Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour.
And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”
And some of them that stood there, when they heard it, said, “This man calleth Elijah.”
And straightway one of them ran, and took a sponge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave Him to drink.
And the rest said, “Let be; let us see whether Elijah cometh to save Him.”
And Jesus cried again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.
And behold, the veil of the temple was rent in two from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake; and the rocks were rent;
And the tombs were opened; and many bodies of the saints that had fallen asleep were raised;
And coming forth out of the tombs after His resurrection, they entered into the holy city and appeared unto many.
Now the centurion, and they that were with him watching Jesus, when they saw the earthquake, and the things that were done, feared exceedingly, saying, “Truly this was the Son of God.”
Now late on the Sabbath day, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.
And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled away the stone, and sat upon it.
His appearance was as lightning, and his raiment white as snow:
And for fear of him the watchers did quake, and became as dead men.
And the angel answered and said unto the women, “Fear not ye; for I know that ye seek Jesus, Who hath been crucified.
He is not here; for He is risen, even as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.
And go quickly, and tell His disciples, ‘He is risen from the dead; and lo, He goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see Him.’ Lo, I have told you.”
And they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to bring His disciples word.
We have been considering together the reality of Christ. One thing that is of supreme importance to us is to know Christ Jesus. As we mentioned before, to know Christ Jesus, we must know Him both objectively and subjectively. We must know Him in history, and we must know Him in revelation. History gives us the facts about Him, but revelation gives us the meaning of these things.
In the past, we mentioned that, in order to know the Lord Jesus, we have to know Him in a way very different from knowing anybody else on this earth. To know anyone on this earth, we begin by knowing his birth, because human history begins with birth. But with the Lord Jesus, it is entirely different.
We will never be able to know Him if we only begin with His birth on earth, because the Bible tells us:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
In other words, the history of our Lord Jesus began with the very beginning. In the beginning, He is the beginning. He is the Word who declares God to us. He is the One through whom God speaks. He is with God, and He is God. All things were made through Him.
So, dear brothers and sisters, first of all, to know the Lord Jesus, we have to know Him as the eternal Son of God. He is the Creator of all things. All things were created in Him, by Him, and for Him. He is the Heir of all things. It is the eternal purpose of God the Father to give all things to Him. He is to sum up all things in Himself. He is to have the first place in all things.
Of course, we also know that He is the Lamb of God slain before the foundation of the world. In order to complete the purpose and plan of God, the Son has to be the Lamb of God. So, brothers and sisters, first of all, we need to see the Lord Jesus in eternity past, and that will bring us into worship before Him.
From there, we continue by saying that, to know the Lord Jesus, we have to know Him in prophecy. Again, He is unique, because our lives were not prophesied. Our lives begin with the time that we are born. But with the Lord Jesus, how different it is.
Even from the very beginning of human history, there were prophecies concerning the One who was to come. In Genesis 3:15, He is the seed of the woman, who will come to crush the head of the serpent, to defeat and completely destroy the enemy of mankind. He is the Son of Abraham. He is the Son of David. He is the Messiah prophesied by the prophets through the ages.
All these prophecies are fulfilled in this one, our Lord Jesus Christ.
Then, of course, we come down to the time of His birth—His incarnation. Again, you find that His birth is very different from our birth, because His birth is an incarnation.
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.
God became man. The Creator became one of the created. Because His brethren partake of flesh and blood, therefore He took upon Himself flesh and blood, in order that He might be identified with us men. So, as man, He could be our substitute and die in our stead.
God is eternal. God never dies. God cannot die. But here you find that, when God became man, He died as man for man in order to deliver us.
But, as we say, for God to become man, He had to empty Himself. In Philippians 2, we find that He emptied Himself—emptied Himself of His majesty, of His glory, of His honor, and of His position. He emptied Himself of all these things except deity.
He took upon Himself the form of a bondservant in the likeness of men. And, having come in the likeness of men, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. This is the meaning of incarnation.
There we find how He grew up from babyhood to childhood, from childhood to boyhood, and from boyhood to maturity. After He was thirty years old, He came out to proclaim the glad tidings of the kingdom.
Dear brothers and sisters, here we see our life. It is the life of God in man. The life within that man is the life of God—the uncreated life. Yet this uncreated life of God is in man.
We see more than just the life of God, the uncreated life. We see this life in man, lived on earth. What a harmony you find between the divine and the human in the life of our Lord Jesus. There is no conflict between the created and uncreated life. There is perfect harmony, working together, as it were.
