Cross (3586) (xulon/xylon from xuo = to scrape) is literally wood and refers to anything made of wood, including a tree or other wooden article or substance.
In Ac 5:30, 10:39, 13:29, 1Pe 2:24 and Gal 3:13 xulon refers to the old rugged Cross. The NT idea of xulon/xylon as a cross is related to Dt 21:11 which emphasizes the shame that befalls the one who is exposed and punished in such a way.
Richards records that...
In the Roman world the cross was used to execute only slaves and foreigners. Those with Roman citizenship were protected from the shame and the pain associated with crucifixion. As practiced by the Romans, crucifixion involved either tying or nailing the convicted person to a crossbeam, which was attached to the stauros (4716) ("pole"). The cross might be in the form of a T or, as it is more traditionally represented, as a t. Death came slowly to a crucified person, through exhaustion or by suffocation. And it came with great pain. Death by crucifixion was also considered a great disgrace. It is the theological implications of Jesus' crucifixion, however, that are of most concern to the Christian (Richards, L O: Expository Dictionary of Bible Words: Regency or Computer Version - New International Encyclopedia of Bible Words)
BDAG says xylon is (1) "wood as a plant substance in unmanufactured form", then an (2) "object made of word" (pole = Nu 21:8, club = Mt 26:47, 55, 14.43" class="scriptRef">Mk 14:43, 48, Lk 22:52, stocks (Job 33:11, Ac 16:24), a wooden structure used for crucifixion (cf OT passages referring to hanging or impalement of a criminal’s corpse on a post = 19" class="scriptRef">Ge 40:19, Dt 21:22, 23, Josh 10:26) and finally (3) a "tree" (Ge 1:29, 2:9, 3:1ff, Is 14:8, Eccl 2:5, Lk 23:31, tree of life = Re 2:7; 22:2, 14, 19)
Liddell-Scott says xulon/xylon means "wood cut and ready for use, firewood, timber, Homer; ship-timber; a piece of wood, a post; a perch; a stick, cudgel, club" (2) "a collar of wood, put on the neck of the prisoner; also stocks, for the feet", (3) "a plank or beam to which malefactors were bound, the Cross"; (4) "a money changer's table" (5) "of live wood, a tree".
TDNT "Figuratively xylon is an “unfeeling” person. The LXX often uses xyla for trees, but also has xylon for wood, used for cultic or secular purposes.
NIDNTT...
The word now normally translated as cross denotes in Greek an instrument of torture and execution. It has gained a special significance through its historic connection with the death of Jesus. Two words are used for the instrument of execution on which Jesus died: xylon (wood, tree) and stauros (stake, cross). xylon meant originally wood, and is often used in the NT of wood as a material. Through its connection with Deut. 21:23 (quoted in Gal. 3:13, “Cursed be everyone who hangs on a tree”), xylon could virtually be treated as synonymous with stauros. In the gospels stauros is used in the accounts of the execution of Jesus, and in the theological reflection of the Pauline literature it symbolizes the sufferings and death of Christ
Xylon is commonly used in classic literature for wood or timber, as a building material, fuel, and material from which utensils and cultic objects are made (e.g. Dem. 45, 33; Hesiod, Works 808). Cudgels, clubs, instruments of torture and punishment in the form of sticks, blocks and collars for slaves, lunatics and prisoners were called xylon (Hdt., 2, 63; 4, 180). xylon as a tree is rare. It is first attested in Hdt., 3:46; 7, 65; Euripides, Cyclops, 572; and Xen., Anab., 6, 4, 5.
In the Septuagint - Wood (xylon) is mentioned in the LXX as fuel (Gen. 22:3), building material (Gen. 6:14; Exod. 25:10ff.; 1 Ki. 6:15), and as an instrument of torture (stocks, Job 33:11, RSV). The meaning tree is more common than in secular Gk. xylon is used to denote fruit trees, cypresses and trees planted by running water (Ge 1:11; Isa. 14:8; Ps. 1:3)....
Disobedience turns a created thing into a god. The tree becomes a cultic object and the carving an idol. The prophets condemned Israel’s apostasy as “adultery with stone and tree” (Jer. 3:9; cf. Is 40:20; 44:13, 14, 15.; Ezek. 20:32).
