Christ. We are on our way there, but we will stop at the midway point of this passage tonight.

Many of the Corinthians had been sueded by false teachers against the ultimate resurrection of the body. They began to believe that the final resurrection upon the return of Christ was not going to happen.

Paul immediately reminds them of the gospel they have received. Not only that they have been taught, but at one time they exclaimed a faith in Christ! This gospel is not only what saved (past tense) but what is saving (present tense) them (v. 2)

This is to say that the gospel is not a one time deal for Christians! The gospel is not merely the front door to get into heaven, but the gospel is the whole house! The gospel saves and sustains us! Let us never grow bored of the gospel!

as of first importance: Paul opens his gospel presentation with the essentials of the Christian faith. Not only is Paul stating that they had received a teaching, but Paul also received this from the Lord. This isn’t a message he merely delivered, but what He also received. “I firmly believe this!”

That Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures: This is where we are going to set up camp tonight, and as Isaac Watts said, “Survey the Wondrous Cross.”

Palm Sunday, skip Good Friday, Easter: “Uhh, what happened?”

All of history and every promise God ever made had been moving to this one moment. The crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

Why does Paul list this as an of first importance matter?

What does the cross have to do with our redemption?

What did the cross accomplish?

On the cross of Jesus Christ, so much more took place than what was seen with human eyes.

There was a spiritual war, promises were kept.

Jesus died for our sins, in accordance with the Scriptures.

The cross fulfills the Scripture

1 Corinthians 15:1-3

Paul points us back to the Scriptures to prove the crucifixion was prophesied 700 years before Jesus was even born.

Isaiah 53:4-9

Isaiah 53:4–9 (ESV)

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.

Everything that took place on the cross was mentioned in Isaiah!

700 years between this passage and the cross. Coincidence? No such thing.

This was prophecy.

Also note that Jesus was never surprised by the cross. He knew the Isaiah passage. That’s why He said, Luke 9:22

Luke 9:22 ESV

saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”

Then as they were coming into Jerusalem, Jesus said Luke 18:31

Luke 18:31 ESV

And taking the twelve, he said to them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished.

“Listen! They’re going to kill me!” It was His entire reason for coming.

1 Corinthians 15:3 Paul writes that “Christ died for our sins.”

The word for declares purpose. Jesus died intentionally.

Taking upon our curse of sin to redeem us from it. There was no other reason for His death but to pay our penalty to God.

Question: Who planned the murder of Jesus?

God does not do things randomly. Nothing is happenstance.

Isaiah 53:10 ESV

Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

In Jesus there was no fault. Why did it please God to crush Him? Jesus stood as our substitute.

God was going to crush us in justice for our sin, but Jesus freely gave Himself to take our punishment.

The cross satisfies the wrath

Isaiah 53:10

Jesus’s purity made Him the perfect offering for sin.

God is infinitely holy, and just.

Anything less than perfect obedience to God’s law and will is rebellion and sin.

In our sin, we are venomous enemies to Him.

Justice declares the the holiness of God must be satisfied toward sin.

Left to ourselves, this looks like an eternity in hell, receiving the full weight of the righteous anger of God.

We are sinners, condemned to an eternal death. No hope, no relief. The full weight of God’s perfect holiness poured out on sinners without relent.

But while God is infinitely holy, He is also infinitely merciful and gracious.

We failed to uphold His law, yet He remained patient with us.

We offered Him nothing but disobedience. He freely gave us the hope of redemption.

Not a redemption that we could accomplish and hold to, but a redemption that only God could accomplish and hold for us.

God freely gave His eternal Son, who was with the Father in eternity. The Son of God stepped down from heaven, and took to Himself a human flesh. Divinity and humanity in one person. In Him the fullness of deity dwells bodily.

Jesus the Lord lived perfectly according to the will of God. Then when the fullness of time had come, Jesus freely gave Himself in willing obedience to God to be brutally murdered on behalf of sinners.