The life of God is demonstrated in fullness in the life of a man. This life was lived on earth. This life was lived in man. This life was tested to the utmost. It was proven to be incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading. What a life it is!
His life is full of beauty. This life is full of strength. This life is a perfect life, but it is a perfect life lived on earth. It is a union of heaven and earth. Our Lord Jesus said that no one has ascended into heaven except the One who came from heaven, who lives on earth, and yet is in heaven.
We have seen this life lived on earth for thirty-three years. What a glorious life it is.
Dear brothers and sisters, we mentioned that this life does not come merely to be a declaration to us of God, the invisible God. This life is also a demonstration to the world of the kind of man God is after.
But then it is more than a demonstration; it is a gift, because His life is to be given to all who believe in Him. Dear brothers and sisters, this is the meaning of the life of our Lord Jesus. We are not just here admiring a perfect life.
If that were all, it would condemn us to the utmost, because what a contrast and what a contradiction our lives are to that life. But thank God, this life is meant to be our life.
How, on the cross, He releases that life to us. The Lord said:
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone; but if it die, it beareth much fruit.
That grain of wheat—we are all tares, but He is the only grain of wheat that fell into the ground. He came from heaven and fell upon the ground. He was here for thirty-three years. If He did not die, if our Lord Jesus did not die, He would remain alone.
If He had ascended from the Mount of Transfiguration, there would have been only one Man on the throne, and He would have been our condemnation. But thank God, the grain of wheat fell into the ground and died. Because He died, He bore much fruit. He produced many grains.
All those who believe in the Lord Jesus receive that very life—the same life. The life is reproduced. The life is multiplied. This life is in every one of us.
Brothers and sisters, what is life for if it is not to live? Sometimes you find people say, “Do you believe in the Lord Jesus?” They say, “Yes, I believe in the Lord Jesus.” “Do you have eternal life?” “Thank God, I have eternal life, because God says, ‘Whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.’”
But, dear brothers and sisters, how often we think eternal life is for the future. What is eternal life for? We think it is for the time after we die, when we go to heaven. We think that is when eternal life begins.
It is like an insurance policy. You cannot use it when you are healthy and well; only after you die can someone else—your beneficiary—use it. To many Christians today, they know they have eternal life, but they do not know what eternal life is.
They do not know that eternal life is none other than Christ Himself as our life. They do not know what eternal life is for. It is for the sake of living. The moment you receive His life, He is to live in you and through you.
Dear brothers and sisters, we need to see that Christ is our life. Unless we see that He is our life, what is the use of knowing how He lived for thirty-three years in such perfection? It only condemns us. It will never save us.
But thank God, this life lives in us, and it is to live as the Lord Jesus lived: such a perfect life, a life that pleased the Father, a life that did all the will of God. Today, the same life is in you and me to live once again. It will live in exactly the same way as it lived two thousand years ago.
Dear brothers and sisters, this is the life that is ours.
This evening, we would like to continue on to know the Lord Jesus in His death and resurrection. How close to human history death is. It is a very important event. It is the final act, because so far as our life on earth is concerned, as human beings, it ends with death. Of course, the Bible says, “After that.”
But the death of our Lord Jesus is unique. He was born to die. The shadow of the cross was cast over the whole period of His life. Even while He was living, while He was ministering, He knew that He came to die.
Again and again, on at least three occasions, He tried to tell His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, that He must die, but that on the third day He would be raised from the dead. His disciples heard it, but did not hear it. They did not understand. But He knew: He came to die.
So far as the history of His death is concerned, probably we should begin with His last entry into Jerusalem—the last week of His passion.
We remember how He entered Jerusalem with all the glory and honor that He ever had. It was the most glorious time of His whole life. As He entered Jerusalem, people followed Him. People shouted, “Hosanna!” People welcomed Him. The whole city was stirred.
Even the Gentiles sought to see Him. You remember some Greeks who wanted to see the Lord Jesus. They came to Philip and said, “We would see your Master.” The disciples felt very much glorified that even the Gentiles now sought their Master.
But, dear brothers and sisters, our Lord was not deceived by this outward appearance of welcome. He knew very well what would happen. It was on that occasion that He said:
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone; but if it die, it beareth much fruit.
He was speaking of His death. He knew what was coming.
Without going into all the details, I think we need to consider one or two points before His crucifixion. On the night of His betrayal, He gathered with His own. The Bible says that He loved His own, and He loved them unto the end.
At the time of the Passover feast, probably toward the end of the meal, suddenly He got up. He took the bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to His disciples, saying, “This is My body, broken for you. Do this in remembrance of Me.”