The concepts of the tree and the curse and the “tree of life” are theologically more central (in the NT)...The picture of the tree of life reappears in Rev. 2:7. What was forbidden to Adam and Eve is given in the new creation. In the new Jerusalem on either side of the river of life grows “the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations” (Rev. 22:2). The righteous alone have access to the tree of life (Rev. 22:14, 19). The living tree symbolizes life, and presents a contrast with the cross as the wooden instrument of death. But the significance of the cross is retained. It is the place where God bears and overcomes suffering and death, so that he may give life to a world overcome by sin and death (Rev. 22:14). (Brown, Colin, Editor. New International Dictionary of NT Theology. 1986. Zondervan or Computer version)
Ralph Earle writes that...
The word xylon has quite a history of usage. It first meant "wood" (1Cor. 3:12; Rev 18:12). Then it meant a piece of wood, and so anything made of wood. It was used for a staff or club (Mt. 26:47, 55; 14.43" class="scriptRef">Mk 14:43, 48; Lk 22:52). Only in Acts 16:24 in the NT is it used for wooden "stocks," into which prisoners' feet were fastened. It is used a number of times in the NT for the cross on which Jesus was hanged. Finally, in late writers, it came to be used for a "tree," as we find in Luke 23:31. In Revelation (Re 2:7; 22:2, 14, 19) it is used for the "tree" of life. (Earle, R. Word Meanings in the New Testament)
Xulon- 20x in 18v - Matt 26:47, 55; 14.43" class="scriptRef">Mark 14:43, 48; Luke 22:52; 23:31; Acts 5:30; 10:39; 13:29; 16:24; 1 Cor 3:12; Gal 3:13; 1 Pet 2:24; Rev 2:7; 18:12; 22:2, 14, 19. NAS - clubs(5), cross(4), stocks(1), tree(7), wood(3).
Matthew 26:47 While He was still speaking, behold, Judas, one of the twelve, came up accompanied by a large crowd with swords and clubs, who came from the chief priests and elders of the people.
Matthew 26:55 At that time Jesus said to the crowds, "Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest Me as you would against a robber? Every day I used to sit in the temple teaching and you did not seize Me.
Mark 14:43 Immediately while He was still speaking, Judas, one of the twelve, came up accompanied by a crowd with swords and clubs, who were from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders.
Mark 14:48 And Jesus said to them, "Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest Me, as you would against a robber?
Luke 22:52 Then Jesus said to the chief priests and officers of the temple and elders who had come against Him, "Have you come out with swords and clubs as you would against a robber?
Luke 23:31 "For if they do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?"
Acts 5:30 "The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you had put to death by hanging Him on a cross.
Acts 10:39 "We are witnesses of all the things He did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They also put Him to death by hanging Him on a cross.
Acts 13:29 "When they had carried out all that was written concerning Him, they took Him down from the cross and laid Him in a tomb.
Acts 16:24 and he, having received such a command, threw them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.
1Corinthians 3:12 Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw,
Galatians 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us-- for it is written, "CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO HANGS ON A TREE "--
1Peter 2:24 and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.
Revelation 2:7 'He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God.'
Revelation 18:12 cargoes of gold and silver and precious stones and pearls and fine linen and purple and silk and scarlet, and every kind of citron wood and every article of ivory and every article made from very costly wood and bronze and iron and marble,
Revelation 22:2 in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
Revelation 22:14 Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter by the gates into the city.
Revelation 22:19 and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book.
