Experiencing His Passionate Love Series

The mechanism of death in crucifixion was usually suffocation. The crucified one’s weight was thrown forward in such a way that the pectoral muscles tightened around the chest to the point of making normal breathing impossible. In order to breathe. the victim had to lift his weight by pushing upward from the spike through his feet. When exhaustion and weakness made this impossible, death by suffocation followed. Sometimes the dying process required several days. If death needed to be hastened for any reason, the victim’s legs could be broken, as was done with the two felons crucified with Jesus. This made breathing impossible.

Kings and other important personages were crucified on a crux sublimis - high above the crowds. But most victims were crucified on a crux humilis; that is the offender’s feet were only a few inches above the ground. This gave easy access to those who wished to participate in further torture. It also gave opportunity for packs of wild dogs and jackals to tear at the victim’s flesh at night. Birds of prey participated in the torture by day. Ravens are recorded to have developed the gruesome habit of attacking and devouring the victim’s eyes.

ILLUS: A description of crucifixion has been passed down to us - purportedly by a soldier who had been witness to many of them:

"Of all the sounds in hell, none is more pitiable than those terrible cries through the silence of midnight, where crucified men hang in agony and cannot die while a breath of suffering remains."

III. And so I repeat: Why on earth, would God permit His son to endure such horror???

Why? (pause…)

Because He loved us.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever would believe in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16

God didn’t give His Son - to MERELY be a good teacher

Or an example of how we should live

Or to heal the sick and cast out demonic forces

Jesus did come to do all that

But those weren’t THE REASON God sent His son. God sent His son to become OUR substitute

To bear OUR punishment.

To DIE in OUR place.

As 1 John 4:9-10 says: This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

ILLUS: Jesus took our place. He took our punishment. His blood covered our sins.

One man, named Tom, told the story - when he was young, he loved crayons.

In fact he loved them so much he ate them.

His favorite color was red.

And at school, he would often nibble on his crayons and found that he could have fun on the playground by tapping a girl on the shoulder and saying "blah."

One day, he thought it would be clever to do this to his teacher. She was not impressed and sent him to the principal’s office. Principal asked why Tom had been sent to him.

He asked, so Tom showed him. Tom was spanked.

At home that evening, Tom’s father asked how school had gone that day. Tom almost told him, but he remembered his father’s warning that if he got a spanking at school, he’d get one at home. "Not much," he replied.