Then, after supper, He took the cup and said, “This cup is the new covenant, sealed by My blood, shed for the remission of sins. Do this in remembrance of Me.”
There you find our Lord Jesus, with this bread and this cup, showing His disciples His death. He must give Himself. He must die in order that our sins may be forgiven, in order that we may have life, and in order that we may be joined into one body unto Himself. He knew what was coming.
Then after that, He took them to the Garden of Gethsemane. Dear brothers and sisters, the scene of the Garden of Gethsemane is really too sacred to describe. It is impossible for us to explain the mystery of that which happened in the Garden of Gethsemane.
He took His disciples there. He left eight of them aside, and He took three of them further. He told them, “My soul is sorrowful even unto death.” He was grieved, distressed, oppressed in His spirit, sorrowful unto death. With that, He entered into prayer with the Father.
He said, “Father, if it be Thy will, let this cup pass from Me. Nevertheless, not My will, but Thy will be done.”
Dear brothers and sisters, what is the cup that He is talking about? Remember, our Lord Jesus was born to die. Remember that all through His life, He knew that He came to die. It could not be that, at the very last moment, He began to shrink back. No, it cannot be.
But we must understand that He was One who had no sin. The Bible says, “He knew no sin.” He was not only One who had never committed sin, but He had never had an experience of sin. He knew no sin. Throughout His life, He only knew to do the will of the Father. He had absolutely no experience of sin. He was the Holy One.
Now He knew that He was to be made sin. Brothers and sisters, if you only think that One who knew no sin was to be made sin, what a burden it must have been upon His humanity—this pure humanity.
He was always in harmony with the Father. There was never a moment of discord or separation. Now He knew that He was going to be the sin-bearer, and He would be separated from the Father whom He loved so much.
Naturally, there was a kind of abhorrence. He abhorred the awfulness of sin—that He was to be made sin. So He cried, “Father, if it be Thy will, let it be removed from Me; but not My will, Thy will be done.”
When we think of a cup, naturally we think of what is in the cup. You remember when the two sons of Zebedee, James and John, came with their mother. They thought the Lord was going to Jerusalem to claim the throne of David.
They came to the Lord Jesus and said, in effect, “Give us whatever we ask.” They wanted a blank check, because they knew what they were going to ask, and they knew it was not very good. They wanted the promise before they named their request.
The Lord said, “Speak out. What do you want?” Their mother said, “In Thy kingdom, let my two sons sit, one on Thy right hand and one on Thy left.” They wanted to monopolize the two places of honor. The other ten became angry because they were outmaneuvered.
But the Lord Jesus said, “Do you know what you are asking? Can you drink the cup that I am going to drink? Can you be baptized with the baptism with which I am to be baptized?”
Of course, the two sons did not understand at all what the cup was or what the baptism was. But in their eagerness to gain those two places, they would promise anything. They said, “We are able.”
The Lord said, “You shall indeed drink the cup that I drink, and you shall be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized; but to sit on My right hand and on My left is not Mine to give. It is for the Father to give to whomever it is prepared.”
The Lord mentioned the cup. He was to drink the cup. At the Last Supper, He took the cup, gave it to His disciples, and said, “Drink ye all of it.”
Brothers and sisters, what is in the cup? In Psalm 16, it says:
Thou art the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup.
When we think of the cup, we think of a portion. With the Lord Jesus, He drank the cup of wrath, and He drank every bit of it. But when He passed the cup to His disciples at the Last Supper, it was a cup of blessing. He drank our portion, and He gave us His portion.
But, brothers and sisters, a cup is more than that. If you think of the cup itself, the cup in Scripture represents the will of the Father. The question is the will of the Father. What is the will of the Father?
If the will of the Father was for Him to go to the cross, He would drink it. Brothers and sisters, we say the Lord Jesus came to die. We say that He came that He might die on the cross. That is true. But remember: it is not the cross that is the issue. It is the will of the Father that is the issue.
Whether the cup is bitter or sweet is not the problem. The problem is whether the cup is the will of the Father. To our Lord Jesus, it was not bitterness or sweetness that He sought after. He came into this world to do the will of the Father.
Psalm 40 prophesies of Him:
Sacrifice and offering Thou hast no delight in;
But a body hast Thou prepared for Me.
Lo, I am come to do Thy will;
Thy law is within My heart.
The whole life of Jesus Christ is summed up in one thing: to do the will of the Father. If the cross is the will of the Father, He will drink it: “Not My will, but Thy will be done,” however bitter it may be. If something is not the will of God, no matter how sweet it is, He would not taste it.