Xulon - 275x in the non-apocryphal Septuagint - Ge 1:4" class="scriptRef">24" class="scriptRef">24" class="scriptRef">11f, 9" class="scriptRef">9" class="scriptRef">29; 2:9, 15.6" class="scriptRef">6.6" class="scriptRef">6" class="scriptRef">6" class="scriptRef">6" class="scriptRef">6-Gen.3.24" class="scriptRef">16f; 3:1ff, 6, 8, 11f, 17" class="scriptRef">17, 22, 24; 6:14; 22:3, 6f, 9; 19" class="scriptRef">19" class="scriptRef">19" class="scriptRef">40:19; Ex 7:19; 25" class="scriptRef">9:25; 10" class="scriptRef">10.5" class="scriptRef">10:5, 12" class="scriptRef">12, 15" class="scriptRef">15" class="scriptRef">15; 15:25; 25:5, 10, 13" class="scriptRef">13" class="scriptRef">13" class="scriptRef">13, 28; 26.15" class="scriptRef">26:15, 26; 27:1, 6; 30:1, 5; 31:5; 35:7, 24, 33; Lev 1:7f, 12, 17; 3:5; 4:12; 6:5; 14:4, 6, 45, 49, 51f; 23" class="scriptRef">19:23; 23:40; 26:4, 20" class="scriptRef">20; 32-Num.15.41" class="scriptRef">Num 15:32f; 19:6; Deut 4:28; 10:3; 21" class="scriptRef">16:21; 19:5; 20:19f; 21:22f; 28:36, 64; 29:16; Josh 8:29; 10:26f; Judg 6:26; 9:18" class="scriptRef">8ff, 48; 1 Sam 6:14; 2 Sam 5:11; 21:19; 23:7, 21; 24:22; 1 Kgs 5:13, 20, 22, 32; 6:10, 15, 38" class="scriptRef">31ff; 9:11; 10:11f; 14:23; 15:22; 17:10; 18:23; 2 Kgs 3:19, 25; 6:4, 6; 12:12f; 16:4; 17:10; 19:18; 22:6; 1 Chr 14:1; 16:32f; 20:5; 21:23; 22:4, 14f; 29:2; 2 Chr 2:7ff, 13, 15; 3:5, 10; 7:13; 9:10f; 16:6; 28:4; 34:11; Ezra 3:7; 5:8; 6:11; Neh 2:8; 8:15; 9:25; 10:36, 38; Esth 5:14; 6:4; 7:9f; 8:7; Ps 1:3; 73:6; 95:12; 103:16; 104:33; 148:9; Prov 3:18; 12:4; 25:20; 26:20f; Eccl 2:5f; 10:9; 11:3; Song 2:3; 3:9; 4:14; Job 24:20; 30:4; 33:11; 41:19; Joel 1:12, 19; 2:22; Hab 2:11, 19; Hag 1:8; 2:19; Zech 5:4; 12:6; Isa 7:2, 4, 19; 10:15; 14:8; 30:33; 34:13; 37:19; 40:20; 44:13f, 23; 45:20; 55:12; 56:3; 60:17; 65:22; Jer 2:20, 27; 3:6, 9, 13; 5:14; 6:6; 7:18, 20; 10:3; 11:19; 17:8; 26:22; 38:12; Lam 4:8; 5:4, 13; Ezek 15:2f, 6; 17:24; 20:28, 32; 21:3, 15; 24:10; 26:12; 31:4f, 8f, 14ff, 18; 34:27; 36:30; 39:10; 41:25; 47:12
This great doctrine of the substitutionary atonement is the heart of the gospel. Actual atonement, sufficient for the sins of the whole world, was made for all who would ever believe, namely, the elect.
QUOTATIONS ON
THE CROSS
Billy Graham in “The Offense of the Cross” -When Jesus said, “If you are going to follow me, you have to take up a cross,” it was the same as saying, “Come and bring your electric chair with you. Take up the gas chamber and follow me.” He did not have a beautiful gold cross in mind—the cross on a church steeple or on the front of your Bible. Jesus had in mind a place of execution.
• What our Lord said about cross-bearing and obedience is not in fine type. It is in bold print on the face of the contract. - Vance Havner
• Jesus was crucified, not in a cathedral between two candles, but on a cross between two thieves. - George F. MacLeod
•The cross cannot be defeated, for it is defeat. - G K. Chesterton
• There are no crown-wearers in heaven who were not cross-bearers here below. - C H Spurgeon
• We need men of the cross, with the message of the cross, bearing the marks of the cross. - Vance Havner
•Christ’s cross is such a burden as sails are to a ship or wings to a bird. - Samuel Rutherford
• He came to pay a debt He didn’t owe because we owed a debt we couldn’t pay. - Anonymous
•The old cross slew men; the new cross entertains them. The old cross condemned; the new cross amuses. The old cross destroyed confidence in the flesh; the new cross encourages it. - A.W. Tozer
• All heaven is interested in the cross of Christ, all hell is terribly afraid of it, while men are the only beings who more or less ignore its meaning. - Oswald Chambers
• The figure of the Crucified invalidates all thought which takes success for its standard. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer
• The cross is the lightning rod of grace that short-circuits God’s wrath to Christ so that only the light of His love remains for believers. - A. W. Tozer in “The Old Cross and the New.”
The Biblical Evangelist warns about a drift in modern day understanding of the significance of the Cross in the life of believers...
"The New Cross" - From this new cross has sprung a new philosophy of the Christian life; and from that new philosophy has come a new evangelical technique—a new type of meeting and new type of preaching. This new evangelism employs the same language as of the old, but its content is not the same, and the emphasis not as before.
