Illus. In Texas last week, an 18 year old man was arrested for wearing a noose in public. As Jewelry.
Seems kind of morbid doesn’t it? A noose is an instrument of an agonizing death. It represents vigilante law, I would never be proud to wear a noose.
What about an electric chair? Did you know you can actually get an electric chair pin to wear on eBay? It comes in either gold or silver.
A symbol of capital punishment…I don’t think I’d wear one, no matter how many people said, “Wow Art, that looks really good on you.”
Even if they said it made me look thin…I wouldn’t wear one.
What about a cross? Oh that’s different? How?
Crucifixion on a cross was a form of capital punishment reserved for only the worst criminals, like our electric chair.
Yet we wear a cross around our necks.
Think about it…the cross was the way Jesus was executed.
If your brother was killed in a drive-by-shooting, you wouldn’t wear a silver assault rifle on a chain around your neck.
If one of your ancestors had been lynched, you wouldn’t wear a golden noose!
Had the early church hired a Madison Avenue marketing group to help them come up with a logo for the Christian faith, I don’t think a cross would have been anywhere on their list.
It was such a revolting, shameful and offensive symbol!
To the Jewish mind, being nailed to a cross was such a shameful way to die that they considered any who were crucified to be cursed in God’s sight.
Ok, so why do Christians wear a cross? What is its meaning? This morning we are going to look at 4 images that will help us understand the place of the cross in the life of the believer.
As we look at them I want you to keep this scripture in mind:
“I urge you brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer yourselves as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship.” - Romans 12:1
1. The First Image is of a Courtroom.
Let me ask you a question…What does a line that goes down the middle of the road mean? Solid line, no passing. Stay on your own side of the road.
Dotted line, like one in picture means you can pass if there is nothing coming the other way.
Whether solid line or dotted line, reminds you that you are supposed to drive on your side of the road, and the guy coming the other way is supposed to stay on his side of the road. Right?
What would happen if you were driving back and forth across the middle line and a police saw you?
The Bible consistently presents God as the judge of the universe! In this universe there is a fixed pattern of right and wrong that God has woven into the fabric of life. They are His laws.
Illus. Few years ago I told my 6 year old son not to touch some breakables. He creeped closer and closer to them. I asked him, "What’re you doing?" he said, I’m trying really, really hard not to touch them.
All of us have failed at times to conform our lives to what God says is good and right.
The Bible’s word for this is “transgression”, which means to “step across a fixed line”.
All of us have transgressed God’s absolutes. We’ve crossed His line that separates right from wrong! As a result we stand before God guilty of breaking His law. We stand before Him as transgressors.
But, it’s God’s desire that no one should perish, but that all would have eternal life. But His Word also says that he cannot allow the guilty to go free, to go unpunished. Because He is just!
So there is a dilemma.
Now in our legal system, if a person is suing me in civil court over an injury or damage to their property, and they know I feel bad about what I did, that person is free to drop that suit and forgive me.
But, if it’s a criminal matter, a violation of the law, then the injured party can’t just choose whether or not I’ll be prosecuted. The court has an obligation to seek justice, even if the injured party forgives the person who broke the law.
So, the question is, How can God show forgiveness to people who have stepped across the line, without compromising the integrity of His justice?
If God just looked the other way, He’d compromise His integrity and He’d no longer be righteous. He’d no longer be just!
This is a problem that even Daniel Crandall or the slickest defense attorney can get us out of. Here’s God’s solution:
“God made Him, who had no sin, to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”
- 2 Corinthians 5:21
This scripture is talking about Jesus. Jesus never transgressed God’s law. He never once disobeyed God or stepped over the line.
He’s the one person in God’s courtroom who is not guilty, the only person who could legitimately stand up and say, “I’ve broken no laws.”
Yet, He’s the one who went to the cross. The place reserved for the very worst law breakers! And there He died a sinners death in our place…as our substitute.
Well, what does this image tell us about the cross? Since sin has made us guilty before God the cross is the place where God provides forgiveness!
It was on the cross where Jesus said, “Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing!”
Illus. Few years ago I met a couple who had a bad child. This boy was in trouble at home, in trouble at school, in trouble in the neighborhood and in trouble with the law. He was caught stealing, smoking, drinking and doing drugs. He swore, cheated, lied, was disrespectful of anyone in authority and at times was violent. His Mom and Dad continued to protect him, paying his fines, and going to court to keep him from going to juvenile facilities. They told anyone who would listen, “He’s really a good boy.” You know what…No he wasn’t! He was a rotten boy! And he needed help!
His parents were in denial of his failures, and maybe heir own.
God can’t be like that. He can’t just pretend that we haven’t sinned. So, He did what was necessary to satisfy justice, so the scales of justice could be balanced, He declared us guilty but forgiven through the cross.
Have you stepped over the line of God’s laws? Of course you have. We all have. We are all guilty. The important question is this: Who is paying the price for that guilt? You, or Jesus?
2.The second image is that of a Prison Camp.
The Bible consistently presents sin as a real power that imprisons people!
Back in the 70’s Patty Hearst the young heiress was abducted by a terrorist group. Patty was imprisonment against her will. Buy, as time passed she became more and more An active participant in her own captivity.
When her captors robbed a bank, a video surveillance camera showed patty at the bank robbery, holding an assault rifle.
It became hard to separate just how much of Patty’s captivity was against her will and how much was voluntary.
Our dilemma is similar, although it is occurs opposite to patty Hearst’s because our captivity begins voluntarily but it eventually leads to imprisonment.
No one twists our arm and forces us to disobey God, but when we do we become ensnared by our own bad choices, and we find that what began as a free choice has become a prison.
Illus. "Raynald was a Duke in 14th Century Belgium, and he loved to eat. His brother Edward imprisoned him in a special room they built around him in the castle. The room had no door. But Raynald was too big to get through the doorway. To escape, all he had to do was lose enough weight to walk out. He never could. Edward made sure he was constantly given large portions of delicious foods. He died in that room, a prisoner of his own appetites.
We can see this clearly in the case of addictions.
A person makes a free choice to drink, or smoke, or smoke pot, or shoot heroin, ingest speed or do crack, and as they do their freedom is gradually forfeited as the person becomes trapped in a prison known as addiction. Like Raynald, they often die a prisoner of their own appetites!
Illus. There was a boy who was saving his money for a new bike. He also loved ice cream. So every morning he would pray to God: “Please God, don’t let the ice cream truck come by today.”
Once we have become addicted, we lack the power to set ourselves free. Look to these words from Matt. 20:28.
“For the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”
Jesus described his death on the cross as a ransom to purchase our freedom.
The word “ransom” was commonly used to describe the price a government would pay in order to get back a prisoner of war.
Here we find a second way of looking at the cross…since sin has imprisoned us, the cross is the place where God sets us free! Come to cross where prisoners are set free!
Are you entangled in the barbed wire of bad choices? Has an addiction or habit imprisoned you?