Dear brothers and sisters, in the Garden of Gethsemane, the issue was the will of the Father. As man, did He come for the will of the Father, or did He come for something sweet or something bitter? The Lord said, “Not My will, but Thy will be done.”
Our Lord Jesus prayed three times, and the conflict was so intense that, when He prayed, His sweat became as great drops of blood. An angel appeared to strengthen Him. Without the sustenance of an angel, He might have died in the garden, because His physical body could not stand the strain of it. Oh, what a conflict!
But thank God, after three times He said, “Father, if it be Thy will, I will drink it. I will drink it.” When Judas Iscariot came with the multitude to seize Him, Peter took a sword and cut off the right ear of the servant of the high priest. The Lord said, “Shall I not drink the cup which the Father hath given Me?”
Before He went to the cross, the issue of the will of the Father had to be settled first. When it was settled, it was settled.
Brothers and sisters, I believe there is a lesson for us to learn, because the cup that He drank, we must drink too. How often, with us, it is an issue of whether it is sweet or bitter. If it is sweet, we would like to drink it all. If it is bitter, we do not even want to taste it.
But, brothers and sisters, whether it is sweet or bitter is not the issue. The issue of our life in following the Lord Jesus is to see whether it is the will of the Father.
How often, when something happens and we are faced with something, we go to God. Dear brothers and sisters, what is the issue? How we miss the issue! When things happen to us, we go to the Lord and say, “Lord, it is so bitter; please let it pass from me.” Or, “It is very sweet; Lord, give it to me, and let me drink it all.”
We miss the whole issue. The whole issue is this: is this the will of the Father? If it is the will of the Father that we must go to the cross, then to the cross we go. If it is not the will of the Father, do not go to the cross.
Some people are so afraid of the cross that they try to avoid every trace of it. Remember one thing: if it is something that you cannot choose, it is not a cross. A cross is something that you can choose; you can take it up or you can leave it.
Many people try to leave it. They will not take it up. But, dear brothers and sisters, sometimes we go to the other extreme. We think we love the Lord so much that we love the cross. We think there are not enough crosses for us, and we try to create them, as if the cross is everything.
Brothers and sisters, not so. If it is not the will of the Father, the cross is meaningless. We do not go after things; we go after the will of the Father.
Never set your eyes upon a thing, however attractive or unattractive it may be. Some people are attracted by attractive things; other people are attracted by unattractive things. But it is nothing. It is the Father—the will of the Father.
Here, in the Garden of Gethsemane, our Lord Jesus, the perfect Man, sinless, who never knew what sin was, willingly drank the cup because it was the Father’s will.
From there, events moved very quickly. He was condemned by the Sanhedrin, by the Jewish council, because He acknowledged Himself as the Son of God—and He was. He was condemned by the Roman governor because He was the King of the Jews—and He was the King of the Jews. Then they took Him out and crucified Him.
But, brothers and sisters, was His crucifixion something forced upon Him? Not at all.
He told us beforehand:
I have authority from the Father to lay down My life, and to take it again.
No one taketh it away from Me, but I lay it down of Myself.
I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it again.
It was a voluntary thing. We find Peter, on the day of Pentecost, preaching to the people. He said that it was according to the determinate counsel of God that Christ should be crucified, though by the hands of lawless men.
He was the Lamb of God slain before the foundation of the world. No one could take His life from Him. It was the determinate counsel of God, even before the foundation of the world, though the evil deed was done by lawless men.
You remember the scene in the garden when they came to seize Him. Judas Iscariot gave an unmistakable sign, saying, “Whomsoever I shall kiss, that is He; seize Him.” Yet when they came forward, the Lord said, “Whom seek ye?” They said, “Jesus.” The Lord said, “I am He.”
He is the great I AM. No one could take His life from Him. He had to lay it down, and then people could seize Him.
His death on the cross was no obligation. It was a love offering.
Now, dear brothers and sisters, we know that He was crucified on the cross for six hours—from nine o’clock in the morning until three in the afternoon, when He expired. These six hours were divided into two parts: from nine in the morning until noon, and from noon until three in the afternoon.
During the first part, it was man who crucified Him. It was the devil, in the power of darkness, who crucified Him.
If we turn to Psalm 22, we find this clearly described there:
Many bulls have compassed Me;
Strong bulls of Bashan have beset Me round.
They gape upon Me with their mouth,
As a ravening and a roaring lion.
This describes the devil and all his evil spirits. They were like bulls, like strong bulls of Bashan, surrounding the Lord on the cross. They gaped upon Him with open mouth, ravening like roaring lions.
