THE POWER OF THE PASSION: THE CHRIST, THE CRUCIFIXION, AND THE CONCENTRATION CAMPS (also Terrorism and 9-11)
Scriptures: Isaiah 53.1,3,10; John 1.1-3,14; Acts 4.27,28; Rom 3.25; 8.32; Phil 2.1-11; I Jn 4.10; John 1.1-3,10 (read the Gospel accounts of the trial, crucifixion, and resurrection).
In the film. Brave Heart. Mel Gibson portrays a Scottish soldier fighting for freedom from English rule. As the blade comes closer to end his life, he shouts—"FREEDOM, FREEDOM!" In the recent film The Passion of Christ, as Christ is on the cross he cried, "Father forgive them, they know not what they do." At this point in history there was fused "Forgiveness and Freedom" from sin and death!
The Cross of Christ: Amazing Grace and How Great Thou Art!
At the cross we encounter the depth and scope of divine sovereignty and human responsibility. Freedom takes our breath away. This is God's key to our salvation. Here we engage the world's most significant trial, crucifixion and resurrection (John 11, Lazarus) In fact, these events present answers to the most significant questions asked in the 21st century or any century. The early disciples were not gullible primitives. They knew that men do not raise from the dead. But? (Luke 24.30-43; the message of the Power of the Resurrection).
The trial and historical consequences. Many questions are raised—Why did Christ suffer and die? The ultimate question is—Who crucified Jesus? (God did!) Isaiah 53.10 and the New Testament declares "God did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all." (Romans 8.32;3.25) How does this divine act relate to the horribly sinful action of the men who killed Jesus? What does Passion mean? There are various definitions: (1) sexual desire; (2) zeal for a task; (3) an Oratorio by Johann Sebastian Bach and (4) the sufferings of Jesus Christ.
How and why was the Passion of Jesus unique. (1) He was condemned as a pretender to the throne of Rome, yet (2) in three centuries, a power to suffer and to love that transformed the Roman Empire ("In this love, not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins" I John 4.1).
THE PASSION OF CHRIST ON THE CROSS, AUSCHWITZ AND 9-11
We must take note by linking Calvary and the concentration camps, the suffering of Jesus Christ and the suffering through the world, especially the Jewish people. In Elie Wiesel's heart-wrenching, innocence- shattering, mouth-shutting book, NIGHT, he tells of his experience as a teenager with his father in the concentration camps ofAuschwitz, Buna, and Buchenwald. There was always the threat of "the selection" - the taking away of the weak to be killed and burned in the ovens. At one point, the only one, Wiesel links Calvary and the camp. He tells of an old rabbi, Akiba Dumer.
Akiba Dumer left us, a victim of the selection. Lately, he had wandered among us, his eyes glazed, telling everyone of his weakness: "I can't go on.. .It's all over... " It was impossible to raise his morale. He didn't listen to what we told him. He could only repeat that all was over for him, that he could no longer keep up the struggle, that he had no strength left, nor faith. Suddenly his eyes would become blank, nothing but two open wounds, two pits of terror. (Elie Wiesel, Night (NY Bantam Books, 1982, org. 1960, p. 72; see also pgs. 32 and 73)
Then Wiesel makes this provocative declaration: "Poor Akiba Dumer, if he could have gone on believing in God, if he could have seen a proof of God in this Calvary, he could not have been taken by the selection." (Ibid, p. 73) This brilliant declaration is not concerned with cause or blame. He was thinking of "meaning and hope." The final meaning of Jewish suffering is not found at Auschwitz but at Calvary. Only Jesus can know what happened during "One long night." (Wiesel, p. 32)
What did the death of Jesus bring for humans, including Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Animists (75% of the world) and all naturalistic, humanistic, secularistic people everywhere (dwelling in the land of post modernism)? Still the question rings strong—why did Christ suffer and die? Not "why" in the sense of "cause," but why in the sense of "purpose." (Read again for the first time Matthew 27.45,46, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sebachthani" (My God, my God, "why" have you forsaken me? (Lama is Aramaic meaning "purpose" not "cause").
Concerning the reasons why Christ suffered and died, it is infinitely more important than "who killed Jesus" is the question. What did God achieve for sinners like us in sending His Son to die?, i.e., for what purpose? The scriptures give multiple answers to this question and we now will engage some of them.
What Purpose-Not Cause?