The new cross encourages a new and entirely different evangelistic approach. The evangelist does not demand abnegation of the old life before a new life can be received. He preaches not contrasts but similarities. He seeks to key into the public view the same thing the world does, only a higher level. Whatever the sin-mad world happens to be clamoring after at the moment is cleverly shown to be the very thing the gospel offers, only the religious product is better.
The new cross does not slay the sinner; it re-directs him. It gears him to a cleaner and jollier way of living, and saves his self-respect...The Christian message is slanted in the direction of the current vogue in order to make it acceptable to the public.
The philosophy back of this kind of thing may be sincere, but its sincerity does not save it from being false. It is false because it is blind. It misses completely the whole meaning of the cross.
The old cross is a symbol of DEATH. It stands for the abrupt, violent end of a human being. The man in Roman times who took the cross and started down the road has already said goodbye to his friends. He was not coming back. He was not going out to have his life re-directed; he was going out to have it ended. The cross made no compromise; modified nothing; spared nothing. It slew all of the man completely, and for good. It did not try to keep on good terms with the victim. It struck cruel and hard, and when it had finished its work, the man was no more.
The race of Adam is under the death sentence. There is no commutation and no escape. God cannot approve any fruits of sin, however innocent they may appear, or beautiful to the eyes of men. God salvages the individual by liquidating him, and then raising him again to newness of life.
That evangelism which draws friendly parallels between the ways of God and the ways of men is false to the Bible and cruel to the souls of its hearers. The faith of Christ does not parallel the world; it intersects it. In coming to Christ we do not bring our old life to a higher plane; we leave it at the cross....
We, who preach the gospel, must not think of ourselves as public relations agents sent to establish good will between Christ and the world. We must not imagine ourselves commissioned to make Christ acceptable to big business, the press, or the world of sports, or modern entertainment. We are not diplomats, but prophets; and our message is not a compromise, but an ultimatum.” (The Biblical Evangelist, 11-1-91, p11)
Easton's Bible Dictionary entry on Cross...
in the New Testament the instrument of crucifixion, and hence used for the crucifixion of Christ itself (Eph. 2:16; Heb. 12:2; 1 Cor. 1:17, 18; Gal. 5:11; 6:12, 14; Phil. 3:18). The word is also used to denote any severe affliction or trial (Matt. 10:38; 16:24; Mark 8:34; 10:21).
The forms in which the cross is represented are these:
1. The crux simplex (I), a "single piece without transom."
2. The crux decussata (X), or St. Andrew's cross.
3. The crux commissa (T), or St. Anthony's cross.
4. The crux immissa (t), or Latin cross, which was the kind of cross on which our Saviour died. Above our Lord's head, on the projecting beam, was placed the "title."
After the conversion, so-called, of Constantine the Great (B.C. 313), the cross first came into use as an emblem of Christianity. He pretended at a critical moment that he saw a flaming cross in the heavens bearing the inscription, "In hoc signo vinces", i.e., By this sign thou shalt conquer, and that on the following night Christ himself appeared and ordered him to take for his standard the sign of this cross. In this form a new standard, called the Labarum, was accordingly made, and borne by the Roman armies. It remained the standard of the Roman army till the downfall of the Western empire. It bore the embroidered monogram of Christ, i.e., the first two Greek letters of his name, X and P (chi and rho), with the Alpha and Omega.
Smith's Bible Dictionary...
As the emblem of a slave's death and a murderer's punishment, the cross was naturally looked upon with the profoundest horror. But after the celebrated vision of Constantine, he ordered his friends to make a cross of gold and gems, such as he had seen, and "the towering eagles resigned the flags unto the cross," and "the tree of cursing and shame" "sat upon the sceptres and was engraved and signed on the foreheads of kings." (Jer. Taylor, "Life of Christ," iii., xv. 1.) The new standards were called by the name Labarum, and may be seen on the coins of Constantine the Great and his nearer successors. The Latin cross on which our Lord suffered, was int he form of the letter T, and had an upright above the cross-bar, on which the "title" was placed. There was a projection from the central stem, on which the body of the sufferer rested. This was to prevent the weight of the body from tearing away the hands. Whether there was also a support to the feet (as we see in pictures) is doubtful. An inscription was generally placed above the criminal's head, briefly expressing his guilt, and generally was carried before him. It was covered with white gypsum, and the letter were black.