Even though nobody saw these things, there He was crucified on the cross, and in the unseen world Satan and all his forces gathered around Him and tried to devour Him.
Then, in Psalm 22:16:
For dogs have compassed Me:
A company of evildoers have enclosed Me;
They pierced My hands and My feet.
Here you find a description of men—mankind represented by the Gentiles and by the Jews. All mankind was represented there. Mankind, like dogs, unclean and hostile, surrounded Him.
There on the cross, our Lord Jesus suffered not only physical suffering, but what mental suffering it must have been: “If Thou art the Christ, if Thou art the Son of God, come down, and we will believe Thee. Thou sayest Thou pleasest God; if Thou pleasest God, let God save Thee.” What mockery!
In the unseen world were all these forces, like bulls trying to devour Him. Satan thought that he had his opportunity. What conflict in His spirit! Yet during those first three hours, the Father was with Him.
However fierce the conflict with men and the devil, the Lord had His strength and comfort because the Father’s holy love was there. If the Father was with Him, nothing mattered.
But then at twelve o’clock, you find that the sun hid its face. Darkness filled the earth. There, on the cross, the Lord Jesus suddenly cried out, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”
The whole scene had changed. Men disappeared. The devil stood back. God laid His hand upon Christ and crushed Him on the cross.
Isaiah 53:10 says:
Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him;
He hath put Him to grief:
When Thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin,
He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days,
And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.
Brothers and sisters, on the cross, during the last three hours, it was no longer man, nor was it the devil. It was God who dealt with Christ. Why? Because at that time all the sins of the world came upon Him.
He bore in His body the sins of the world. He was made a sin offering. Because He voluntarily became a sin offering for the world, God turned His face away from Him. God’s hand was upon Him and crushed Him completely. There the Lord Jesus cried out, “Why hast Thou forsaken Me?”
He tasted death for all of us. During those three hours, He was separated from His Father. He had been one with His Father from eternity. There was never a moment when He was not with the Father, or the Father was not with Him.
There was never a moment of discord between the Son and the Father. They always were one. They enjoyed each other. They trusted each other. They loved each other. Yet, during those three hours, dear brothers and sisters, He suffered eternal death for all of us.
It is the suffering of eternal death: separation from God. He was made the sin-bearer, the sin offering, for us all. Oh, thank God, this is the story of the cross.
How can we know the cross of our Lord Jesus? The cross is so full in its meaning. How can we understand the mystery of the cross? Probably a simple, though not complete, way is to hear the words that came from the One who was crucified on the cross.
In other words, we should consider the seven words. On the cross, our Lord Jesus spoke seven words.
Once, on Mount Sinai, God spoke ten words. When these ten words were spoken, the mountain shook, lightning flashed, and the people trembled. Even Moses trembled, because God spoke the Ten Commandments: “Thou shalt” and “Thou shalt not.” The whole world was condemned.
But here, on the cross, seven words were spoken, and these were words of grace. Because of these seven words, we come to know the meaning of the cross. How precious are these words!
When our Lord Jesus was on the cross, the first word He spoke was, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” During the first three hours, He suffered at the hands of men and evil powers, but the Father was with Him. So He could say, “Father, forgive them.”
We say, “To err is human; to forgive is divine.” Here you find that the first word spoken from the cross is the word of forgiveness. What had men done to Him? Yet He said, “Father, forgive.”
If you want to forgive a person, you can always find a reason to forgive. “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” They did all these things to Me, but they really did not understand. Love finds a reason to forgive.
To us, it is almost unreasonable. How can He forgive us—we who have done so much to Him, we who hated Him without a cause, without a reason? Yet He still finds a reason to forgive us. Tremendous love is there: “Father, forgive.”
I think that His prayer was answered on the basis of His being crucified. How can the just God justify sinners? He cannot simply overlook sin.
Sometimes we think God is love—yes, God is love, surely—but we think that God is love to such an extent that He becomes almost unjust. “Jesus loves, loves, loves,” and loves anything and everything. But, dear brothers and sisters, our God is love, and yet He is just.
How can a just God justify sinners? We have sinned. That is a fact. He knows it, and we know it too. How can He justify us as though we had done nothing? He would be deceiving Himself, and we would not be deceived either, because we know that we have sinned.
I remember Spurgeon. When he was a young man, he was so convicted by the Spirit of God of his sin. Every Sunday he tried to find a church where he might hear something that would solve his problem.
One day he went to a church where the preacher spoke on predestination. The preacher said, “If you are predestined to be saved, you will be saved anyway. If you are not predestined, no matter how you try, you will not be saved.” Spurgeon came back and said, “Well, I do not know whether I am predestined to be saved or to be lost. If I am predestined to be lost, then I am lost.”
