March 25, 2016 (Friday)
April 14, 2017 (Friday)
March 30, 2018 (Friday)
“And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. This he said, signifying what death he should die” (John 12:32)
Before daylight, Jesus was arrested by temple soldiers and taken to the Jewish leaders. He was tried before Annas, then Caiaphas, and, as the first light of day came, formally condemned by the Sanhedrin. Next he was tried by the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, then by King Herod, then back to Pilate, where he was sentenced to be crucified, even though the governor found “no crime in him.” (Click here to read details of the seven trials). The mob prevailed, shouting their own sentence of execution, “Let him be crucified!” and they led him away to Golgotha. They nailed him to the cross. He was there from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., As the sun set on that scene of death, he was buried by friends in a borrowed tomb.
His death was like no other, because he was God’s own sacrifice for us, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” As Isaiah wrote years before it happened, “he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:5-6 NIV).
Perhaps hymns and gospel songs best declare what it means to us, like this one from Ellis Crum:
He paid a debt He did not owe; I owed a debt I could not pay;
I needed someone to wash my sins away.
And, now, I sing a brand new song, Amazing Grace.
Christ Jesus paid a debt that I could never pay.
Yes, Jesus paid a debt that I could never pay
(Click here to hear “He Paid A Debt”)
As another old hymn says that it was
At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light. (Isaac Watts).
And yet another:
There’s room at the cross for you. There’s room at the cross for you.
Though millions have come, there’s still room for one.
Yes, there’s room at the cross for you (Ira Stanphill).
“Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:7-8 NIV).