ISBE extracts...
CROSS - (stauros, "a cross," "the crucifixion"; skolops, "a stake," "a pole"): The name is not found in the Old Testament. It is derived from the Latin word crux. In the Greek language it is stauros, but sometimes we find the word skolops used as its Greek equivalent. The historical writers, who transferred the events of Roman history into the Greek language, make use of these two words. No word in human language has become more universally known than this word, and that because all of the history of the world since the death of Christ has been measured by the distance which separates events from it. The symbol and principal content of the Christian religion and of Christian civilization is found in this one word.
The suffering implied in crucifixion naturally made the cross a symbol of pain, distress and burden-bearing. Thus Jesus used it Himself (Mt 10:38; 16:24). In Paulinic literature the cross stands for the preaching of the doctrine of the Atonement (1Cor 1:18; Gal 6:14; Phil 3:18; Col 1:20). It expresses the bond of unity between the Jew and the Gentile (Eph 2:16), and between the believer and Christ, and also symbolizes sanctification (Gal 5:24). The cross is the center and circumference of the preaching of the apostles and of the life of the New Testament church.
Crucifixion: As an instrument of death the cross was detested by the Jews. "Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree" (Gal 3:13; compare Dt 21:23), hence, it became a stumbling-block to them, for how could one accursed of God be their Messiah? Nor was the cross differently considered by the Romans. "Let the very name of the cross be far away not only from the body of a Roman citizen, but even from his thoughts, his eyes, his ears" (Cicero Pro Rabirio 5). The earliest mode of crucifixion seems to have been by impalation, the transfixion of the body lengthwise and crosswise by sharpened stakes, a mode of death-punishment still well known among the Mongol race. The usual mode of crucifixion was familiar to the Greeks, the Romans, the Egyptians, Persians and Babylonians (Thuc. 1, 110; Herod. iii.125, 159). Alexander the Great executed two thousand Tyrian captives in this way, after the fall of the city. The Jews received this form of punishment from the Syrians and Romans (Ant., XII, v, 4; XX, vi, 2; BJ, I, iv, 6). The Roman citizen was exempt from this form of death, it being considered the death of a slave (Cicero In Verrem i. 5, 66; Quint. viii.4). The punishment was meted out for such crimes as treason, desertion in the face of the enemy, robbery, piracy, assassination, sedition, etc. It continued in vogue in the Roman empire till the day of Constantine, when it was abolished as an insult to Christianity. Among the Romans crucifixion was preceded by scourging, undoubtedly to hasten impending death. The victim then bore his own cross, or at least the upright beam, to the place of execution. This in itself proves that the structure was less ponderous than is commonly supposed. When he was tied to the cross nothing further was done and he was left to die from starvation. If he was nailed to the cross, at least in Judea, a stupefying drink was given him to deaden the agony. The number of nails used seems to have been indeterminate. A tablet, on which the feet rested or on which the body was partly supported, seems to have been a part of the cross to keep the wounds from tearing through the transfixed members (Iren., Adv. haer., ii.42). The suffering of death by crucifixion was intense, especially in hot climates. Severe local inflammation, coupled with an insignificant bleeding of the jagged wounds, produced traumatic fever, which was aggravated the exposure to the heat of the sun, the strained of the body and insufferable thirst. The swelled about the rough nails and the torn lacerated tendons and nerves caused excruciating agony. The arteries of the head and stomach were surcharged with blood and a terrific throbbing headache ensued. The mind was confused and filled with anxiety and dread foreboding. The victim of crucifixion literally died a thousand deaths. Tetanus not rarely supervened and the rigors of the attending convulsions would tear at the wounds and add to the burden of pain, till at last the bodily forces were exhausted and the victim sank to unconsciousness and death. The sufferings were so frightful that "even among the raging passions of war pity was sometimes excited" (BJ, V, xi, 1). The length of this agony was wholly determined by the constitution of the victim, but death rarely ensued before thirty-six hours had elapsed. Instances are on record of victims of the cross who survived their terrible injuries when taken down from the cross after many hours of suspension (Josephus, Vita, 75). Death was sometimes hastened by breaking the legs of the victims and by a hard blow delivered under the armpit before crucifixion. Crura fracta was a well-known Roman term (Cicero Phil. xiii.12). The sudden death of Christ evidently was a matter of astonishment (Mk 15:44). The peculiar symptoms mentioned by John (Jn 19:34) would seem to point to a rupture of the heart, of which the Saviour died, independent of the cross itself, or perhaps hastened by its agony.