The next time he went to another place and heard a man preach the commandments: “Do and live. If you do not do, you die.” He knew that he had not done it.
Spurgeon said, “I know I have sinned. I know that if God is God, and He is just, He must and should condemn me to hell, because if He does not, He is no God.”
God is just. How can a just God forgive sinners? Oh, brothers and sisters, when the Lord Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them,” the Father in heaven said, “I forgive, because You have given Yourself as a substitute.”
That is the basis of forgiveness. Forgiveness is not cheap. Forgiveness is very costly. It cost the beloved, the only begotten Son of the Father. Because the Lord gave us His life, it is on that basis that God answered the prayer of our Lord Jesus on the cross.
We nailed Him to the cross, but we are forgiven if we believe in Him.
Then you find two robbers, murderers, crucified with Him. What an insult—that they crucified Him between two murderers.
One turned to Him and mocked Him. When people are desperate, they can do anything. He said, “If Thou art the Christ, save Thyself and us.”
But the other one was smitten in his conscience. He turned to the other robber and said, “Stop. We indeed receive the due reward of our deeds, but this Man hath done nothing amiss.” Then he turned to the Lord and said, “Lord, remember me when Thou comest in Thy kingdom.”
The Lord Jesus turned to him and said, “Today—not in the future, but today—thou shalt be with Me in paradise.” That is the second word.
Without going into technical details, let us say that paradise means rest. It is the place where the blessed dead go and rest until they are called in resurrection. The Lord Jesus said, “Today thou shalt be with Me in paradise. Thou shalt rest. Thou shalt enter into rest.”
By the cross, our sins are forgiven, and by the very cross, we are promised rest. The Lord Jesus said:
Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
How restless we are in sin and transgression. Yet, when we are heavily laden and laboring under it, the Lord says, “Come unto Me, and I will give you rest.” He gives rest to us. There is a rest prepared for us, and we enter into rest.
We rest from our works, as God rested after He had completed the work of creation. Brothers and sisters, how we strive and struggle. We have no rest. We think that by striving and struggling we may accomplish something, but it is like a person striving and struggling in quicksand. The more you strive and struggle, the lower you sink.
But, brothers and sisters, on the cross the Lord Jesus promised us rest. You do not need to be restless. Why? Because He has done the work. Enter into His rest.
In Genesis 1, God worked for six days, and on the seventh day He rested. But man was created on the sixth day and rested on his first day. In other words, immediately after man was created, man entered into rest because God had done it all.
Because man tried to do something, then God had to do all over again. Dear brothers and sisters, by the cross we enter into rest. We do not need to strive and struggle as though we can do it. We need to see that He has done it.
It is finished. It is done. He has done it. All we need to do is enter into rest, because it is done. We enter into the finished work of Christ and are at rest—rest for today, rest for tomorrow, and rest for eternity.
Then the third word, perhaps toward the end of the first three hours: the Lord Jesus saw His mother Mary standing there. Oh, how the sword must have pierced the heart of that mother. Then He saw His beloved disciple John standing there also.
The Lord turned to His mother and said, “Woman, behold thy son.” The son referred to John. Then He turned to John and said, “Behold thy mother.” The Bible says that from that time John took Mary into his home as his mother.
Even at that hour, the Lord Jesus thought of His mother, not of Himself, and made provision for His mother. Brothers and sisters, what do you see there? You see that by the cross Christ provided for us a home.
We are all brothers and sisters and mothers. The Lord said, “Who are My mother and My brethren?” Those who do the will of My Father. It is on the basis of the cross that a new family is created, a new relationship is formed, and a new home is provided.
What is that new home? The church.
Dear brothers and sisters, He gave His life for His church. Because of His death, He provided for all those who are forgiven, all those who have entered into His rest, to have a spiritual home—a heavenly home where we can fellowship together.
Remember, dear brothers and sisters, so far as the work of the cross is concerned, it is more than individual salvation. It is not only that you are forgiven and I am forgiven. It is not simply individual spiritual rest, where you rest in the finished work of Christ and I rest in the finished work of Christ, yet we have nothing to do with one another.
No. On the basis of the cross, He has created a home for all of us. We are not homeless. You have a home. You have mother, brother, and sister. Some may be like fathers, some like young people, and some like little children. We are a family, and we have a home.
This is what the cross of our Lord Jesus has done for us.