Crucial scriptural answers to the question of why Christ suffered and died (e.g. Isaiah 53) Hesuffered and died in order —
To Absorb the Wrath of God (Ezekiel 18.4; Romans 6.23)
1. Galatians 3.10,13; Deuteronomy 27.26
2. Romans 3.25 (Propitiation - removal of wrath by providing substitute atonement)
3. I John 4.10
To Please His Heavenly Father
1. Israel 53.4-6; 133. II Timothy 1.9
2. Ephesians 5.2,124. Matthew 27.46
To Learn Obedience and Be Perfected
1. Hebrews 2.104. Matthew 17.12; 21.18
2. Hebrews 2.17; 4.155. Mark 3.5
3. Hebrews 5.86. I Peter 2.22
To Achieve His Own Resurrection from the Dead (relationship, atonement, resurrection)
1. Hebrews 13.20-213. I Corinthians 15.17
2. Matthew 26.284. Romans 6.4
To Show the Wealth of God's Love and Grace for Sinners
1.John 3.16 3. Ephesians 1.7
2. Romans 5.7-8 4. Isaiah 9.6-7
To Show His Own Love for Us
1. Ephesians 5.2,254. John 15.13
2. Galatians 2.20 5. Acts 16.31 (10.43)
3. Matthew 20.28 6. Romans 10.13; 16.31
To Cancel the Legal Demands of the Law Against Us
1. Romans 14.23 3. I Peter 4.11
2. Colossians2.13
To Become a Ransom for Many
1. Mark 9.31; 10.45 4. Hebrews 2.14
2. John 10.18 5. Romans 3.19; 3.23; 8.1
3. Ephesians 5.2 6. Revelation 14.7
For the Forgiveness of Our Sins
1. Isaiah 43.25 4. Ephesians 1.7
2. Matthew 26.28 5. Psalm 103.12
Provide the Basis for Our Justification
1. Romans 3.24,26,28; 5.92. Proverbs 17.15
Complete the Obedience That Becomes Our Righteousness
1. Romans 4.15 3. Philippians 2.8; 3.9
2. II Corinthians 5.21 4. Isaiah 5.5
To Take Away Our Condemnation
1. Romans 8.1; 33-35 2. Galatians 2.16,17
Abolish All Rituals (Circumcision, etc.) As a Basis of Salvation
1. Acts 10.43; 15.1,5,124. II Corinthians 3.16
2. Galatians 5.7, 11 5. Ephesians 2.5
3. Jeremiah 31.31-344
To Make Us Holy, Blameless, and Perfect
1. Hebrews 10.144. Romans 7.24
2. I Corinthians 5.7 5. Philippians3.12
3. Colossians 1.22 6. Hebrews 10.14
To Obtain for Us All Things that Are Good for Us
1. Romans 8.32, 35-37 2. Philippians 4.12-13,19
To Give Eternal Life to All Who Believe in Him
1. Ecclesiastes3.113. Mark 9.47-48
2. Matthew 25.46 4. John 3.16; 17.3
To Deliver us From the Present Evil Age
1. John 12.31; 17.154. Romans 12.2
2. I John 5.19 5. I Corinthians 1.23-24
3. II Peter 2.19
Freedom and Responsibility:
1. Newton removed God from the universe.
2. Hume and Kant removed God from History (Historiographical Revolution)
3. Darwin removed God from Design
4. Freud removed Sin from God as neurosis
5. Hegel and the unsung irrationalism in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Challenge: Clarify the distinction between Description and Explanation
To ReconcileUsto God: God's Holiness demands justice; His love provides satisfaction in the incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection
1. Romans 5.10 - the first change was God's, not man's.
2. II Corinthians 5.19-20 (compare with Matthew 5.23-24) The decisive reconciliation occurred "while we were sinners." Reconciliation from our side is to receive Christ as Lord and Savior through obedient faith. This is the only way we receive an infinitely valuable gift. We are surprised by Joy (the Greek root is the same for both Grace and Joy)!
3. Ephesians2.13
4. I Peter 3.18
5. Hebrews 11.25 the Christian faith is first "Good News" and then it is theology in order to declare the only Gospel of Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior!
6. Acts 20.28
7. Romans 6.17; 7.4
8. I Corinthians 6.19-20
To Create a New Priesthood
1. Hebrews 4.15-16 - become a sympathetic High Priest
2. Hebrews 7.23-27 4. Hebrews 10.11-12
3. Hebrews 9. 24-26(See my essay on the web page, "The Old Covenant and Promise: Jeremiah 31.31 -34; Hebrews 8-10"
To Free Us From the Futility of Our Heritage: I Peter 1.18-19
Secular people of the West and the more primitive people in animistic tribes, have this in common: they believe in the power of ancestral bondage. They call it by different names. Animistic people speak in terms of ancestral spirits and transmission of curses. Postmodern Secularists speak of genetic and environmental influences or the wounding and abusive, codependence and emotionally distant parents. In all the cases there is a sense of fatalism (a'la' Islam's Allah and total deterministic sovereignty) that we are bound to live with the curse of the wounds from our ancestry. The future seems futile and void of meaning and happiness (e.g. Ravi Zacharias, Recapturing The Wonder for all those who are disillusioned with life).