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F B Meyer writes that...
He came into the sinner’s world. — Himself sinless, he took our nature. Accustomed to the pure atmosphere of his own bright home, He allowed his ears and eyes to be assailed by sounds and sight; beneath which they must have smarted. His blessed feet trod among the dust of death, the mounds of graves, and the traps that men laid to catch Him. And all for love of us.
He lived the sinner’s life. — Not a sinner’s life, but the ordinary life of men. He wrought in the carpenter’s shed; attended wedding festivals, and heartrending funerals; ate, and drank, and slept. He sailed in the boat with his fisher-friends; sat wearied at the well-head; and was hungry with the sharp morning air.
He sympathised with the sinners’ griefs. — In their affliction He was afflicted. He often groaned, and sighed, and wept. When leprosy with its sores, bereavement with its heart-rending loneliness, dumbness and deafness, and devil-possession, came beneath his notice, they elicited the profoundest response from his sympathetic heart.
He died the sinner’s death. — He was wounded for our transgressions. He was treated as the scapegoat, the leper, the sin-offering of the human family. The iniquities of us all met in Him, as the dark waters of the streets pour into one whirling pool. He stood as our substitute, sacrifice, and satisfaction the guilt, and curse, and penalty of a broken law borne and exhausted in his suffering nature.
He is preparing the sinner’s home. — “I go to prepare n place for you”; and no mother was ever more intent on preparing his bedroom for her sailor-boy on his return, than Jesus on preparing heaven. (Our Daily Homily)
In Leviticus Moses describes a ritual the Jewish high priest was to carry out on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), a ritual which foreshadowed the Lamb of God's bearing away of all the sins of the world...
Leviticus 16:20 "When he finishes atoning (Hebrew = kaphar = cover over, cf English - Kippur; Greek = exilaskomai - to make atonement) for the holy place, and the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall offer the live goat.
21 "Then Aaron shall lay both of his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the sons of Israel, and all their transgressions in regard to all their sins; and he shall lay them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who stands in readiness.
22 "And the goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to a solitary land; and he shall release the goat in the wilderness.
23 "Then Aaron shall come into the tent of meeting, and take off the linen garments which he put on when he went into the holy place, and shall leave them there.
24 "And he shall bathe his body with water in a holy place and put on his clothes, and come forth and offer his burnt offering and the burnt offering of the people, and make atonement for himself and for the people.
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Tale Of Two Goats - Two goats without blemish stood before the high priest in the bright Middle Eastern sun. Lots were cast, and the priest slowly led one to the altar to be killed as a sin offering for the people. Its blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat. That goat was a sacrifice.
The other goat, known as the scapegoat, portrays another truth. The priest placed both his hands on its forehead and confessed the sins of Israel. Then the goat was led out into the desert and turned loose. As it wandered away, never to be seen again, it symbolically took Israel's sins along with it. They were gone. The people were reconciled to God. That goat was a substitute.
Both of these goats were pictures of what Christ would do for us. The cross became an upright altar, where the Lamb of God gave His life as a sacrifice for sin. And what the scapegoat symbolically portrayed for Israel—the removal of their sins—Jesus fulfilled in reality. He became our substitute. Because of our identification with Him as believers, our sins have been taken away completely.
Two goats representing two truths: sacrifice and substitution. Both were fulfilled in Christ when He died on the cross and made full atonement for our sins. Praise God! —David C. Egner (Our Daily Bread, Copyright RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved)
Guilty, vile, and helpless we,
Spotless Lamb of God was He;
Full atonement! Can it be?
Hallelujah, what a Savior! —Bliss
Jesus took our place to give us His peace.
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Vance Havner - The cross has become a pretty charm to wear around the neck. We preach a new Christianity that stresses similarities, not contrasts; that parallels the world instead of intersecting it; that makes no unpleasant demands of its converts. The church has devised a new cross today: an ornament to wear around the neck, a commonplace symbol twisted out of context, a charm, a holy horseshoe. Such an ornament does not interfere with godless living, never goes against the grain of our old nature. We need men of the cross, with the message of the cross, bearing the marks of the cross.