Then you come to the fourth word. Now the scene completely changes. There you find our Lord Jesus, in the darkness, crying, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”
Dear brothers and sisters, He could not say, “My Father, My Father.” He could not say that, because at that point His relationship with God was between the Creator and the created. There He was, as man, dying for man. He could only say, “My God, My God.”
God is your God no matter who you are. Whether you believe in Him or not, He is your God. But only to those who believe in Him is God their Father.
Throughout His life on earth, the Lord Jesus never asked such a question. Can you find in the life of our Lord Jesus that He asked, “Why?” He never used the word “why.” He knew that He was one with the Father.
This was the only time that even our Lord Jesus asked the question, “Why? Why hast Thou forsaken Me? Why dost Thou leave Me?” Of course, we know why. It is for you and for me. That is why.
What agony it must have been to Him. This is death: separation from the eternal God, from the living God. Yes, death.
When He asked why, there was silence. When you ask why and people answer you, there is comfort. But when He asked why, there was complete silence. Heaven did not even bother to answer. Absolute separation. No answer.
The mystery of silence tells us what the cross was for our Lord Jesus.
After that, toward the end, He knew that all things were being fulfilled, so He said, “I thirst.” When He said, “I thirst,” they gave Him vinegar to drink.
Why did He say, “I thirst”? Of course, physically speaking, at that time His blood had almost drained away. When your blood is drained, you become thirsty.
In Psalm 22, you find it described:
My strength is dried up like a potsherd;
And My tongue cleaveth to My jaws;
And Thou hast brought Me into the dust of death.
There on the cross our Lord Jesus poured out His blood, and life is in the blood. He said, “I thirst.” But this is only the physical aspect. There is a spiritual significance behind that word.
“My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” Then He said, “I thirst.” Do you know that deep down within the human heart there is a thirstiness that can never be filled except with God? In every human heart, there is a thirstiness that can only be filled with God.
Saint Augustine said, “Thou hast made us for Thyself, and our heart is restless until it rests in Thee.” In a sense, there you find our Lord Jesus as the representative Man. He was separated from God, and how thirsty He was.
But “I thirst” can be interpreted in another way. It can be interpreted as the thirstiness of God for man. Oh, brothers and sisters, how the love of God thirsts after us.
You remember that scene by Jacob’s well. Our Lord Jesus was thirsty and sat by the well. Then the Samaritan woman came, and she was thirsty. She drew water from the well, and the Lord Jesus said, “Give Me to drink.”
The Samaritan woman stood back and said, “Thou art a Jew; I am a Samaritan. We have nothing to do with each other. Why askest Thou me for water?” The Lord said, “If thou knewest Who it is that speaketh with thee, thou wouldest ask of Him, and He would give thee living water.”
That water would spring up within her as a fountain, and she would never thirst again. The Samaritan woman said, “Sir, give me that water to drink.”
Dear brothers and sisters, it is true: if we are separated from God, there is a thirstiness within us that cannot be quenched. When we feel thirsty, do you know what the world gives us? The world gives us vinegar to drink, to make us thirstier. Only God can satisfy our thirst.
But on the other hand, we need to see the thirstiness of God’s love. Oh, how He thirsts for our love. Yet how we repay Him with vinegar.
The love of God is manifested in fullness.
Then, before He died, the Bible says that He cried out with a loud voice. With the last energy of life, in fullness and strength, He cried out with a loud voice.
In the three Gospels, the word itself is not recorded, but in the Gospel according to John the word is recorded. He cried out with a loud voice and said, “It is finished.” It is done.
It is a shout of triumph. Brothers and sisters, after three hours of separation from the Father, after tasting eternal death to the uttermost for us, at the end of that third hour He knew that everything was done. He could shout with victory and say, “It is finished.”
The triumph of the cross! Dear brothers and sisters, the work of Christ on the cross is a finished work. You cannot add anything to it. You cannot take anything away from it. It is finished. Everything is done.
Everything necessary to fulfill the eternal purpose of God was done on the cross. It is done.
Then the last word: “Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit.” You find that He could again address God as His Father. The work was done.
Now He was restored into that eternal union with the Father which He always had. So He committed His spirit to the Father.
Here, brothers and sisters, by the seven words, you see that the mystery of the cross is revealed.
Before we close, I think we need to mention a little more. Oh, what a cross it is to us!
First of all, of course, we know that it is by the cross of our Lord Jesus that our sins are forgiven.
And without shedding of blood there is no remission.
This is the law. But thank God, blood has been shed, and God has accepted that blood. Therefore, we are redeemed by the blood of the Lamb.