In the 1950's kids lost their innocence; in the 1960's kids lost their authority (the counter culture);in the 1970's kids lost their love ("me-ism"); in the 1980's kids lost their hope; in the 1990's kids lost their power to reason, i.e., turning to virtual reality of emotions and imagination. In 2000, the New Millennium, kids lost their imagination and the loss of responsibility and innocence (we are victims); read again for the first time Ecclesiastes "All is meaningless" - loss of meaning in beauty, wealth, and success.
I Peter 1.18,19 - You were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.
To Free Us From the Slavery of Sin (Instantaneous declaration - not guilty of the other is an ongoing transformation (Romans 12.1-4)
1. Hebrews 14.12
2. Revelation 1.5-6 - Sin damns us with guilt and enslaves us to lovelessness and loneliness
3. John 13.346. I Corinthians 15.10
4. Galatians 5.22-23 7. I Peter 2.24
5. Romans 6.14
In Christ we are freed from both guilt and slavery to sin!
To Make the Cross the Ground of All Our Boasting
1. Galatians 6.14-153. II Corinthians 12.9
2. Romans 2.4-5; 5.2 4. IThessalonians2.19
To Enable Us to Live by Faith in Him
1. Galatians 2.20 4. Philippians4.13
2. II Corinthians 5.17 5. Colossians 1.29
3. Ephesians 2.5-6 6. Romans 15.18
To Give Marriage Its Deepest Meaning
1. Genesis 2.24 2. Ephesians 5.25, 31-32
To Create a People Passionate for Good Works
1. Matthew 5.16 3. Ephesians 2.8-10
2. Titus 2.14 4. Titus 3.14
To Create a Band of Crucified Followers
1. Matthew 10.38; 26.56 4. Hebrews 13.12-13
2. Luke 9.23, 51; 13.32 5. Revelation 12.11
3. Romans 6.11
To Be Free From the Bondage of the Fear of Death
1. Hebrews 2.14-15
2. Romans 8.11
3. Galatians 5.13 - "Serve One Another" the only thing that can damn anyone of us is unforgiven sin. Hexes, enchantments, voodoo, seances, curses, black magic, apparitions, voices—none of these can send us to hell. They are the lethal weapons Satan (the great deceiver, the father of lies) uses to deceive us (John 8.1-4).
4. I Thessalonians 5.10
5. Philippians 1.21-23
6. II Corinthians 5.8
7. I Corinthians 6.13
8. Colossians 2.14-15 - "disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in Him (see also Ephesians 6).
9. I John 3.8 11. Colossians 2.14
10.Johnl2.31 12. Revelation 12.10 Satan's promises are lies and his power is
stripped - in Christ alone.
To Unleash the Power of God in the Gospel
1. I Corinthians 1.18; 15.1-73. II Corinthians 4.4
2. Romans 1.16
To Destroy the Hostility Between Ethnic Groups (not races; genetically there is only one race, the Human race (e.g. Matt 28 - to all the Ethnics; Luke was the only Gentile author of the N.T.)
1. Ephesians 2.14-166. John 1.29; 10.16; 11.51-52
2. Galatians 2.11-12 7. Romans 10.12-13
3. Galatians 2.14 8. Hebrews 9.28
4. Revelation 5.9 9. II Thessalonians 1.18-19
5. Luke 24.46-47 10.Revelation 14.10-11
To Gain His Joy and Ours
1. Hebrews 1.3
2. Hebrews 12.2
3. John 16.33
4. Psalms 30.5 "weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes in the morning." From the agonyof the cross, then the ecstasy of heaven. There is no other way.
5. Hebrews 2.9 7. Revelation 5.12
6. Philippians 2.7-9 8. Philippians 2.8-9
To Show that the Worst Evil is Meant by God for Good
1. Genesis 50.204. Acts 2.23
2. Isaiah 53.5,10 5. 4. 27-28
3. Luke 23.34
Dr. James Strauss, Professor Emeritus, Lincoln Christian Seminary
Web page:
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