Jesus died as a man, because man owed the debt to the law of God. Jesus died as God, because only God could forgive the debt.

Colossians 2:13–15 (ESV)

And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

Look at the active agent here. I said God does not do things by happenstance.

God made alive together with Him.

You were dead, you contributed nothing to help pay the debt.

God, by sovereign grace, cancelled your debt by offering His only Son to pay it!

On the cross of Jesus Christ, the full weight of the eternal wrath of God was poured out! What would have taken an eternity for us to pay, was paid by Christ on the cross!

This was legal problem, but the cross *point 3*

The cross justifies the ungodly

We were guilty to the law of God, and the punishment for that guilt was the eternal wrath of God.

Romans 3:21-26

Romans 3:21–26 ESV

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Through Jesus, the righteousness of God is now seen apart from the Law.

No longer do we see the righteousness of God through the Law, but through faith in Jesus Christ, who faithfully fulfilled the Law.

Jesus, the righteousness of God on display now reveals that the cross *point 4*

The cross grants the righteousness

Because Jesus was righteous in His life, He was able to be the atoning sacrifice and die on my behalf. He had no sin in Himself, no debt to the Law. Therefore, He was able to take our sin as our substitute.

I could not save your from your sin debt, because I had an infinite amount of my own.

But Jesus, because of His infinite righteousness, imputes that righteousness to us as He bore our sins.

Isaiah 53:11-12

Isaiah 53:11–12 (ESV)

Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.

We are not viewed as righteous because we are righteous. We’re vile.

We’re viewed as righteous by God because His Son took our sin on Himself and clothed us in His righteousness!

Now, through faith in Him and His death, we can be forgiven of our sins fully freely and forever! Free of charge! Free of sin! Free of condemnation! Free of wrath!

Clothed in the splendor and righteousness of Christ, which He freely give us from the abundance of His grace!

Response

Now here we are on Good Friday. Examining the cross of Jesus Christ, where the Son of God was given to forgive the sin of those who would believe.

We come to the Lord Jesus by faith, and say, “God has provided an atonement here, and I accept it. I believe in the fact accomplished by on the cross; I am confident that sin was put away by Christ, and I rest on Him.”

-Spurgeon

Are you here, maybe you’ve been in church all your life, but have you ever declared to the world you faith in our Lord?

Romans 10:9 ESV

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.

Perhaps you’re here, having been invited by a friend. I’m grateful for that friend. The Lord has used them to bring you to this wonderful moment to receive the gospel of Jesus Christ by faith. Would you believe in the sacrifice of Christ and be saved by His grace?

Perhaps you’re waiting until a more convenient time to commit your life to the lordship of Jesus. I just want you to know that I can’t ask you to come to faith in Jesus tomorrow. Jesus takes walk ins, not scheduled appointments. “I’ll come to Jesus when I’m done having fun.” You’re not promised to make it home alive tonight. This may be the last chance you have to put your faith in Christ. Would you risk missing eternal life, when the free gift of grace is offered to you right here, right now?

Maybe you’re here believing that Jesus could never forgive the things you’ve done. Have I not convinced you of the extent He was willing to go for you? Jesus intentionally died for you. He didn’t do it with is arm twisted. He intentionally forsaken by His Father and then crushed under His wrath so that you can be forgiven. “Well I could never do anything to earn His love.” You’re right! Jesus doesn’t want your merits. He freely gives Himself to you at no charge but faith. He killed your sin in the cross. The worse you are, the more welcomed by Jesus you are. You could now say with the Apostle Paul,

Galatians 6:14 ESV

But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

I could never preach the fullness of Christ, but I tell you this: Jesus is extending an invitation to you right now to come to His cross, receive His forgiveness, and be adopted into the family of God through faith.

Come to Jesus, who has fulfilled the Scriptures.

Come to Jesus, who has satisfied the wrath of God toward you.

Come to Jesus, who justified the ungodly.

Come to Jesus, who freely grants righteousness.