It is not a matter of how great or how small your sin is. It is a matter of the power of the blood. The blood is always available. There is always forgiveness with the Father on the basis of the finished work of Christ on the cross.
Second, on the cross our Lord Jesus not only died as our substitute and shed His blood for our sins and took our sins away. On the cross, our Lord Jesus was also the representative Man.
He was the last Adam. When He died on the cross, He included the whole Adamic race in Himself and had it crucified. The whole Adamic race was crucified in Him and with Him. Thus He delivered us from the power of sin.
Romans 6:6 says:
Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away, that so we should no longer be in bondage to sin.
We are no longer in bondage to sin. He has delivered us from the power of sin. Dear brothers and sisters, He has not only saved us from the penalty of sin, but He has delivered us from the power of sin. By the cross, He has set us aside.
Paul says:
I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me.
This is the meaning of the cross to us. We need not only to see the cross as the place where our sins are forgiven—thank God for that—but we also need to see that it was on the cross of Christ that we were set aside. This old man was crucified in Him.
Who lives today? Christ lives in us. Paul could say, “For to me to live is Christ.” Why? Because he was crucified with Christ. That is what was done on the cross.
Third, when Christ was crucified on the cross, He condemned the world, but He reconciled all created things to Himself.
In a sense, it was the world that condemned Him, but actually it was He who condemned the world. You remember John 16. He said that when the Holy Spirit comes, He will convict the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Him; of righteousness, because He goes to the Father; and of judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.
Dear brothers and sisters, this world is a system. Satan organized all created things into a world system, and he is the ruler of this world.
In whatever area it may be—political, economic, or religious—it is a system organized by Satan to oppose God. That is the reason why 1 John says that if you love the world, the love of the Father is not in you.
What is the world and the things of the world? The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.
Dear brothers and sisters, on the cross our Lord Jesus judged the world. The world is judged by the cross. Yet, by the same cross, He reconciled all created things to Himself.
We must make a distinction here. There is a great distinction between the world and created things. Some people say that all material things are evil. But you have to see the distinction. The world is evil, but created things need to be reconciled to God.
How will He do it? First, by the cross. On the basis of the finished work of the cross, all things are put under His feet.
God has made Him Head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who filleth all in all. Today it is in the church that all things shall be reconciled, and all things shall be put under the feet of our Lord.
Then, at the manifestation of the sons of God, the whole creation shall be liberated. It is all based on the cross.
It is for this reason, dear brothers and sisters, that in Galatians 6 Paul says:
But far be it from me to glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world hath been crucified unto me, and I unto the world.
Here, brothers and sisters, He has delivered us by the cross out of the world. We are in the world, but we are not of the world. That does not mean that we have nothing to do with created things. We have very much to do with created things, because by the victory of Christ we are to bring all things under His feet—in our lives and in our lives together.
One day, it shall be manifested in the whole creation.
Fourth, not only is the world condemned and all things reconciled, but we know that on the cross the seed of the woman crushed the head of the serpent. There on the cross, He despoiled principalities and powers and made a show of them openly, triumphing over them by the cross.
Here, brothers and sisters, by the cross the enemy is completely defeated. The power of the enemy is completely destroyed. Thank God, His victory is our victory.
So, brothers and sisters, it is not enough simply to see the cross as a historical fact. We need to see what the death of our Lord Jesus does for us—what He has done. You will find that it affects everything.
Finally, we need to see the cross of our Lord Jesus not only in its objective aspect, but also in its subjective aspect. This cross of our Lord Jesus is to be worked out in us.
As Paul says:
Always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our body.
So, brothers and sisters, unless we see the cross of our Lord Jesus as the finished work, unless by faith we appropriate the finished work of Christ on the cross, we will not be able to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him.
But by seeing His cross, by the strength of His cross, we can take up our cross and follow Him. As the cross cuts off ourselves, then the life of Christ is manifested.
We have just touched the surface of the death of our Lord Jesus and of the cross, but for today it is enough.
Our holy Father, we do praise and thank Thee, not only for the incarnation of Thy Son into this world to be a man.
We do praise and thank Thee for His death on the cross as Man for man. How we praise and thank Thee, as the effect of the cross is universal and eternal.
How we praise and thank Thee that it not only touches us; it touches the whole creation. There is nothing that is not touched by the death of Christ on the cross.
Oh, we glory in the cross. We ask Thee, O Lord, that Thou wilt give us a sight of the cross. Thou wilt show Thy cross in such a way that we may see that it is done.
On the basis of that, by the Holy Spirit, may the cross be planted into us, so that life and ministry may come forth to the praise of Thy glory. We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.