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Under His Wings - He shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you shall take refuge. —Psalm 91:4
Indian evangelist Sundar Singh wrote about a devastating forest fire in the Himalayas where he was traveling. While many were trying to fight it, a group of men stood looking up at a tree with flames climbing up its branches. They were watching a mother bird flying frantically in circles above the tree. She was chirping out an alarm to her nest full of fledglings. As the nest began to burn, the mother bird didn't fly away; instead she zoomed down and covered her brood with her wings. In seconds she and her nestlings were burned to ashes.
Singh then said to the awe-stricken spectators: "We have witnessed a truly marvelous thing. God created that bird with such love and devotion that she gave her life trying to protect her young. . . . That is the love that brought Him down from heaven to become man. That is the love that made Him suffer a painful death for our sake."
The above story is a stirring illustration of Christ's love for us. We also stand in awe as we think of Calvary where the fire of holy judgment burned. For there Jesus willingly suffered and "bore our sins in His own body on the tree" (1Peter 2:24).
Lord, thank You for dying in our place. How grateful we are for all that You have done! —Vernon C Grounds (Our Daily Bread, Copyright RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved)
Under His wings I am safely abiding,
Though the night deepens and tempests are wild;
Still I can trust Him, I know He will keep me,
He has redeemed me and I am His child. —Cushing
Christ endured the fires of judgment
that we might enjoy the forgiveness of God.
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From Bitter To Sweet (Ex 15:22-27 - Related resource: Study of Jehovah Rapha - The LORD our Healer) -The Lord showed him a tree. When he cast it into the waters, the waters were made sweet. —Exodus 15:25
Joy and sorrow are often close companions. Just as the Israelites went from the thrill of victory at the Red Sea to the bitter waters of Marah just 3 days later (Exodus 15:22,23), our rejoicing can quickly turn into anguish.
At Marah (bitter), the Lord told Moses to throw a tree into the water, which made it "sweet" and drinkable (Ex 15:25). Another "tree," when "cast into" the bitter circumstances of our lives, can make them sweet. It is the cross of Jesus (1Peter 2:24). Our outlook will be transformed as we contemplate His sacrificial death and His submission to the will of God (Luke 22:42).
Our pain may come from the ill-will of others, or worse, from their neglect. Nevertheless, our Lord has permitted it. We may not understand why, yet it is the will of our Father and Friend, whose wisdom and love are infinite.
When we say yes to God as His Spirit reveals His will to us through His Word, the bitter circumstances of our lives can become sweet. We must not grumble against what the Lord permits. Instead, we must do all that He asks us to do. Jesus said that we are to take up our cross daily and follow Him (Luke 9:23).
When we remember Jesus' cross and submit to the Father as He did, bitter experiences can become sweet. —David H. Roper (Our Daily Bread, Copyright RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved)
Lord, I've not always understood
What plan You have for me;
Yet I will glory in Your cross
And bear mine patiently. —Anon.
God uses our difficulties to make us better—not bitter.
THAT WE MIGHT DIE TO SIN: hina tais hamartiais apogenomenoi (AMPMPN): (1Peter 4:1,2; Ro 6:2,7,11; 7:6; Col 2:20; 3:3; 2Cor 6:17; Heb 7:26)
Spurgeon comments...
There was a transference of sin from sinners to Christ. This is no fiction. He, “His own self,” bore that sin “in His own body on the tree,”
That we, being dead to sins, — Because He died for us, and we died in Him, — (1 Peter 2 Commentary)
That (hina) introduces a purpose clause and expresses the purpose of His death. He died for our sins that we might die to Sin -- the Sin principle or propensity inherited from Adam.
Peter thus draws the same inference as Paul did on the relation between the death of Christ for our sins and our death to sin explaining that...
through the Law I died to the Law, that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me. (Galatians 2:19-20, see notes Galatians 2:20)
In Romans 6 in answer to those who thought they could now wantonly sin so that grace might increase (reaching this fallacious conclusion based on the truth that where sin abounds, grace abounds even more!) Paul counters their faulty thinking declaring...
May it never be! (that believers should and can go on sinning freely and prolifically) How shall we who died to sin still live in it?...7 for he who has died is freed from sin. (Ro 6:2, 7-see notes Romans 6:2; 6:7)
Paul then brings the truths in Romans 6:1-10 to a conclusion charging believers...
Even so consider (present imperative = command to continually take accounting of these marvelous truths that flow from the Cross and your co-crucifixion with Christ) yourselves to be dead to Sin, (the power of Sin) but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let Sin reign (present imperative = stop letting this occur) in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to Sin (present imperative = stop doing this) as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. (see notes
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