[037] A Message From A Poem – Calvary – Golgotha’s Skull

[037] A MESSAGE FROM A POEM – CALVARY – GOLGOTHA’S SKULL

What does Calvary mean to you? To most people it means nothing except a casual thought at Easter perhaps.

May we ask what does Calvary mean to a Christian? Here the answers are many and most of them would be simplistic which is fine. We might hear, “It is my salvation,” or “Jesus died for our sins,” or “Jesus died for the world on a cross.”

In this poem I have tried to answer the question in an expansive way. When we delve into Calvary there are more and more layers of meaning that surface. Some of those aspects would be the great biblical words – atonement, covenant, salvation, Substitute, redemption, love, forgiveness, sin, and just so many more.

Some of those words I have taken and developed them further to try to open a window on the cross. We will never comprehend the depth of it. We are the recipients of Calvary love and Calvary mercy and Calvary salvation.

The word “Calvary” is used only once in scripture and it is Luke 23:33 in the AV/KJV and the NKJV. {{“And when they were come to the place, WHICH IS CALLED CALVARY, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left.”}} All other versions use “Golgotha” the place of the skull, such as this one in the ESV that omits Golgotha and uses “The Skull” – {{“And when they came to THE PLACE THAT IS CALLED THE SKULL, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left.”}}

The word Calvary is derived from the Latin phrase for this location, “Calvariae Locus”. Counting this reference, all four Gospels make specific reference to this particular hill as the place of Jesus’ death.

Golgotha or Skull is never used outside the Gospels. Rather Paul uses “the cross”.

{{1 Corinthians 1:17-18 “Christ did not send me to baptise, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, that THE CROSS OF CHRIST should not be made void. THE WORD OF THE CROSS is to those who are perishing foolishness, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God,”}}

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CALVARY – GOLGOTHA’S SKULL

Was it a stubbornness that caused the Lord

To die at Calvary?

Was it determination that He showed,

Remaining on that tree?

Accepting that, is to misunderstand

The true reality,

Of why He came, and why He had to die,

A death in agony.

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With outstretched arms that reached to all mankind,

Two factors clashed that day -

The love of God and man’s deep sinfulness

Became the Saviour’s way.

What sent the Saviour to the cross in death,

Was God’s love on display.

What caused His death was sin’s most vile account -

A debt He chose to pay.

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This world’s most moral man who is not saved

Is sharing the same fate,

As he whose sin is of the darkest, vilest stain -

They’ll both date hell’s estate.

There was no hope for lost mankind without

The op’ning of life’s gate,

For sin had separated man from God,

But Jesus bridged the strait.

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A holy God can not allow one sin

To be unjudged at all,

And so the penalty of death descends

On all, both great and small.

His holiness spells condemnation sure,

Which on mankind should fall,

But love reached out in triumph to surmount

Death’s separation wall.

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Now sins demand the penalty of death

And therefore all must die,

Yet God has demonstrated love so vast

To overturn death’s cry.

God’s holiness is justly satisfied

In Jesus lifted high.

The punishment for sin on Him did fall -

Our sins on Him did lie.

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As Substitute, He took our sins, the whole,

To make each one His own,

And suffered all the wrath of God for us,

For our sins to atone.

The dark of night enshrouded that day’s scene

When He suffered alone.

Thus, for the cross, this clash of love and sin,

Brought Jesus from His throne.

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For God so loved the world He gave His Son -

Such love - immense and free.

And grace and mercy interacted too

To bring us liberty.

Yet He was wounded for our transgressions;

Took our iniquity.

The punishment, the wounding and the stripes

Were ours, but His to be.

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No wrath, no condemnation yet remains;

The sky is cloudless bright.

Forgiving sunshine streams from God on high,

No more the black of night.

We see our Lord upon His throne of grace

In pure, eternal light.

No cloud between, no sin that can accuse,

Or mar that choicest sight.

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But Calvary for us will always be

The yardstick of love’s theme.

Forever as the Lamb of God once slain,

His love remains supreme.

Because He won the victory o’er sin,

All praise to Him will stream.

His love did triumph once at Calvary,

A people to redeem.

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20 - 23 October 1999 R E Ferguson 10-6-10-6-10-6-10-6